Should We Nuke Mars?

Is it possible to make Mars inhabitable by nuking the surface? Kyle breaks down the possibility of atomic terraforming in this week's episode of Because Science!
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Because Science every Thursday.
Learn More:
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Inventory of CO2 available for terraforming Mars: lasp.colorado.e...
The thermodynamics of planetary engineering on Mars: stars.library....

[@DavWK22]

We should terraform slightly easier places like the moon or Florida.

[@giarnovanzeijl399]

Come on man, that isn't easier. Terraforming Florida to be liveable is practically impossible.

[@stg-gy9xr]

Plus you'd have to get rid of the old people smell

[@jimmy37591]

@@giarnovanzeijl399 florida doesn't have anything worth of value, let it sink into the ocean.

[@boredfangerrude]

Seeing as the moon as practically no gravity and no atmosphere, it would be far harder.

[@gundamrx792]

Florida are you mad

[@Galacticat42]

I see what you did there... *Elon*-gated period of time.

[@DonEBrooke32]

uuuuuhm.... O_o OH YEAH, NOW I GET IT!!! >;-)

[@Xikiruen]

Nice pic

[@DonEBrooke32]

@@Xikiruen who, bruv? -__-

[@chec8timi355]

Im sorry but that joke musk’ve been said by someone else before...

[@DonEBrooke32]

@@chec8timi355 *high five* hahahaha!!!

[@maxe3110]

“Never thought I’d see the aurora borealis over mars” “Well that’s what happens when you create your own magnetosphere”

[@rivianm3744]

Ah, a man of culture as well

[@TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

Hayden: "You can't just shoot a hole into the surface of mars" Kyle: "Should we nuke Mars?" Doomslayer: Hold my beer

[@justsomeguywithamask298]

Bruh

[@cha0sd3v3l]

Hayden: "you cannot just shoot a hole into the surface of mars." Doomslayer: "Observe."

[@AlexeyLindenwald]

Imagine living on mars and playing doom. Your parents come into the room and see how you fu** up your planet😂

[@GNParty]

@@AlexeyLindenwald I'm sure the game will last long enough for people in 30+ years to still play. 🙂

[@AlexeyLindenwald]

@@GNParty You know, I just love long games. At least. Imagine, Mars, great views, nuclear destructions, battle royal between robots of countries. No casualties, great entertainment and lots of fun

[@thelastMaster100]

"10 times the amount of energy that hits the earth in one year" Yup time for that Dyson sphere

[@kewlztertc5386]

Easier to give Venus a moon, resulting in Venus becoming a more hospitable place.

[@The1Image]

So basically the energy that hits the earth in ten years right?

[@ballsofsalsa01]

Time for a back hole bomb

[@anything4660]

The dyson sphere has a lot of flaws and we need the sun to shine on earth for the phtosynthesis of plants unless if we mange to somehow make every plant on earth to run on artificial sunlight we wouldnt have enough to make the dyson sphere still couple of millenuims about all scientist are just hoping other scientists to discover something that can help push there research so pretty lazy if you ask me

[@Dr.Sho_Minamimoto]

williampg gois So pretty much the alternative shown in the Dyson sphere video by “Kurzgesagt- in a nutshell” where they just create a base on a planet near the sun, surround most of the sun with mirrors, direct the solar rays to the base to be converted into the appropriate form of energy and sent earth & other colonies for power usage.

[@humblehunk9022]

Lasso an asteroid. Redirect it to Mars. Slam it into the poles. Profit.

[@garrikcook5940]

Yep

[@zacharyt.4348]

S T O N K S

[@AgnotologyTV]

Would also have to direct it to hit the planet in such a way as to get it spinning faster..... a lot faster. If we can re-start the core of Mars, we can possibly get it to have a magnetosphere again, and ensure whatever progress we make sticks.

[@feudaltrinity7831]

AgnotologyTV that’s not how orbits work. Orbits work off of the gravity generated by the centrivical force of other large bodies. Our solar system could be immediately annihilated within a matter of a few years if mars does speed up. Because then mars is creating a greater force of gravity than it previously was and can pull other planets closer, and then those planets will pull closer, then the combined effort of two will draw more etc until all planets if not most collide and we destroy everything in our solar system

[@M_Northstar]

@@feudaltrinity7831 Err... gravity does not increase due to spin. The sensation of weight on the surface of that planet might become less, but the gravity is a function of mass, and nothing else.

[@Dragnfly_mynamewastaken]

"Mars is so cold you'd freeze." "The UV is so strong it'd cook you." And stuff like putting these two together is exactly why I started liking science as a kid.

[@Azmarov]

Joel that’s some gnarly freezer burn.

[@honkytonkinson9787]

Sounds like inspiration for a great space saving device. A freezer that also microwaves your food

[@blakeschool2249]

Innit I love science it's just fascinating

[@joshuabarlow1031]

@@blakeschool2249 yes now charva

[@richardrobinson7566]

If you've ever seen the movie Titan A. E., could you possibly do an episode on how such a planet-building machine could work?

[@jeffdaigle5487]

I love that movie. Good soundtrack and a awesome story.

[@Down_the_Wind]

Hey, I’m all for terraforming Mars.. as long as cockroaches aren’t involved.

[@Metheos91]

johj?

[@GenJuhru]

◉..◉

[@benrex7775]

@@Metheos91 I thought the same.

[@philipeanthonybattung3860]

Heheh I know that reference

[@sparking023]

I don't know man, a surgery that allows you to inherit insane characteristics from the most impressive living forms sounds cool

[@AngryDuck79]

Rebuilding Mars' atmosphere is an exercise in futility, though. Without a magnetic field, wouldn't the solar wind just strip all that liberated gas away?

[@holderheck]

There has been a recent Improvement Upon Our magnetic field generation technology. Some guys in the lab in Britain figured out that if you induce a magnetic field in rotating molten sodium you can amplify that field by an insane degree we could build 10 or 15 of these things on a building scale rather than a testing scale and protect the atmosphere

[@shadenone]

This was my exact thought too, AngryDuck!. I was surprised that Kyle didn't point it out because I thought he talked about it before.

[@dukeoog5466]

Hah! Thought this myself, as I play surviving mars terraforming dlc, and magnetic field generators would cause tiny marsquakes.

[@pritesh9336]

Earth was born in Pre Cambrian period (4 billion years ago) and was a massive molten planet. During the Cretaceous Period (65 million years ago) life was flourishing. Around that period, Earth collided with large-sized celestial objects with one another which gave a lot of energy. Therefore the core is still molten and thus we still have a magnetic field. Mars is not so lucky. Since its formation (4.5 billion years ago) the planet didn’t collide with any massive objects. Therefore its core actually cooled down all the way. The center is mostly solid and thus it lost its magnetic field. The Sun constantly emits solar radiation and the exposure to solar flare affects the atmosphere. Now, this is a problem because the planet doesn’t have the magnetic sphere to protect itself. It’s just getting hit consistently by these ionized particles. That is the reason why Mars is losing its atmosphere.

[@stephenbachman132]

What if we rammed mars with one off it's moons would it get a magnetic sphere then. The kenetic impact might restart the iron core?

[@kudrzyk]

You cant be freezing and burning at the same time Mars : hold my beer

[@petersonl1008]

😶🤣🤣🤣

[@Just_som_Ottur]

Mercury: hold my keg

[@biohazard724]

My microwaved hot pocket found this funny

[@peterhacke6317]

Well it's technically only sun burn, not actual fire. Also, you probably never heard of the terror that is liquid oxygen.

[@kudrzyk]

@@peterhacke6317 king of assumptiobs z roght here

[@cheesepuffguy]

10:17 actually a respectable Sagan impression. Thank you.

[@johnstorm9314]

A first strike against the Martians is the only way to ensure our safety...

[@albino5995]

John Storm the chances of anything coming from mars, are a million to one.......

