how would that help?

given that its about as warm as Antarctica in the winter?

I heard the idea was the nuke the northern ice cap to melt the it down into water, but wouldn't that make the water all radioactive and toxic.

during the equateral summer it gets around 60ish

it would also evaporate all the water

you need a heavier atmosphere before you go melting ice

Here's some detail on his plan. https://www.theverge.com/2015/10/2/9441029/elon-musk-mars-nuclear-bomb-colbert-interview-explained

alright so he was talking down to that crowd, like baby talk

perhaps there is enough co2 sorted in the ice caps of mars to increase its atmosphere to earth levels but thats a loooooooot of gas. and it risks boiling off all the water from the planet before the co2, co2 has a lower "melting" point than water but still fusion bombs would need to be very precise which isint a common thought about the weapon

i think a better idea would be to create a lithovoric high radiation low pressure tolerent bacteria that produces co2 and seed the planet with it

if it doesent need to be high radiation tolerent then something that can live under the surface pretty well

To be honest I don't know much about terraforming.

the reason you want a lot of co2 isint to warm the planet up by the way, though that will help. the reason is plants, you need plants

some say venus would actually be easier to terraform than mars

But if you don't have enough oxygen you can't have animals living there.

oxygen comes from the plants

co2 is also useful because you need less of it to get atmospheric dencity which is important for creating a mars that has liquid water

you guys are also forgetting that the existing atmosphere is already toxic

ALSO nomatter how much water ice is stored in the marsion poles, its not enough to sustain a great population, because ice actually takes up more space than water and when you look at mars you never think "boy theres a lot of ice there"

I disagree that Venus would be easier to terraform becasue the average temperature is 864 degrees Fahrenheit.

the martian atmosphere is co2

864 isint actually that hot for archeobactera that live in volcanic vents

@Deleted User only a minor problem

lmao

put some gain mirrors to reflect the sun, clearly

As I said I don't know much about terraforming.

actually, wonder how good a giant orbital solar array would do to help drop that tem

or the radiant heat just too great

Wouldn't Venus always be warmer than Earth becaus it is closer to the sun?

you would need something the size of a small moon thats in constant tide lock between the sun and venus. though i supose the power it would generate could sustain ion thrusters in order to control its own position, the problem is that youd be talking about the most expensive building project in human history by a factor of 1000

better to just create a bioengineered lifeform to float around in venus's atmosphere and convert the sulfer into salt as its method of resporation

wait salt is sodium

idk it create some kind of rock from the sulfer atmosphere

biologic solutions wont be fast but they will be inexpensive

nothing is going to put new water onto either planet though

you need o2 and hydrogin neither one is in high supply of either

well maybe mars as some supply of o2, but i dont know about hydrogin

maybe a better idea is to take snowballs the size of citys that float around in the astroyed belt and pelt mars with them

actually thats better than the bomb plan because you dont even need bombs you just need transportation

the iceballs will hit with so much force they melt and probably even increase the native temporature

That sounds alot better then just nuking the place.