Why Does Elon Musk Want To “Nuke Mars?” [VIDEO]

OK, what the heck? I thought this was the guy who wants to retire on Mars and take a portion of humanity with him to start colonizing the red planet. Any takers? Hmm. I don't know. I'm still rather in love with Earth and would like to see us care for it as best we can. So, when I ran across a headline about Elon Musk's ever-vigilant desire to "nuke Mars," I was flummoxed.

No, he hasn't become so frustrated with trying to attain the goal that he's thrown up his hands, flipped entirely and is now hell-bent on Mars' destruction. Turns out, it was four years ago when the SpaceX founder and CEO was chatting with Stephen Colbert about this endeavor. (See video above.) Now, he's chatting about it again and it's back in the headlines. He's even still planning on making T-shirts that say "Nuke Mars" and everything. Actually, nuking Mars is a part of his plan to make Mars more inhabitable. His specific goal would be to detonate nuclear bombs at the planet's poles. Why?

According to Space.com, Musk's thoughts are that "the explosions would vaporize a fair chunk of Mars' ice caps, liberating enough water vapor and carbon dioxide — both potent greenhouse gases — to warm up the planet substantially, the idea goes."

For those of you who have delved into the ways of terraforming, this may make perfect sense. As this is a subject in which I concede I'm quite under educated, it surprised me and seemed initially counter-intuitive. However, I'm well aware that destruction can be part of the constructive process. Thus, I am fascinated and ready to learn more. If you are too, Interestingengineering.com offers more here.

I am fascinated...however, I don't think I'll be ready to move to Mars anytime soon. Not that Elon has asked, of course. ;)

How about you? Would you move to Mars with Musk?

(Feature photo sourced from Elon Musk's Twitter page.)