[@abrahamarciga3334]

Yea those martians have weapons of mass destruction

[@urano4810]

Have y'all not watched "Mars Atacks!"? Boi ya'll dumb

[@NaudVanDalen]

@@abrahamarciga3334 We have weapons of Mars destruction.

[@amw6394]

Anyone seen the Expanse?

[@jordandavis8875]

Guys we can easily terraform mars if we just cover it in moss and cockroaches. I'm sure nothing could go wrong...

[@2b1chik]

that anime gave me the heebie jeebies

[@christianheichel]

@@2b1chik what was the anime called?

[@DoommanQ]

@Chris Heichel Terraformars

[@fh5348]

Johj jo johj jhoj

[@isamuddin1]

Why not also put mice they literally can handle radiation, there's a record where they survive nuke bomb.

[@kerbonaut2059]

Thumbnail be like :: *Thor nuking Mars to setup New Asgard, 2019, Colorised*

[@great-wall-of-nowhere9377]

The real reason he went with the Guardians

[@Bear-form]

Space Fabio

[@prestonang8216]

My brain and UK English scream to me that there’s a “u” in colourised lmao

[@Bear-form]

@@prestonang8216 Loicence, gov'nor.

[@jgilly3362]

@@Bear-form bugger off dickhead you know nout you i hope you ain't british and if you are quit taking the piss outta yourself serious

[@jeffmccrea9347]

Something that I haven't heard ANYONE talk about is why and how did Mars lose it's water and atmosphere in the first place? It's lack of magnetic field and weak gravity allowed the solar wind to blow it all away eons ago. Even Venus with it's more Earth like size and gravity is losing it's atmosphere to the solar wind for lack of a magnetic field.

[@OrionoftheStar]

"Should we nuke Mars?" "Can we nuke Mars?" One of these questions matters more than the other.

[@naheedakhtar3993]

I dont know better question is should we leave mars alone

[@beastorjett6084]

It's obviously can we nuke it

[@kruleworld]

We'd be better off capturing comets to drop on Mars. that gets a big explosion AND delivers atmospheric chemicals.

[@danielwest2697]

ICBMs already acheive low orbit before coming down on targets- it's absolutely possible with some adjustment.

[@youknowwhatun-bizzaresyour5368]

I don’t know, just make a dome filled with oxygen? Just deliver nutrients and other essentials into these domes, it’s easier than just nuking the thing like exploding your hot pockets in the microwave

[@F3A5T]

Without an Earthlike molten outer core and inner solid iron core to create a magnetosphere. The sun will strip away the recreated atmosphere after time. You would have to liquefy the core to terraform mars.

[@VPCh.]

Yes, but the process is slow. We can replenish the atmosphere faster than it can be removed.

[@Dann0343]

if we had the technology, a satellite placed at the L3 Lagrange point could hypothetically envelope Mars in a magnetic field

[@stoshpehowic3590]

Wow you beat me to it

[@NEVERMAKESVIDEOS3V3R]

Nuke the core

[@lildevil362003]

@@NEVERMAKESVIDEOS3V3R Only nuke The Core (2003). It shouldn't have been made.

[@kaidorak1798]

Kyle, my two year old saw you on the TV, pointed at you and excitedly said, "It's Thor!" He loves your show. Keep up the good work.

[@becausescience]

Thank you for sharing this with me! Tell him I said hello -- kH

[@iainwmacintosh]

Because Science do you mean... Valhall-o I’ll just leave now

[@vprebz9254]

Video:"Should we nuke Mars?" Me:dude wtf Also the video:"this video is sponsored by borderlands 3" Me:That makes sense

[@RJ_Ehlert]

Doesn't Mars have a dead molten core? One that doesn't spin and produce a magnetic field which is needed to maintain a consistent atmosphere over the planet?

[@logicplague]

It has fragments of a magnetic field, but yeah you're basically right.

[@MahmoudElgassier]

YES!

[@ryan1840]

@@rogerphillips4211 they wouldn't have to import oxygen. It would be far more beneficial to try and import ghg producing bacteria once we can get the temperature up

[@rogerphillips4211]

@@ryan1840 the bottom line is to get all the other damn countries on this planet to agree to cooperate, bad in all likelihood will never happen oh, so, all the rest of it is purely academic.

[@halmyrach]

Thanks, that was my issue too. Even assuming everything presented in the video was possible, the lack of magnetic field of Mars makes the terraforming rather hard to envision. At least for a lifestyle similar than we have on Earth: breathable atmosphere, biodiversity, etc...

[@McHaven07]

To say nothing of the lack of magnetosphere. Surprised he didn't mention it at all.

[@AgnotologyTV]

yeah, not much a purpose in creating an atmosphere if you can't keep it

[@battlespectermedia]

Agreed. I thought of that. Mentioned it above...

[@oswaldovzki]

Indeed

[@OliverFoulkesMRO2013]

I found a VERY interesting article discussing that here... medium.com/our-space/an-artificial-martian-magnetosphere-fd3803ea600c

[@richardthecowardlylion5289]

We need the crew of the The Core to go jumpstart the martian core! (we a few nukes of course)

[@justin09ap87]

Human:let's nuke the Mars Mars:da f*** did I do

[@triton6490]

Lmfao

[@nakknjr9322]

Cuz you have demons

[@underfire8411]

Humans: You froze on us a few billion years ago!

[@kjstudiotv3185]

Only if there was someone there was someone there ohh wait the rovers lol

[@HobkinBoi]

Samuel Hayden: "You can't just shoot a hole into the surface of Mars!"

[@krieglord573]

“You can’t just punch a Hole into the surface if Mars”

[@killerbun]

"Not a death Ray" sounds like something sometime who wants a death ray for villainy would say

[@zaczane]

You mean china?

[@connor9610]

I like your name it sounds.... familiar

[@lukasjuszczak1664]

May I suggest John Ringo's Troy Rising? It features orbital mirrors used in space mining. And as a 'Not Death Ray' Fusion pumped laser.

[@andrewpersaud3523]

Mars doesn't have a liquid core like earth to produce a strong enough magnetic field. Therefore thru solar wind and flares alot of the atmosphere would escape

[@talyn3932]

light material like Hydrogen would disappear after around 10k years. Oxygen around 100k That is long enough for many civilizations to figure a solution to it.

[@ysw2000]

@@talyn3932 Yeah, like all the other intergalactic civilizations we know of have figured it out.

[@spicyarbiter7689]

Aren’t they thinking about creating an artificial magnetic field with satellites?

[@baddabeer4862]

Mayhaps an equatorial equivalents to a hadron collider? Not that you’d actually collide, but keep in motion with magnetic fields... at first, even solar power would suffice, but as atmosphere developed..... you’d need nuclear energy to power the system...

[@atlas4050]

@Brandon Durbrow This is false btw

[@matheuswohl]

I like how the "astronomically large numbers" is used literally in this channel

[@man9495]

As the great Samuel Hayden said "you can't just shoot a home into the surface of Mars"

[@keenanwest6969]

Earth : Why can't you just be (normal) habitable Mars : *Screaming*

[@sharonhobbs4144]

yeah those ablist NT's

[@bettylamberd4391]

Earth Ppl : Darn aliens

[@clearflow7925]

we are the ones who are considering nuking it

[@Babs11549]

And what about the lack of a magnetosphere? One solar flare and all that progress is eliminated.

[@isaiahwolftail867]

Then we'll just start over agian

[@TheodoreMinick]

Just the solar wind would strip it away eventually. We'd need to find a way to establish a magnetosphere if we wanted an atmosphere for any significant time.

[@gabor6259]

Just put a strong magnet in orbit around Mars.

[@isaiahwolftail867]

Blame GOOSE the flergan

[@DaremoTen]

@@TheodoreMinick Eventually being how long again? Several million years? I'll take that deal.

[@xioron3170]

Even if it was possible to artificially create this kind of atmosphere, without a magnetic field, wouldn't the solar winds from the sun just strip it away again?

