Terraforming Mars with Four War-surplus Bombs
Robert Alan Mole
ramole@aol.com
Four, 100kg fusion warheads, launched from a Mars orbiter, can throw into the air enough dust to cover Mars' South Polar Cap, darken it, and cause it to sublime through increased solar heating. The added atmospheric pressure will set off a runaway advection effect, subliming all the polar CO2 to create a thicker atmosphere and partially terraform the planet. We have the warheads and the orbiters, and "penetrators" (strong bombshells to carry the warheads deep into the dust before they explode) are well researched and available. We can start whenever we like. (Though we will want to explore, core, and characterize the ice caps before we evaporate them.)