Ok, so I was watching a show on the science channel about Mars habitation (I don't remember what show, maybe it was the one with Morgan Freeman, idk) and the idea or terraforming came up about using nukes to thicken and create a denser atmosphere to heat up the planet and make it habitable. So it got me thinking, the US and Soviets were the two main superpowers, but many other countries have carried out their own tests too. I don't know what the exact number or anything, but there has to of been hundreds of above-ground nuke testing by multiple countries. I mean the US alone has done over 1000 total tests with many above ground. I don't really know how terraforming works, but wouldn't these above ground nuke explosions pretty much be terraforming our atmosphere and show and increase in temperature (AKA Global Warming)? I'm not saying its the sole reason to global warming but just a thought, because there are many factors to global warming, not just green house gas emissions.
So you're suggesting that we nuke Mars in an attempt to give it an atmosphere? I don't think that would work too well.
Totally not what I said. My post wasn't even about mars. The show was about mars and I was suggesting an idea about earth climate and how it relates to the idea in the show.
Well then what does terraforming have to do with it? Nuclear testing, global warming, and terraforming are three completely unrelated things....
he is drawing a connection between global warming from greenhous gases, and terraforming. the show he is talking about suggested terraforming mars by adding green house gasses to the atmosphere. then he thought about if nukes cause global warming... the answer is no nukes are not a significant contributor. the only human made contributors are things the regulate tempurate on a large scale, such as increases green hous gases to trap more heat, and chopping down tons of trees.
No i didn't think up the nuke part, nukes were in the show as a possible way to terraform mars. It wasn't my idea about nukes.
You're underestimating the size of the Earth and its atmosphere. It would take an incredible amount of nuclear explosions to make an overall change to the atmosphere's composition. Only 9 countries have developed nuclear weapons as far as I know, and most haven't tested them as much as we have here in the US.
Nukes are an option for terraforming mars only because Mars is so much colder than Earth. What Nukes would do is heat up the CO2 in the ground to start and accelerate a greenhouse effect. Earth is warm enough that nuking doesn't release a substantial amount of CO2 into the atmosphere so the effect is minimal. at least thats my understanding of it
Anyone interested in the Iron County Utah nuke test radiation effects of the community in the 1950s???
It is. But were just speeding that natural cycle up with industrial bi products. There's a hole in our ozone now. And when that solar storm hits in late 2012 at the peak of the winter equinox, electric grids are gonna get fried which means no gas transportation which means no food which means chaos.
cant nuke mars to terraform it it will make the planet a radiation waste land. it will be warm, gassy, and useless to us