Elon Musk: Nuking Mars Will Get Humans Established Sooner

Elon Musk doesn't just want humans to walk on Mars; he wants them to live there. He's not the only person who aspires to such a future, and he sees it as a necessity for the survival of the human race. Some efforts are already being made to get human colonies established on the Red Planet, though some are more questionable than others. The key to getting human colonies established on the planet may, it turns out, be a couple thermonuclear bombs.

Our planet's ability to sustain humanity is already greatly strained, and that problem will only increase over the coming years as the human population grows. Establishing colonies on other planets will allow humans to spread out, so to speak, and help ensure humanity lives on. Pulling off such colonies, though, won't be simple.

Musk recently appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he quipped that "the fast way [to get colonies on Mars sans living domes] is to drop thermonuclear weapons over the poles." If you're thinking something something supervillain, you'll be happy to know that Colbert already beat you to that joke: "You're a supervillain! That's what a supervillain does."

The reason is, it seems, the need to jumpstart climate change on Mars if human colonies living outside of domes are the plan. Humanity could figure out a way to slowly introduce greenhouse gases into the planet's atmosphere, but that would mean waiting a long while. Or we could, says Musk, nuke the planet's poles and get on it with already.

Or, you know, he could just be trolling us all and having a good laugh. One mustn't question the humor of a supervillain.