[@kindlin]

I think it gets stripped away on more geologic timescales. It could take just a couple hundred years to create, but might last for thousands of years in a usable state, in which case you can make a lot of progress and maybe solve the problem entirely.

[@szarekhthesilent2047]

Easy as pie, just attach enough heat&pressureresistent hamster wheels to the core and start spinning it.

[@Panthless]

Yes, but that would take many thousands of years. If we can terraform mars in a couple hundred years, id say its worth.

[@MyklCarlton]

Indeed. Most of the folks saying it doesn't matter aren't considering energetic particle bombardment as a threat to surface life.

[@fanOmry]

And the gravity is too low..

[@aceofaces7681]

*USA texts Russia* Hey you wanna nuke mars? *russia* Hell yeah comrade

[@stabinojablonski]

comedy gold wow

[@TheseUseless]

AceOfAces7 in soviet Russia, mars nukes us. Edit: sorry

[@donaldchandler2520]

@@TheseUseless that's why it's the red planet

[@MkeKen67]

@@TheseUseless - Nice Yakoff Smirnoff riff!

[@bigfella2111]

Я тим сука ыуте мотора

[@KHMakerD]

Terraforming Mars? I love that game!!

[@luongmaihunggia]

And now he's nuking planets, he's slowly turning from "because science" into "because evil".

[@sporemariomaster]

But nuking mars could help humanity survive so "Because sustainability" makes more sense

[@luongmaihunggia]

@@sporemariomaster r/whoooosh

[@dmkatelyn]

I mean, he's saying we shouldn't nuke Mars. He needs those nukes here. Or, more accurately, on the orbital weapons platform with hit-or-miss customer service.

[@diegobarna]

@@sporemariomaster Just don't forget, it's going to be a handful of the most rich people that can move to another planet, so we are doomed.

[@luongmaihunggia]

@@diegobarna both of you are wrong. As already addressed in the video: nuking mars will do nothing as there're not enough CO2 in the ice to terraform mars in the first place. Even if there were enough, the low gravity and the lack of magnetic field would make it very easy for the solar wind to blow away all the atmosphere again. Why do you think Mars have so little atmosphere in the first place?

[@villager5633]

KZbin had a section called “nerdiest industries” and it was purely your videos and 1 video from an Indian guy

[@BioToxin]

It's time to sacrifice Pluto and dive it straight into Mars, maybe some heavy iron asteroids while we're at it get a magneto sphere going

[@tigerspirit1917]

First it's demoted, and now you want to destroy it? What did the coolest (literally and figuratively) planet do to you?

[@Ivan.A.Churlyuski]

Good luck moving any of them.

[@halamadruuid2380]

It’s so unfair that we fired pluto

[@amon_san]

there are two moons in mars orbit. use them. it requires less energy

[@spec_wasted]

😱😱😱 Meteriod ? asteroid belt ? Elon Musk ? Me ? humans ? Yesssssssssss We'll do it

[@someotherpleb3720]

Hi Kyle, Long time - first time. Although there are a number of issues still to solve, here’s a partial solution to the initial problem. By redirecting several lesser bodies (perhaps preferencing those bodies which are CH4, NH3 and/or C-O compound rich, to further support the warming) to impact Mars’ “moons” (/captured asteroids), Phobos and Deimos, we could upset their orbits sufficiently to have them decay irreparable. In doing so we could liberate a lot of the potential energy of the orbit, into kinetic, and then heat upon impact. Also the material of both ‘moons’ may be used to further terraform, given their make up (C,H,O compound goodies). Phobos Mass = 1.0659*10^16 kg, Phobos Periapsis = 9,234,420 m Deimos Mass = 1.4762*10^15 kg, Deimos Periapsis = 23,455,500 m Mars Mass = 6.4171*10^23 kg, Mars Radius = 3,389,500 m U=GMm*(1/r1 - 1/r2) Up = 6.674*10^-11 * 6.4171*10^23 * 1.0659*10^16 * (1/9,234,420 - 1/3,389,500) = 8.5246*10^22 J Ud = 6.674*10^-11 * 6.4171*10^23 * 1.4762*10^15 * (1/23,455,500 - 1/3,389,500) = 4.1510*10^21 J Note that these are both (as well as their sum) is within the lower to mid-range theorised to be required (10^19 - 10^25 J). Added benefits from the amalgamation of the 3 bodies include: - more mass, - more carbon, and - we can say that we made slaves of ‘fear’ and ‘terror’. Possible problems include: - inefficient of capture of energy and material (and/or glancing impact(s)), - dust clouds which actually reflect rather than maintain heat, and - time scale of redirection(s) and orbital decay time(s). Clearly this doesn’t address many other issues, however it does seem to be a more efficient process than building several nuclear options and progressively detonating them, spreading long lived radioactive isotopes everywhere, given the end goal is habitation. Regards, Pleb

[@Kronosfobi]

I'll just pretend i understand what those numbers mean.

[@linamao2365]

@@Kronosfobi Just smile and nod

[@dallaswalters2365]

But wouldn't the atmosphere be unable to retain most of the necessary gases, with the impact off setting the catalyst? The mass of them all may be able to become enough to increase gravity, but only by a slight margin, and the impact of heat from the in motion kinetic energy upset the stabilization of what little magnetic field it has? I may have to research more into this, but the real problem I see is the atmosphere. If we make it stable enough, and adapt and breed certain plants, oxygen won't be much of an issue.therefore, air is fine, and so are greenhouse gases. It's the STABILITY of the atmosphere that is most concerning in my opinion. If it is upset to much, it will just reverse the process of terraforming. If they plan on nuking it, it would irradiate multiple areas, catalyzing multiple differing elements in highly chemical reaction susceptible environments. The repercussions could be bad, but, the first problem is not what we fill the "bucket" with, but if the "bucket" will hold. Also, thank you, it has been quite a while since I have had the urge to actually THINK about something.

[@Kronosfobi]

@@dallaswalters2365 Could we heat up the core of the planet somehow? And if we did, would it actually reform the atmosphere?

[@dallaswalters2365]

@@Kronosfobi my theory is if we put strain on the magnetosphere, it will "jumpstart" the planets natural gravity, I have no idea how we could possible go about such a thing though.

[@lildevil362003]

10:52 "Not a death ray!" Sure it's not, supervillain.

[@foobar1735]

Thinking you might be the next subject of one of Kyle's mid-video calls... o.o

[@kindlin]

He's just trying to get you guys now... He has your number pegged.

[@lunaprep7357]

Could you do one on terraformers using roaches to terraform Mars and adding animal abilities to humans. Mainly insects?

[@luz10noch0-ravagolem]

Dunno, but i think a good way to warm up mars is to use hydrocarbons, i mean we are getting too much carbon dioxide to our atmosphere that wasn't there for a long time, and we don't need it anymore for life, so we could just release it into Mars, ranging from randomly riding cars to using them for getting electricity

[@darkmagician2904]

I miss muskwatch. I wish that would come back on nerdist.

[@STSWB5SG1FAN]

Why did that show end again?😜

[@ZiechieZeechless]

This is some of the reason why building a Death Star is useful.

[@sanchezevan898]

Assuming we have the resources and man power at our disposal to accomplish such a feat. Not to mention fuel, food, ammunition, gravity generators. It would be a hassle to build it

[@baldbatty6495]

@@sanchezevan898 nah it’s super easy. I built one when I was 9. Honestly took about 6 hours to build the thing. And the thing is pretty expensive for LEGO

[@someasiandude4797]

you don't need to make the entire base you just have to make the super laser

[@SupremeBooyah]

@@sanchezevan898 I'm so scared please help please make it stop

[@joeandjoe2]

Just the Lazer hummmmmmmmm.

[@alexdd69]

I am literally just waiting for footnotes to see how many say Kyle is evil for nuking the crap out of mars. Love the show. Keep up the good work of enlightening our minds.

