Elon Musk believes the fastest way to make Mars an inhabitable planet is to drop nuclear weapons on it.
In an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert broadcast on Wednesday, Musk, who is also the chief executive of electric car giants Tesla, was questioned about how humans could one day be able to live on the Red Planet.
The SpaceX founder said there was two ways of transforming Mars into a hospitable planet for humankind by warming it up. "There's the fast way and the slow way," said Musk. "The fast way is [to] drop thermonuclear weapons over the poles [of Mars]."
The Washington Post that the slow way espoused by Musk was to flood the planet with greenhouse gases, which would eventually stimulate a slow process of climate change and gradually heat the planet up over a number of years.
Musk also told Colbert that his SpaceX rockets would be ready within to take human passengers to Mars within two to three years.
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Conor is a staff writer for Newsweek covering Africa, with a focus on Nigeria, security and conflict.
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