Why Aren’t We On Mars Yet?
- 17th Jan 2018
- Author: Kimran Dhaliwal
Why go to Mars?
There are lots of good reasons to send humans to Mars.
You could argue that space exploration is simply a part of our curious nature as humans and that Mars is the new frontier.
You could also look at it from an economic perspective: Mars is rich in ores (iron being the most common) and could be harvested for the essential minerals that drive our economy.
Then there’s the political motive: becoming the first nation to send humans to Mars is a major accolade and the first country to do so will have the respect and envy of the world.
Finally, a trip to Mars could also be a last resort. For example, there’s nothing to stop an asteroid colliding with Earth and causing catastrophic damage to life as we know it. If we want our species to survive, sending them to Mars might be our last hope.
But for whatever reason we go, it’s not going to be an easy ride and there are numerous challenges to both landing and living on the Martian surface.
[Get inspired by NASA’s brilliant Mars travel posters]
Leaving Earth
Although we have the rockets and technology to escape the gravitational pull of Earth, we currently don’t have rockets large enough to carry the enormous amounts of rocket fuel, supplies, and construction materials (not to mention the astronauts!) needed for a long-duration journey to Mars.
It’s very expensive to send anything into space, and if we don’t have the ability for everything to go at once, it means that supplies must be sent in multiple shifts. This has so far been prohibitively expensive for national economies. As of 2018, there are exciting new plans underway to create heavy launch vehicles by commercial companies such as SpaceX and others, but developing and testing these rockets takes many years.
In-flight issues
A one-way trip to Mars takes between seven and nine months (far longer than a three-day trip to the Moon!), and astronauts need to be kept safe and healthy the entire way.
They will be isolated from other humans for a long time, which could cause unknown psychological effects. The capsule carrying them won’t be very big so claustrophobia may also become an issue. Nine months’ worth of food and water for all the crew will have to be carried, adding to the cost and space constraints of the mission. Another serious concern is the long-term effect of weightlessness on the crew’s bodies and the need for them to be strong upon arrival at Mars. Over nine months in space, muscle mass and bone density will seriously decrease unless the astronauts exercise every day, so exercise equipment will also have to be carried along.
Watch astronaut Chris Hadfield explain how to exercise in space:
Martian vegetables
Once the crew arrives at Mars, they’ll need a sustainable food source, and farming seems like a reasonable bet. But Mars has some wild surface temperatures, varying from 20°C at the equator to -153°C at the poles.
To grow crops on Mars, the plants would need to be insulated from these extremes in a greenhouse of sorts. A backup plan B for food would also be required, just in case a crop failed!
Protecting Mars
Although we haven’t yet sent humans to Mars, the Red Planet has been explored by many spacecraft (such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) and rovers (such as the Curiosity rover) over the past few decades. This is because we think that a few million years ago Mars was very similar to the Earth. We now know that water flowed on Mars, and we also see evidence of geological activity and volcanism. On Earth, life required all of these things to arise, so it’s possible that life also once existed on Mars.
The COSPAR policy from the International Astronomical Union protects planets like Mars from possible contamination from us. Sending humans to Mars greatly increases the chance of us contaminating its surface with microbes from Earth. Until we know for sure if life ever existed, or could ever exist, on Mars, it would be a shame for us to risk potentially destroying an alien life-form, however small.
Sending humans to Mars is an enormous challenge, and these are just a handful of the obstacles that would need to be overcome. Nevertheless, we’re talking about going to Mars as never before. After all, it’s our desire to explore our surroundings, just like we did with the Moon, that makes us human.
We are only just now starting to explore our cosmic backyard – and who knows – perhaps venturing out to Mars could be looked back on as one of the greatest feats that we as a human race ever accomplished.