[@steveweidig5373]

My suggestion: 1. Let Phobos and Deimos crash controllable onto Mars. Those impacts should heat up the planet nicely for a while and increase it's mass - and therefore the gravity, if just a bit. They are both in a decaying orbit, so something needs to be done with them anyway, so let's put them to good use. 2. While preparing for the crashs of it's moons, catch several comets (both water and ammonia based) and tow them to an orbit around Mars, and let them crash into Mars, too. This again will create heat, but also add and liberate greenhouse gasses. You will probably need a couple hundred of those, however, so that might take a while. 3. Once this is done and we'd have liquid water and gaseous CO2, we'll need to plant some plants to transform some of the CO2 into Oxygen. Electrolytic dissolve of Water into Oxygen and Hydrogen may help for that, too. After this, we need to wait, tend to the plants and make sure they can grow and produce lots of oxygen, not just for humans to breathe, but also to create an ozone layer. Will take a long while (aka several millennia probably), but I think this could get it done in the end with some overprovisioning in Oxides to create oxygen.

[@kostasastro]

Even we managed to get the gases on Mars, wouldn't the lack of a magnetic field around the planet make make it possible for the atmosphere to be ''swept'' away by the solar winds?

[@TheMrGamma195]

I remember seeing this Mars didn't have a strong magnetic field which I think was one of the original reason why it didn't develope into a habitable planet

[@icefirepython]

There are also other issues to take into account that would result in gasses escaping from Mars. Earth as it is already bleeds helium and hydrogen into space and Mars is even worse off on the front of bleeding off gasses with it falling into the range that would allow oxygen to escape the atmosphere as well, so additional efforts would likely need to be taken in order to ensure that the atmosphere sticks to Mars.

[@AceSpadeThePikachu]

I know this is a bit late, but I just had a thought...everyone is always talking about terraforming Mars, Titan, Europa and even Venus...but why does nobody ever talk about Ganymede? For one, it's the largest moon in the solar system, lust a bit smaller than Mars, it has a surface gravity comparable to our moon, like Europa it has vast reserves of water ice on the surface and likely liquid water oceans deep below, it's very thin atmosphere is already comprised of mostly oxygen, we know from Titan that objects that size and composition can easily hold on to thick atmospheres under the right conditions, and most importantly of all, it has something none of the other popular terraforming candidates have; its own magnetosphere, which protects the surface from the solar wind, cosmic rays AND Jupiter's radiation belts (which by extent add and extra layer of protection from the two former.) It's theorized Titan got its atmosphere by being slammed with dozens or hundreds of nitrogen-rich comets during the period of late-heavy-bombardment, and nitrogen gas has the unique property of being very resilient against the UV rays of the sun, meaning it can be stable in most atmospheres in or system like it is on Earth and Titan. For the warming, the ammonia you mentioned could work, plus carbon compounds found in most carbonaceous asteroids and comets. Best of all, we wouldn't need to move any asteroids or comets very far to collide them with Ganymede. Jupiter is surrounded by thousands of asteroid-like objects that could be easily nudged in just the right way to be set on a collision course with Ganymede, and Jupiter is well known for commonly capturing comets from the outer solar system. We could set up probes designed to nudge or redirect these comments, wait for some to come by and then put them to work making them collide with Ganymede instead of Jupiter.

[@scoutsgmods]

Thank u

[@bobvaca7]

I don’t get it

[@AceSpadeThePikachu]

@@bobvaca7 Read the top comment.

[@ZettyLad]

I think the problem here is the distance from Ganymede to Earth, and having to manage all sorts of machinery and such from Earth.

[@AceSpadeThePikachu]

And yet scientists constantly talk about teraforming Europa, Titan and even Pluto?

[@matheusalmeida9336]

Kyle doesn't want us to colonize Mars because his villain base is there!

[@terranovatitan4673]

Shhhh he has an orbital strike cannon or Lazer

[@GuitarsRockForever]

I'm certain he already got a base on the moon which is the true reason why we can no longer return to the moon on maned mission.

[@daviscarl3766]

You’re worried about Kyle? Dr. Manhattan fancies your atoms

[@thelocust619]

He doesnt want us leaving the solar system either...at least on an epic rocket planet. This requires investigation. Open case, what do we got, team? *doesnt want us on mars *doesn't want us on the moon *doesn't want Earth outside the solar system What if...Evil Kyle doesnt want us out there not because of his base, but because he's avoiding something. Evil Kyle might be evil. Justice thinks evil isn't good. What if he's avoiding Justice? Police enforce justice. But police cant enforce justice in space...but a force can. A Space Force. But space is huge. Space Force can't forcefully enforce the force of justice everyforcewhere. If there's a Space Force other than ours it has to be someone else. Conclusion: Aliens. What were we talking about? Oh right. Yea Kyle's on Earth. It's the last place anyone would expect. And its the only place where both Monster and drywall can be found at the same time. Which makes it the first place anyone would OH MY GOD ITS A BRAIN OW. ALSO A PARADOX EVIL KYLE YOU DIABOLICAL MASTERMIND I can't go on. Noone's to blame. I don't think anyone could have seen that last trap coming. I...I guess I wont be joining you on that trip to Mars on a rocket planet controlled by the moon powered by a black hole sun on Jupiter. You'll have to finish this case on your own now. You have to... don't let him get away with this. Don't let him. Don't...let... ungh.. b-but... BUT IF IT'S THE FIRST PLACE YOU'D EXPECT THEN YOU'D EXPECT THAT SO YOU WOULDNT EXPECT I8^:,*: N;-,, ",;$@% ";* ,

[@DeadpoolAli]

thelocust619 best post. You kind fellow have earned yourself some argon oil... What if Kyle’s evil schemes is really to just harbor the entire earths supply of argon oil!???

[@TheChrisLeone]

I'm down for nuking Mars, why not? I mean...we definitely _can,_ and I think that would make some pretty 10/10 relatable content all around

[@mykgKende]

Aaaaand now he wants to Nuke Mars.... You sir , are a Supper Villain confirmed.

[@Supernova094]

Watch out for that orbital strike.

[@kreamy_karym]

At least it's not earth. Let our guy have his dream guys...

[@karmichel]

Nátán Kende I don’t know why he didn’t try to steal the moon...

[@gabor6259]

A Supper Villain? Why not a Breakfast Villain?

[@mykgKende]

karmichel Nah, thats already been done. Hes a revolutionary, hes not gona repeat history. If anything , he would steal Mars

[@thunderflare59]

"You'd need an absurd number of nuclear weapons to make this happen." *Russia wants to know your location*

[@danielstokker]

Russia doesnt know were to find their own nukes look it up its true the simply LOST NUKES back in the 60's and 70's

[@thunderflare59]

@@danielstokker That's some serious shade.

[@danielstokker]

@@thunderflare59 one day we will get a big surprize they made about 100 suitcase bombs of about 5 kilotons to make it clear smaller then the hiroshima bomb but still enough to take NY skyline away in one big KABOOM hillarious and both scary facts are they lost about 50 of them and nobody actually knowns were they are.... you might walk around a billionaire home one day seeing it in his collection or groups like hamas ir isis or wtf ever gets one you see the huge fucking problem here🤣🤣✌ got this info from a documentry years ago

[@danielstokker]

@@thunderflare59 ow dont forget when the berlin wall crumbled a lot of old soviet generals sold all kinds of weaponry to all kinds of shady people , thats how a AK47 ended up on the flag of a country in africa not to mention its the perfect weapon even fires straight out of hole you burried it in 20 years before mud rains snow ice this thing keep going truly remarkeble weapon also most sold gun world wide i think i heard once it was a couple of hundred million ... they sold and worked like stapeling machines

[@tigerspirit1917]

America has more... As well as being the only nation to ever use them... Just saying...

