On April 19, 1775, the American Revolution started between Britain, a global superpower, and the North American colonies. John Ferling, an expert on the American Revolution, also the author of Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence, said in an article from the Smithsonian, “Throughout its deliberations, North’s government agreed on one point: The Americans would pose a little challenge in the event of war.” 

   He goes on, saying, “The Americans had neither a standing army nor a navy; few among them were experienced officers. Britain possessed a professional army and the world’s greatest navy. Furthermore, the colonists had virtually no history of cooperating with one another, even in the face of danger.” 

    Common opinion was that Britain would win the war; that’s why Britain’s cabinet voted for the war. Everybody in high offices of the British government, even the king himself, did not doubt that he was going to win. 

   Everybody expected that Britain would destroy the American colonies but that was not the case; in 1783 after 8 years of hard fighting, Britain finally surrendered, the day that most of the world thought would never happen did happen. 

   The impossible became possible and now The United States of America is one of the most successful and richest countries in the world. 

   The U.S victory is only one scenario that shows the impossible can be possible. 

   A current impossible scenario being considered is whether we should agnate nuclear weaponry on Mars to be able to live on it. It sounds pretty crazy and there are a million questions to ask such as how could we nuke Mars? Or what would nuking do to Mars’ atmosphere, would we be able to live in its atmosphere then? 

   This could be a case of the impossible which may become possible. 

   The answer to the question of why we would want to nuke Mars is simple: so we would be able to live on it in the future. Living on Mars seems like a crazy idea, but if it’s possible we should take the next step towards that possibility. The temperature on Mars is minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit, much colder than the earth. Could nuking Mars make it much warmer? Would it heat the atmosphere around Mars making it more habitable? 

    If in the future we do nuke Mars then what else would change in Mars’ atmosphere? Bruce M. Jakosky of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado wrote an article about Mars that said “Recent observations have been made of the loss of Mars’s atmosphere to space by the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission probe and the Mars Express spacecraft, along with analyses of the abundance of carbon-bearing minerals and the occurrence of CO2 in polar ice from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. 

   A 2018 study, published in “Nature Astronomy,” found that even if the nukes are successful, it would only increase the CO2 in Mars’ atmosphere to 7% of Earth’s.

  We wouldn’t be able to live in Mars’ atmosphere with that change. But maybe further in the future, we will find a solution to that problem. As you can see there are many unanswered questions about nuking Mars and what that would do to Mar’s atmosphere.  

   Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of both Tesla and SpaceX, believes it’s a good idea to nuke mars. Musk tweeted out, “Nuke Mars!” on, August 15, 2020. As the owner of SpaceX, he is working with space and rockets. SpaceX has created the first-ever reusable rockets. Which brings us to another question if Mr. Musk wants to nuke Mars what government would approve this unprecedented act?   

   There has been no government that approves of nuking Mars but why would there be? Mars isn’t controlled by any country so who has the power to make this approval. It would make the most sense for all the countries to vote on it. The likely hood of all of the countries agreeing seems pretty low; so maybe the country that has the best space program would decide. Only time will tell.

        There are unanswered questions about the possibility of nuking Mars, just as there were many about the American revolution, but colonists didn’t flee. They fought even though they thought they couldn’t win. People may say that using nukes for this purpose is impossible but let’s see if we can do this without hurting Mars. It will take a lot of research and time to find out the answer. There will be people that doubt the idea and even say it’s crazy but they may be short-sighted, not knowing what amazing benefits could come from this.

   The American revolution had an impossible outcome but that impossible outcome became possible. Nuking Mars seems to have an impossible outcome but it may become possible. Only time will tell!