SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk still wants to “nuke Mars,” according to a hilarious tweet posted on Aug. 16.
Musk’s cheeky statement, which has generated more than 177,000 likes and 23,000 retweets so far, is trending on Twitter. He also tweeted the words “t-shirt soon” on his profile, hinting that there may (or may not) be some Red Planet-themed merchandise available to buy soon.
T-shirt soon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 16, 2019
According to Musk, using nuclear weapons to hit Mars may cause the planet’s polar ice caps to melt and release an abundant supply of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which would generate a greenhouse effect that elevates the air pressure and temperature of Mars, Insider noted.
Musk has also conducted many interviews on the topic, including a brief visit to Stephen Colbert’s late-night show in 2015.
“It is a fixer-upper of a planet,” Musk said on the show. “First, you are going to have to live in transparent domes, but eventually, you can transform Mars into an Earth-like planet.”
Musk then explained how Mars could become an inhabitable place for humans with the help of nuclear weapons.
“You would just warm it up. There is a fast way and a slow way. The fast way is drop the nuclear weapons over the poles.”
Just left Starship Texas build site. Very proud of progress SpaceX team has made! Pics are of 9m dome rotation & Starship airframe behind windbreak. pic.twitter.com/1cmOzkPlkn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 5, 2019
Musk didn’t elaborate on his hilarious tweet, however, SpaceX has been making progress on the Starship, a spacecraft that aims to transport humans to the moon and Mars in the future.
Earlier this month, SpaceX started working on two orbital Starship prototypes, Mk1 and Mk2, at facilities in Texas and Florida. These prototypes, which will be a bit different from the Starhopper, will have at least three Raptor engines and are designed to reach orbit.
SpaceX’s Starhopper prototype is also expected to complete its biggest hop over the weekend. According to Musk, the Starhopper will have to fly approximately 650 feet off the ground. In a tweet, Musk said he was waiting to receive permission from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to conduct the flight test at SpaceX’s Boca Chica facility in Texas.
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