[@ethanblackmore9913]

Theoretically couldn't you make a sort of glass Dyson Sphere to turn the martian planet into a super massive literal greenhouse? That would be neat

[@Dino-qq2wx]

So mining asteroids and building mirrors in orbit? sounds neat

[@SanguineRoku]

You'd probably need all of the glass that's ever existed to do so, but yeah, probably

[@ethanblackmore9913]

@@SanguineRoku my thought was that maybe it would be easier because its a more abundant material but yeah you would still need an ungodly amount of glass

[@predur4136]

There was a planet like that in the movie "Spaceballs"

[@ethanblackmore9913]

@@predur4136 I bet that's where I subconsciously thought of it actually

[@badassactionanime]

I really like the ideas behind how to create an atmosphere on Mars, and despite the difficulties doing so. The 2 of bigger problem still remain, the fact core of the planet has solidified meaning no magnetic field to protect the atmosphere we made from solar flares. Which would be briskly blown away into space, and quickly at that. Two the planet's unstable wobble means it will tilt on its axis to the point it basically falls over onto its side, and without a satellite like our moon to control the "precession" of it's rotation. It will happen again and again like it has in the past. Till we figure out those problems we should really practice on the moon, and develop better technology from space. Just my opinion.

[@olimar7647]

Out of curiosity, what sorts of problems does its wobble pose? Why would that make terraformation and colonization on Mars hard?

[@delfinenteddyson9865]

@@olimar7647 what I gathered from other videos on the subject, the fact that the earth inclination doesn't wobble allows it to have predictable seasons. With a wobble you could get the GoT like year long winters and summers with more extreme temperatures, which can be quite deadly.

[@olimar7647]

@@delfinenteddyson9865 Ah, cool. Thanks for the info :) I do wonder, might it be possible to combat this to some degree? If th wobble is predictable to some degree, you could probably locate some areas that'll consistently lean towards tropical weather, some that'll tend towards tundra, and some that'll vary, right? If so, you just have to focus on making life work in those kinds of climates. The problem would chiefly be rain, I suppose..... Also, I guess if the wobble is too large, there might not be any areas that consistently trend towards one weather or another.... That would make things even harder.... I get the sense Mars would be Australia if we ever colonize it.

[@jackielinde7568]

Kyle, you missed a few things: 1. By nuking Mars, what happens to all of that radioactive fallout? Mars already has a problem because it lacks an atmosphere and a magnetosphere to block out much of the ionizing radiation the sun emits. Do we want to be adding to this problem in the form of all of that radioactive material that won't be consumed in the detonation of the bomb? 2. Okay, You give Mars an atmosphere. How long is it going to last. Mars has neither the gravity well/mass or the magnetosphere that Earth has. Because of it, it's like trying to hold handfuls of sand. Between normal loss from energetic particles and the solar winds blowing on it like a toddler blowing out birthday candles, You would watch Mars lose its atmosphere much like those grains of sand slipping between your fingers. Now, if you were willing to throw unlimited amounts of money to the problem, you MAY be able to solve part of the problem by bulking up Mars with some sick gains that Carrot Top would be jealous of. There is material between Mars and Jupiter that could be used to make Mars a bit beefier. If you add mass to Mars, you could increase the gravity of Mars, and that would slow down the atmosphere leakage. I don't know if it is possible to add enough mass that gravity and pressure would heat the core of the planet enough to melt the center and get that dynamo to kick off. (It's a possibility, but that involves math, and I have enough stuff to do. Maybe someone else could do the math?) But, adding mass would help with some of the problem. And, while we're adding mass, we could also be adding water as some of that mass. Again, there might not be enough or the right kind of space rocks to hurl at Mars.

[@boethius61]

Adding mass is a no go. I've done the math. Even if you crashed every single asteroid in the asteroid belt you've only added something like 0.5%. It would have no appreciable effect on the gravity. It's insignificant.

[@jackielinde7568]

@@boethius61Thanks. I mention it as a possibility, but I didn't know if there was enough material to work with.

[@SARAIN4ever]

*getting "Terraformars" flashbacks* ヽ(｀⌒´)ノ "...Those damn cockroaches..."

[@41tinman41]

Still waiting on that latest anime season. T_T

[@onenationarmy3964]

Nope I'm staying on earth I like my head and I don't really like the idea of it being punched off of my body 😂

[@Targe0]

Watch out for the Smart ones.

[@CGoliday1]

That going to be hard pass from me bro

[@maxcar7298]

Oof, at least we could morph into insects if that's the case

[@Mastermind8908]

Looking at the comments, something tells me Kyle's going to have a busy fan Q&A vid after this about that magnetosphere issue.

[@Atomsk743]

One answer: Venus And the thing that trouble me the most is: too much radiation on Mars... Let's nuke it!

[@AnothertaoG]

Came here to ask this. All this stuff is pointless if the solar winds are going to blow the atmosphere away again.

[@Noodlecow2]

One part of the Fermi paradox I cant get over is the fact the moons tides and so many, so, so many planetary variables enabled life- its so incalculably hard to create life- even with the resources for it.

[@Dj0rel]

When I was a kid, my idea for terraforming Mars was basically "Drop Europa on it".

[@anshulsingh7663]

That didn't turn out too well, did it?😂

[@biohazard724]

Are you the supervillain service Kyle keeps calling?

[@peterhacke6317]

Assuming you mean the moon that isn't that far fetched. Water is important to sustain life. Water vapor is a green house gas, too, so it helps with the temperature. Still lacking some more atmosphere. Also mars would probably shatter from the impact.

[@A1000TONFBI]

I want a movie with this plot, right now!

[@anshulsingh7663]

@@A1000TONFBI wouldn't be much of a box office hit if everyone dies on impact...

[@TheAshran]

"Elon-gated period of time" Yeah, you dont fool anyone, but nice try

[@ausbandit84]

Do I smell on Mars? No, you just have a nice Musk

[@Kronosfobi]

Nice one.

[@alien372]

does anyone know why we would want to put more CO2 in the martian atmosphere as its currently 96% CO2 already?, maybe i'm missing something, any help is welcome!

[@Alassandros]

10:15 That Carl Sagan impression was more than adequate.

[@Starolfr]

Indeed. I was duly impressed. Well done, Kyle! : )

[@raebonnie5275]

I knew someone else must have loved it! So impressive!

[@bobvaca7]

God we’re all nerds

[@milky_wayan]

i want him BACK

[@owlredshift]

​@@milky_wayan that's selfish!! What if he was done, ready to go? What if now he has rejoined the waveform off the universe and remains a consciousness manifesting as a twinkle in a child's eye as he visits a planetarium for the first time? The future first person on Mars' regolith?! And you would just ROB the child and all of humanity from that formative inspiration and split the timelines of the multiverse inexplicably setting us all down a doomed, dystopian, futile splintered cosmos of hunger, global temperature rise, and scales tipped ever against our favor as a species?! Reducing the real life drake equation of humanity to an incomplete, yet eerily accurate and predictive formula- akin to our dead ended feeling proto understanding of quantum theory?!? What THEN, you monster. Nah just playin I would take that boy back too. Life's too short to never be a little selfish right

[@betterert]

1:48 bold of you to assume i'm on the earth right now

[@joshuacrandall1757]

The ISS gets KZbin?

[@halamadruuid2380]

Joshua Crandall No, where are you from bruh, smh, not everyone lives on earth, or on the milky way galaxy smh, We are on andromeda

[@silverraxtus9622]

@@halamadruuid2380 Or are you IN the Earth!!!

[@natethegreat3726]

🤯

[@lovepuma6625]

i guess you're in Missisippi right now. and you name is Quill.

[@harrypeng9028]

What if the nuclear bombs had blasted debris and other stuffs into the sky, blocking the sun, causing a nuclear winter?

[@dallaswalters2365]

With the amount of ash a nuclear winter provides, most of that would be blasted straight into the atmosphere with how unstable it is.

[@dallaswalters2365]

It would just spread out from the energy behind it, the gravitational pull isn't strong enough to retain that much debri with that much force behind it.

