Is there any point in ‘Nuking' Mars?

In a word, no. The idea, famously championed by Elon Musk is that we should drop thermonuclear bombs on Mars poles, releasing large volumes of water vapour and carbon dioxide, which will bulk out Mars exceedingly thin atmosphere – and since both water and CO2 are greenhouse gases they should warm up the planet.

How are we going to get home from Mars?

Sorry we can’t seem to get off doing podcasts about Mars lately – and that is the topic of today’s podcast. How can we get off Mars? Getting something onto the surface of Mars in one piece is a major technical challenge.

 

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