5 ways to warm Mars without a nuclear bomb

Scientists believe that humans have many ways to warm Mars to become the Second Earth, where humans can live.

Suggesting methods to improve Mars

Elon Musk, founder of Space Technology Mining Group (SpaceX) on September 10 announced the fastest way to turn Mars into a livable place, bombing fusion on the two red planets.

Some scientists believe that at some point in the past, Mars was once a planet full of vitality and warmth like Earth today. Volcanic activity plays an important role in the circulation of the atmosphere, and the hot core helps it maintain the magnetic field, protecting it from the solar wind. However, after the core became cold, all magnetic fields disappeared, the air became thin and the entire Mars began to freeze.

1. Billionaire Elon Musk suggests reforming Mars with a nuclear bomb

Humans can create nuclear explosions on Mars' poles to activate the greenhouse effect. The bombs will release heat, dissolve frozen CO ₂ in the polar regions, making the planet's delicate atmosphere instantly thicker. CO2 absorbs sunlight energy, causing temperature to rise. CO2 ice melts more, and the process continues to be repeated.

Humans can improve Mars, making it more humid and warmer.(Photo: NASA).

However, according to MNN, not all scientists agree with this method to improve Mars. First, that human action will permanently change a large part of the Martian surface. Secondly, we can cause the effect to be completely contrary to what we want.

Michael Mann, director of the Center for Earth System Science at Penn State University, told US News that the nuclear bomb explosion could create a "nuclear winter" period.

"When creating too much dust and small particles, they will significantly prevent the amount of sunlight coming in, making the planet colder," Michael Mann said.

Therefore, if we do not consider the use of nuclear weapons, we can use the following five ways to improve the red planet.

Mirror flying orbiting

One of the common ideas is the construction of a giant reflective mirror system to reflect sunlight to the poles of Mars. This will evaporate the trapped CO ₂ and activate the greenhouse effect.

Mirror system is about 250km in size, larger than Lake Michigan, USA. All reflectors weigh more than 200,000 tons, most likely to be built in space at an altitude of 215,000km above the Martian surface. This is really a difficult task.

Navigate giant meteorites to target Mars

Many believe that asteroids and comets play an important role in forming a warm and humid climate on Mars before. If we assume we can capture and / or guide these giant bodies towards the orbit of Mars, let them burn themselves in the atmosphere, releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. planet.

Just like a nuclear weapon, only a few asteroids weighing 10 billion tons - just 70,000 hydrogen bombs - a megaton that collides directly with Mars. Each crashed meteorite will cause the planet's temperature to suddenly rise by about 3 degrees Celsius.

Polar covering in dark dust

Similar to the fact that we wear black clothes when it's cold to absorb the heat of the Sun, Mars also becomes warmer if its polarity is covered in dark dust. We can exploit this type of dust on the Mars Phobos and Deimos moons (two of the darkest bodies in the solar system).

In the 1970s, astronomer Carl Sagan proposed the idea of ​​polar covering with dark materials (eg carbon black from small crushed asteroids) with a thickness of one mm. They must be replaced every year, because dust storms often occur on Mars. Sagan estimates that an asteroid measuring 600 meters, weighing more than 100 million tons, is enough to cover ice sheets.

Illustrating the process of Mars renovation.(Photo: Daein Ballard / WikiMedia).

Use of microorganisms

While the red planet's environment is a "death sentence" for life, the Defense Advanced Research Project (DARPA), the US recently revealed, it is designing "genetic maps" to create New life forms from the genes of many different microorganisms. This technology creates genetically modified plants, algae and other microorganisms that can survive, thrive on Mars, and even heat up the planet.

"For the first time, we have a set of technical tools that are not only used to renovate unfriendly places on Earth, but also help people move further into space and stay there," said Alicia Jackson of DARPA. announced on June 24.

Bringing the Industrial Revolution to Mars

On Earth, people are faced with global warming because plants emit too much greenhouse gases. So the question is, can we do it the same way on Mars. We will build renewable energy plants on the red planet, with the aim of releasing CH ₄ , CO ₂ , CFC, steam and many other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

While the method takes centuries to make Mars hot, people will have more time to settle on the planet and turn it into a "new Earth" in the future.

Whether these methods are used alone or in combination, people still have to find a way to reactivate the Martian core to create a stable magnetic field. Fortunately, any artificial atmosphere takes thousands of years to be destroyed by the wind of the Sun. Therefore, we have countless time to transform Mars into the Second Earth.