[@trisial6997]

So.... you watched the end of the episode too? Lol

[@blackhat958]

Well patroling the mojave wasteland almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter

[@VoodooGMusic]

The thing is. You don't need to make mars instantly earth like. But if you increase the pressure and temperature on mars, that will make a shielded habitat much easier to construct because you don't have to worry about the immense pressure difference that could rip apart the habitat and kill everyone inside if there was a leak.

[@brunojacome1758]

The "not a flamethrower" The "space car" The "Elon-gated pereod of time" And the conatant bilionar mentions I think he is trying tell us something i just don't quite know what 🤔💭

[@Arzonik]

Hopefully he tells us more on Footnotes, I musk know what he is referring to!

[@jparky1972]

I wonder. He always says he's calling his Mum but maybe it's a particular billionaire with access to space satellite technology?

[@AsphaltExplorers]

I wonder who that meme loving and anime loving billionaire is I bet he loves anime girls with cat-ears and had laughed at the meme of a dead deer

[@PEZ1514]

i musk ask. Do you have an idea of who?

[@MinistryOfMagic_DoM]

"Tunnels are convenient" was a shot at Boring Company as well.

[@g30ffm0rt0n]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Mars also lacks a sufficiently powerful magnetic field to protect any atmosphere we potentially create there. Without a magnetic field, the solar wind would just rip away any extra air in relatively short order. Maybe hundreds or thousands of years, but still...

[@necrokittie2291]

i thought the sun was stripping away the mars atmosphere. so even if you where to blow up mars, that atmosphere would be stripped away anyways. that would probably need fixing before making an atmosphere in the first place.

[@Targe0]

We could Terraform Mars in hundreds to thousands of years and most estimates put the atmosphere striping at around the many millions. So its not overly hard to out pace it.

[@vovochen]

We actually could produce everything on Mars, liek we do here on earth - wed produce sooooo much CO2 that the atmosphere would last. :)

[@vovochen]

Sadly no air there.

[@Targe0]

@@vovochen And not likely to have Oil and coal supplies there for use to use as we have here on Earth.

[@kreamy_karym]

@@vovochen What is the source you might suggest that we could generate CO2 there?

[@kokushibyō-f9i]

This is a video about how we can't do it, tell me how we could do it

[@cyberwize4106]

Even if we were able to use this method to increase the atmospheric pressure enough, wouldn't the solar wind just send it all out into space? The first step in terraforming Mars would be to recreate the magnetosphere.

[@kris5350]

Was just about to say this

[@jacobocorujo6693]

Solar wind take millions of years to completely strip an atmosphere

[@craziedzombie]

Using the musk watch theme music here. I cry. Miss it so much

[@Real28]

Same. Heard it, realized I miss that segment a lot

[@Irrelevant94]

Getting rid of all Nukes on Earth by bombing mars seems like a good idea to me.

[@Targe0]

Yer issue is how do you get them up to Mars, because rockets have a habit of you know blowing up every now and then. Now if they do that while full of nukes...... That's a bad day for all involved.

[@AnelFissures]

@@Targe0 wel dont send them all in one rocket.....geeeez

[@Irrelevant94]

@@Targe0 Lets not bother with small, insignificant problems like this. ;)

[@Targe0]

@@Irrelevant94 I mean I don't live near any launch sites so I would be fine.

[@BlazeStorm]

@@AnelFissures just one detonation is enough to be really harmful

[@corvusdove874]

I wonder how the math would be changed with the impact of, literally Halley's Comet. It's only 11km in mean diameter, and is more icy dirt than dirty ice, but it has a couple of factors going for it. Its orbit is contra to the orbit of the planets, meaning transversal velocity is positive and significantly more energy would be expelled. It also has enough ice of various kinds that when it passes the sun, the ice sublimates and forms an atmosphere around the comet. It probably wouldn't be the only impact required, of course, but it seems like the problem of terraforming Mars is a combination of its lack of oceans and its lack of atmosphere, and such events might scale the two together a little better than focusing on one and hoping it provides the other.

[@RainbowKittyy]

"Time to send the nukes to mars!" *Rocket misfires and falls back to earth*

[@sirmcnugget8876]

RainbowKitty North Korea

[@peripateticguy55]

@John Doe It would just be one and most would probably hit the ocean.

[@kerbodynamicx472]

Nukes are hard to detonate... if they ended up crashing down I think that would create more like a radioactive mess than a destructive explosion...

[@jgilly3362]

@@kerbodynamicx472 nope they detonate with impact mate

[@wesdesto9563]

@@jgilly3362 So do i.. it's a real problem.

[@TheHonkler6868]

Not to mention that Mars doesn't have a magnetic field, so the atmosphere would be ripped off the planet by solar radiation

[@JeremyFath]

That's only an issue if you want it to be stable for more then a few thousand years past the cool down.

[@Richie_Godsil]

Your point is valid over geological time scales but consider that Venus doesn't have a notable magnetic field and it has the most dense atmosphere of the terrestrial planets

[@therealmacgyver5470]

exactly just nuke earth just do it with low fallout nukes and less then nessesary to create a winter and we get rid of our climate "crisis" and believe me increase in health cost will be wayyyy smaller then the climatechange adaption cost

[@voidremoved]

we can just transfer some of earths magnetic field to mars, its all good

[@stephennelson4954]

So, I could be mistaken but wasn't there a NASA research paper that stated that high frequency radio waves usually used for comms also act as a weaker 'magnetosphere' or they exert a magnetosphere like impulse on solar wind? Gimme a sec and when I find the paper I'll link it, or if I'm wrong I'll just delet this. Update: www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/human-activity-changing-space-too-180963369/ And I was wrong it was low frequency radio waves, imma just leave the comment as it was so my idiocy is preserved for posterity. Double Edit (woah what does it meme?) And the paper was published in Space Science Review under the title "Anthropogenic Space Weather" in November of 2017

[@iainwmacintosh]

I love all those references to that billionaire, you know, the one that co-founded Paypal

[@LiamAnjewierden]

the one who is boring?

[@fatalshore5068]

You musk be talking about bezos right?

[@iainwmacintosh]

Idk, I think he also has a space program

[@DeleriumWinds]

i heard he's a musketeer

[@fatalshore5068]

@@DeleriumWinds musk you persist

[@MOCOHO-JONNY]

Man-made nuclear weapons may not do it but an astroid directed to its polls would most certainly be larger.

[@MikeMartGames]

