Bad news for Elon Musk: NASA claims Mars can't be improved anymore

Founder and CEO SpaceX Elon Musk once said that he hoped to use thermonuclear bombs to re-create Mars's atmosphere, providing conditions that could support life for the red planet. But a new NASA study confirms that even if it uses atomic bombs, Mars will not be able to turn into a second Earth.

According to CNET, the basic idea of ​​turning Mars into a life-friendly planet - also known as terraforming - is to produce enough carbon dioxide to fill the planet's surface to causing its atmosphere to thicken, thereby raising the planet's temperature to a level where it could keep water in a liquid state. In theory, terraforming is like the greenhouse effect on Earth.

In theory, terraforming is like the greenhouse effect on Earth.

"Carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) and water vapor (H ₂ O) are the only greenhouse gases that can be present on Mars to provide warming from the greenhouse effect" - Bruce Jakosky at the University of Colorado , Boulder, said.

Jakosky is the author of a new study published Monday in Nature Astronomy, which concludes that, on Mars there is not enough of the above gases to be able to implement terraforming. The atmospheric pressure on Mars is less than 1% of Earth's atmospheric pressure, which is the ideal pressure to raise the temperature to a level that can keep water in a stable state.

Even if Musk could melt the Martian ice blocks with nuclear technology, the new study suggests that they will only generate enough CO2 to increase atmospheric pressure by 1.2% compared to Earth.

On Mars there is not enough of the above gases to be able to implement terraforming.

"In addition, most CO ₂ is inaccessible, and cannot be mobilized easily. As a result, the terraforming process on Mars is impossible with today's technology," Jakosky said.

The analysis in the study also shows that, even when implementing the process of extracting CO2 from dust, rock and minerals on Mars - which consumes a lot of energy - we will only create elections. The atmosphere is 5% above the necessary and sufficient conditions.

The surface features of Mars show that the planet had been a warm and humid place for millennia before, but studied from surface spacecraft and flew around Mars in the last few years. This shows that most of the planet's atmosphere and the amount of moisture inside it has evaporated into space since ancient times.