There is an even bigger issue at play when it comes to Mars terraformation and that would be Escape Velocity. Earth's escape velocity is 11.2 km/s while Mars is only about 5 km/s. Let's assume that Mars has a stable magnetosphere (it doesn't but otherwise the math will be out of wack). The basic idea here is that when a gas is heated up it will move faster, using the equation sqrt((3RT)/(m)) with R being the molar mass constant, T being mean temperature in Kelvin, and m being the molar mass of the molecule or atom we're looking at we can determine its speed. If this speed exceeds 1/6 the escape velocity of the planet those gases will be considered unstable, meaning that overtime those gases will escape the gravitational pull of the planet and go off into space in the long term. On Earth three gases to look at would be Hydrogen, Molecular Hydrogen and Helium, which does escape from the atmosphere which is why we don't see those gases in our atmosphere today. To avoid making you guys do all the Math yourself (but if you want to that's all well and good) I'll list it all here below. I'll have the name of the molecule and atom along with it's chemical formula, the minimum temperature in Celsius required for that gas to be unstable on Mars and the same for Earth in order to compare. Atomic Hydrogen (H) ~ -267.69 C / -246.12 C Molecular Hydrogen (H2) ~ -262.23 C / -219.08 C Helium (He) ~ -251.47 C / -165.8 C Atomic Nitrogen (N) ~ -197.28 C / 102.53 C Atomic Oxygen (O) ~ -186.49 C / 155.96 C Methane (CH4) ~ -186.26 C / 157.06 C Ammonia (NH3) ~ -180.89 C / 183.64 C Water Vapour (H2O) ~ -175.56 C / 210.04 C Neon (Ne) ~ -163.84 C / 268.09 C Carbon Monoxide (CO) ~ -121.42 C / 478.11 C Molecular Nitrogen (N2) ~ -121.40 C / 478.18 C Nitric Oxide (NO) ~ -110.59 C / 531.76 C Molecular Oxygen (O2) ~ -99.87 C / 584.81 C Hydrogen Sulfide (N2S) ~ -88.43 C / 641.45 C Argon (Ar) ~ -56.75 C / 798.31 C Carbon Dioxide (CO2) ~ -34.75 C / 907.25 C Nitrous Oxide (N2O) ~ -34.73 C / 907.33 C Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) ~ -23.94 C / 960.77 C Ozone (O3) ~ -13.13 C / 1014.27 C Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) ~ 73.89 C / 1445.18 C Sulfur Trioxide (SO3) ~ 160.57 C / 1874.32 C Krypton (Kr) ~ 180.78 C / 1974.42 C Xenon (Xe) ~ 438.06 C / 3248.30 C Earth currently has a surface temperature of 15 C, so if we want Mars to have the same surface temperature then the only stable gases that would be sustained on Mars would be Sulfur Dioxide, Sulfur Trioxide, Krypton, and Xenon. Last time I checked Humans like us are incapable of breathing such gases. If we wanted to make sure that the gases we need in order to survive is sustained on Mars like O2, N2, H2O (for precipitation) Mars would need to be less that -176 C which is much colder than the lowest recorded temperature on Earth, in Antarctica at about -89 C. Plus, depending on atmospheric pressures we could be unsure of which of these gases would liquefy or solidify. So, sadly it's safe to say that we cannot effectively terraform Mars in a way that's safe for multi-cellular lifeforms like us to live in. No nuke will fix that. Also, adding the fact Mars doesn't have a magnetosphere complicates things even more because since we're dealing with radiation, the molecules could end up splitting apart becoming lighter. If they're lighter they're faster and if they're faster their more likely to become unstable and leave the planet full stop. Terraforming Mars is unfeasible no matter how you look at it. Edit: To note, when I refer to long term I really mean an indefinite period of time. If a gas is considered unstable, it doesn't necessarily mean it will leave Mars within the lifetime of a Colonist. What it means is that Mars will need a system in place to constantly produce these gases and since they're leaving it will be extremely difficult to replenish them without depleting resources or finding some cleaver way to capture these rogue gases and putting them back which seems extremely difficult to pull off.

[@moukidelmar]

Gunning for that Super Nerd shout out I see.

[@AstralS7orm]

You can apply higher magnetic field to hold heavier gases near planet, but we do not have such technology yet. For the meantime, a planetary sized self healing balloon seems relatively doable.

[@NB_Felixia]

Supernerd nominee

[@peterhacke6317]

Hm, releasing several kilograms of radioaktive material every hour definetly sounds like a way to increase habitability.

[@novotd443]

Well, there are nukes that work by fusing elements, hydrogen. They are way less harmful than the old fashioned Uranium one.

[@peterhacke6317]

@@novotd443 Yep and they are ignited by detonating an old fassioned fission nuke inside them. So not really clean either.

[@maxthompson9113]

This reminds me about a speech about terraforming mars I did in class when I was like 10. I did the speech after seeing a TV show (I can't remember what it was called) that my brother was watching because I thought that it was super interesting. I gotta admit at the time I didn't really understand more than the basics of the science but it was still a pretty good speech. Although I definitely wasn't using nukes I talked about making factories on Mars to release CO2 and using alpine trees to then produce oxygen. Because that was what the show proposed as a long term options.

[@sleepingbackbone7581]

in any case much better solution than nuking the planet and leaving dangerously high levels of deadly radiation behind.

[@Optisystemizer]

What if we succeeded, would the atmosphere even stay or would it be blown away by the solar wind? (Due to Mars lack of magnetic field)

[@Optisystemizer]

@williampg gois According to wikipedia, Venus ionosphere separates its atmosphere from the solar wind and magnetic field. But it also looses water vapour and other light gases to the solar wind. Maybe it is slowly loosing it? Venus gravity is also more than twice that of Mars.

[@novagaming1706]

@williampg gois Venus has an atmosphere about 100 times as thick as Earth's, it's one of the reasons it's so hot (864 degrees Fahrenheit to be exact).

[@MrMSandin]

Stripping of the atmosphere is a very slow process. It takes millions of years.

[@anjhindul]

@@MrMSandin no, it doesn't. It might take millions if it had enough gravity... but sadly the planet doesn't. Even without solar wind Mars would loose all the co2 we produce with nukes at about the same pace we produce it at the rate stated in the video. Sorry boys, keep dreaming.

[@MrMSandin]

@@anjhindul Mars gravity is enough to hold an earth-like atmosphere, it even had one in the past.

[@yaheki]

But what about the Mars' Magneto sphere, it doesn't have THE protective shield we have isn't it?

[@hailstone7470]

Yeah it's one of those few things that these KZbin science channels tend to forget is that the Magneto sphere is very important also they kind of forget the fact that if we detonated a nuke on the surface of Mars they probably blow whatever CO2 we can get out of it in the f****** space

[@MrMSandin]

An earth-like atmosphere would protect from almost all cosmic radiation. The lack of a magnetosphere is probably the least of all problems with terraforming Mars.

[@AaronAlso]

@@MrMSandin Sorry but you are wrong. Without the magetosphere the solar wind will strip off all but the heaviest and least reactive atmospheric gasses. I never fails to surprise me that people conveniently forgot Mars was once much like Earth. When it's core began to cool and lost it's magnetosphere the planet died. A fate that nothing short of Clarke Tech will save it from.

[@mattzomix89]

Doesn't Mars have enough mass to hold an Atmosphere? And if we manage the mass Problem would the new mass of Mars cause its 2 moons to crush on the surface?

[@MrMSandin]

@@AaronAlso It takes millions of years so if we could create an atmosphere we could easily replenish it. You could also place a big magnet in orbit, between the sun and mars.

[@St0RM33]

Don't we need to liquify the core first to get a magnetic field otherwise solar wind will wipe the atmosphere to space again?

[@novagaming1706]

The core on Mars is already liquid it just doesn't rotate that fast so it's magnetic field is really weak, but yeah, we would need a way to at least make the core faster to have a magnetic field strong enough to stop solar winds from striping Mars of it's atmosphere.

[@erikburzinski8248]

We chould also put a giant tesla coil in space with a nuclear reactor that is always between mars and the sun theoretically if the coil is big enogh that should protect the atmosphere.

[@MrMSandin]

@@novagaming1706 Stripping of the atmosphere is a very slow process. It takes millions of years.

[@Mastermind8908]

@@erikburzinski8248 So what Mars needs is it's own ring system made up of copper circling the planet. When we start mining the asteroid belt, maybe we'll find some with enough copper to pull enough of them into Mars' orbit. Is that feasible?

[@erikburzinski8248]

@@Mastermind8908 it is feasible within 50 years in my oppinion. Side note: its not like a ring arround the planet as we only need it on the side of mars pointing towards the sun we whould place the coil at L1 larange point which is the point in space where the coil will have the same orbit as mars. It whould be 12000 km long(if the coil was stright) and be 0.03125m thick wire this whould take 1.5625 years to complete (if we used the worlds entire production of copper just for this coil) and whould require a nuclear reactor to power it as it requires 320MW.

[@hostingwithhenry6716]

Dear Kyle, Please explore the possibility of using Phobos to terraform Mars. It is only 5000 miles up and already near the Roche Limit. There is even a convenient crater to use as a nuclear engine nozzle. Maybe deimos could be redirected to ram phobos head on. A low angle impact would spread the effect. There would be cubic miles of matter. Maybe you could ram phobos with your space car and bring it down.

[@bobmathews5314]

Part of the problem with the atmosphere is the low gravity. Because the gravity is so low, the atmosphere wouldn't be "held" to the planet. The other issue is there is no magnetosphere to deflect the solar wind bombarding the surface with radiation and ripping the upper layers of the atmosphere away from the planet. If we could figure out a way to basically turn the martian core into a giant electromagnet, then we might get somewhere with the radiation, but the air pressure would still be a massive issue. Love the show, keep up the great work Kyle.

[@dankmemer2385]

This is true, however the process of stripping its atmosphere would still take millions of years

[@tank_dempsey]

There’s potentially a way to kickstart the Martian core, it’s still active, as we have detected earthquakes there, but it’s extremely faint. If you hit a specific area like a potentially hibernating magma chamber, or many of them depending how many there are, you could get volcanic activity started, adding gases back to the atmosphere, the plates of the planet to potentially move and melt again, heating up the core and potentially giving a second wind to the planet’s magnetic field

[@bobmathews5314]

@@dankmemer2385 Possibly, but that might also be under the assumption of the planet already having a dense enough atmosphere to support some kind of squishy human life. Please correct me if my assumption is wrong. I'm not sure of the numbers and can't work the math right now (darn you day job lol) but what about starting off with an already thin atmosphere and trying to add to it faster than the solar wind could carry it away? I imagine it would take a significantly shorter amount of time. Again, please correct me if I'm wrong.

[@bobmathews5314]

@@tank_dempsey I'm not sure hitting a hibernating magma dome would really be the answer, as wouldn't that just aid in Mars cooling even faster? But that's really cool though, I didn't know InSight had detected marsquakes yet. Learn something new every day lol. Thanks!

[@tank_dempsey]

Bob Mathews haha yea, and it depends. While it could cool the planet for a short time due to the debris, all you have to do is get magma to start circulating in the planet again, similar to how earth’s lithosphere is, and it all depends on plates melting by being subducted under each other. If you could cause a plate to slide down far enough to a point where it could melt, it could theoretically cause a chain reaction, getting other ones to melt as well Edit: this is all very hypothetical, but at the same time plausible

[@erbgorre]

5:55 "ghost reporting" whenever i see a world untouched by war..

[@2o7o7dragon]

6:42 of course the numbers are astronomical, you're talking about astronomy.

[@matthewellison1025]

hA

[@DogDogGodFog]

@@matthewellison1025 Ha

[@karubml]

There is an entire anime on why this is a bad idea.

[@ironskys2989]

Hmm yes, anime the great art of terraforming planets.

[@Palovana13]

"Terraforming Mars" is btw an amazing board game, everyone should've played at least once! :D

[@ericb3157]

i have a videogame called "surviving mars" where you build giant domes with cities inside... but you need buildings outside to generate air and water...

[@barrybend7189]

What if after we make mars more suitable for Terraforming we make lakes full of engineered sea plants to create oxygen production areas like in Zone Of the Enders Dolores I. Also we need a magnetosphere as mars has none due to a "cold" core. So either an external Lagrange Magnet shield or a massive magnetic stations at the north and south pole. So the problem is also to stop solar winds from blowing the atmosphere off mars.

[@USSAnimeNCC-]

Don't forget plate tectonic their one of the reason why earth is a habitable planet second though was right we should focus on healing earth and leave terraforming mars down the road

[@barrybend7189]

@@USSAnimeNCC- well tectonics are not that important. Its mainly a side effect of the heat generated by the core( which produces the magnetosphere). So you can have a planet with no tectonic activity as mars's is fused together.

[@IdiotsTalk]

Just take CO2 from Earth and take it to Mars. You save Earth and terraform Mars.. Thank me later Nobel.

[@blahchop]

That's not how it works. Earth is a dynamic system. All that CO2 used to be something else and we need it. You need to change the system... not cut a chunk of it out.

[@youtubestuff683]

@@blahchop I don't think he means all of our CO2 I think he means take some of it, like just enough to balance out earth, and help create a atmosphere on Mars.

[@chanbricks4461]

Balance is important, taking away something without curing the source will not solve the problem

[@Qardo]

@@chanbricks4461 Well, can always pump it all directly into space! (Yes, I know impossible...or is it?)

[@malachidaw9730]

okay where's the mans/womans award?

[@tricky1992000]

silica aerogel sheets on the poles of mars to trap heat, depending on the thickness the areas underneath should rise to 100C's of degrees.

[@eldrath]

I miss Muskwatch Btw Kyle, you didn't even discuss the fact that without a magnetosphere the atmosphere would get stripped by the solar and cosmic winds.

[@KllSwtch8473]

I was just thinking the same thing. Mars doesnt have the magnetic poles we have that protect us from radiation. Nukes wont fix that problem.

[@MrMSandin]

Stripping of the atmosphere is a very slow process. It takes millions of years.

[@opaqueman5043]

MrMSandin dose not matter ass hat. Mars has next to no atmosphere idiot.

[@vincentcyr3719]

Kill two birds with one stone. A couple massive artificial field generators(big electromagnets, one at each pole) give it the magnetosphere it lacks, powered by several nuclear plants. The heat that the plants generate as a byproduct melts the icecaps(admittedly more slowly).

[@KllSwtch8473]

@@MrMSandin your not wrong however nuking the planet will not create the required magnetic poles to protect the planet. I encourage you to watch a video by pbs called. "Are the earths magnetic poles revering" or something along thpse lines. Should be pretty easy to find. It will explain what we are talking about.

[@hiphopkapow9433]

10x the amount of energy the sun gives us in a year? That sounds like a decade is that just me?

[@GazB85]

😂

[@NoobsDudes]

Gotta make it sound cool.

[@silencetheknight9634]

Hey Kyle, loved the show! But rather than terraforming Mars, wouldn't it be more plausible to just make the underground habitable, like a big network of tunnels? Wouldn't it get rid of the atmosphere and temperature problems?

[@jeremyhearne]

Nah mate. Shits harder to do than nukin.

[@MidnaraDrahkyus]

To be honest, I think it'll still be cold given that the planet itself is cold so if we did do underground network the tunnels will have to be insulated to prevent heat lose.

[@votalis4089]

It mostly gets rid of the radiation problem. Might make for more durable and larger habitable spaces as well.

[@silencetheknight9634]

jeremy hearne Dude, did you even watch the video?

[@NeAndresthal]

Loved the Sagan impersonation. New subscriber here.

[@PooMonkeyMan]

“Nuke the crap out of Mars.” Not a phrase I’d think I’d ever hear as a logical means of getting something done. Finally. 😍

[@ishiharakanzo]

I think Since there isn't enough Magnetic Field... Those Gas generated by the Nukes will be just stripped away by the Solar Wind pretty quickly...

[@icecoldchilipreppers]

Do you think that? Or are you repeating that?

[@ishiharakanzo]

@@icecoldchilipreppers Well, i'm not a Sciency guy, so i'm just repeating someone's comment because noone seems to be paying attention to his/her comment.

[@LokiScarletWasHere]

Forgot about the magnetosphere problem. Mars doesn't have a magnetosphere anymore which is how it lost its atmosphere. Without a magnetosphere, solar winds will scrape the atmosphere off the planet. If we nuke Mars' poles, the CO2 would just be wasted.

[@alexrompen805]

Basically, even if we could get the amount of nuclear weapons to Mars and somehow it all works out, we'd basically get a Jurassic period environment, which isn't exactly conductive to human life.

[@drahcir8402]

'We will nuke Mars and the other planets. Not because it is easy. But because it is hard' Also because our Evil Overlord and Saviour Kyle told us to

[@meganofsherwood3665]

XD

[@Sam-fq3bt]

As xkcd once said: “Eating this bag of pinecones is also hard”

[@nt9382]

The first thing that came to my mind after reading the title: *eLoN mUsK!*

[@jerotoro2021]

He avoided saying it directly... UNTIL 13:30!

[@CGoliday1]

"THE CONTROL... " - Patrick star