mars is full of mysteries that's why we
keep sending satellites and rovers to
explore it the red planet contains water
frozen as ice the largest known volcano
in the solar system and may have been
home to microbial life in the past but
to truly explore our neighboring planet
we need to send humans there and the
reality is that won't happen for a
really really long time how long you
might be wondering well let's find out
the first obstacle to overcome before
colonizing mars is to get there
launching rich people into space has
become pretty popular recently and it
seems that this type of thing will
become more and more common however
launching a few people into earth's
orbit and bringing them back is a much
easier task than sending a colonization
mission to mars as of right now we do
not have the technology to successfully
send a human crew to mars let alone
colonize the planet on average earth and
mars are separated by around 140 million
miles just to put that in perspective
jeff bezos went under 70 miles from
earth's surface into orbit the
international space station is 245 miles
above our heads and the moon is
approximately 238 855 miles from our
planet so to send humans millions of
miles to mars is just not something
we're capable of yet to be fair the
mission to mars would be planned to
coincide with earth and mars being as
close as possible to one another in
their orbits which would only put them
about 34 million miles apart but that's
still a lot further than any human has
ever gone before the other problem with
aiming for this specific window is that
it only happens once every 26 months and
if you've ever waited to watch a rocket
launch you know that there can often be
delays due to unfavorable weather
conditions on earth if the launch window
for the mars mission is missed then we'd
have to wait another 26 months to try
again so how close are we to even
reaching liftoff to mars the answer is
not a good one neither nasa or russia or
any of the private space companies have
a rocket capable of launching humans to
mars many organizations are working on
it but this technology just doesn't
exist yet we can launch robots to the
red planet but humans unfortunately
require much more space resources and
breathable air than robots do and since
technology to get there is still
hypothetical or being built it's going
to take time once we have the required
tech to launch from our planet to our
neighbor how long will the actual flight
take the rover missions to mars have
taken between 128 days to 333 days the
main difference here is that since the
robotic missions to mars are lighter
than a human mission would be they can
travel faster using less fuel before we
can even consider colonizing mars we
need to be able to send a crew there and
get them back the best way to assess
whether mars is a viable option for
colonization is to have actual boots on
the ground the best estimates for a
round-trip mission to mars puts the
entire journey at around three years
long from liftoff to landing to
returning home it's one thing to do a
flyby of mars which we don't have the
technology to do with humans on board
it's another thing to land a crew on the
planet and bring them home there is
currently no spacecraft that can hold a
crew of astronauts for longer than two
years without being resupplied and it
should come as no surprise that
resupplying stations don't currently
exist in the space between earth and
mars really what it comes down to is we
need to develop the rockets and
technology to carry a crew through the
vast distance of space between earth and
mars before any form of colonization can
begin astronauts and future colonists
will need to endure a very long journey
through space and one of the main
problems here is the isolation the crew
will face imagine spending years alone
in a tight space with some of your
co-workers that thought is probably
pretty terrifying and rightfully so at
some point people will get on each
other's nerves and conflicts will arise
nasa and other space agencies are
already conducting experiments around
long-term isolation of crews but a
solution to this problem is still a long
way away since nothing can simulate the
isolation of space or being on a
different planet this brings us to
another unique problem although you
might be excited at the prospect of
colonizing mars you probably won't be a
viable candidate the astronauts being
trained right now will not be the
astronauts aboard the rocket that sends
the first colonists to the red planet
this poses a problem as we don't know
what the telepool will be like in the
decades to come we also need to figure
out who will get along and be able to
work together in the confines of a
capsule rocketing through space toward
mars the isolation and loneliness that
will accompany the long mission to mars
needs to be better understood before we
send our first astronauts on the mission
and the data collected from that first
crew will then be vital to understanding
how to get colonists to the red planet
and keep them mentally stable right now
scientists are trying to figure out how
to reduce the side effects of isolation
such as decline in mood and cognition
increased irritability and heightened
stress levels all of these things will
put further strain on the colonists and
we don't have a cure-all method to
reduce these effects quite yet the next
problem that needs to be solved in order
to send a mission to mars occurs both in
space and on the red planet humans are
fragile beings the physical effects of
prolonged radiation to the body is
something we know will be a problem but
we haven't figured out a long-term
solution for it yet it's pointless to
send a crew to mars if they die from
radiation poisoning before they get
there on our planet we're protected from
radiation by earth's magnetic field this
is a good thing because space is full of
this dangerous type of energy radiation
can cause mutations in dna which can
lead to cancer nausea resulting in loss
of bodily fluids and visual impairment
none of these things are good for
astronauts trying to survive a mission
to mars and in space the radiation doses
can be up to 700 times higher than they
are here on earth space agencies are
currently working on different types of
radiation shielding and even now we'll
have some preventative measures built
into spacesuits but a larger scale
solution will need to be developed for a
mission to colonize mars and like many
things for this mission the technology
just hasn't been invented yet it's
unreasonable to assume the astronauts
will be wearing a spacesuit for all
three years of their mission to mars or
for mars colonists to spend their entire
lives in spacesuits radiation shielding
needs to be built into the ships and
structures themselves before anyone can
even think about venturing to mars since
mars does not have a protective magnetic
shield like earth the radiation on the
planet is almost as high as in space the
crew aboard the international space
station has been conducting experiments
around mixing a cement concoction in
microgravity this may be done using the
soil on mars to build structures that
would protect the interplanetary
explorers not just from the harsh
weather of the planet but the radiation
as well that's good news the bad news is
we don't know how well the martian
concrete structures will work we also
have just recently learned that
astronauts on the international space
station receive doses of radiation about
10 times higher than people on earth
even though the space station sits
inside earth's magnetic field more
research needs to be done and better
technology developed to stop the
radiation in space from harming the mars
colonists otherwise they'll become too
sick to carry out their mission
everything we've discussed so far needs
to happen before colonization can begin
on mars without a mission to explore the
planet and bring back more data there's
no way humans can set up a permanent
colony that being said we are decades or
longer away from sending astronauts to
mars on exploratory missions this gives
you an idea of how much longer it'll
take to colonize the planet but for
argument's sake let's say humans have
solved all the problems of launching a
high-powered rocket flying through space
and landing on mars we're now ready to
colonize the planet but with this
ambition comes even greater problems
problems that we are nowhere close to
solving humans need around a gallon of
water a day to remain healthy luckily
for the colonists of mars the planet
does have water unfortunately for the
colonists the water is in the form of
ice and tends to be buried hundreds of
feet below the surface and even though
mars has a large ice cap at one of its
poles this will probably not be the most
ideal spot to set up a colony like much
of the technology needed to colonize the
red planet the tools to extract and
refine the frozen water on mars does not
yet exist nasa conducts a yearly
competition called the mars ice
challenge where engineers try and design
innovative ways to access and extract
the water on mars this may be beneficial
in the future when colonization occurs
but right now it's only the most
preliminary of prototypes being designed
large-scale water extraction for a human
colony on mars is a long way away and
without drinkable water there can be no
colony this is the first challenge that
needs to be overcome before humans can
begin planning a permanent settlement on
the red planet no matter what else the
mission throws at the colonists nothing
will matter unless there's fresh water
to drink and to use to irrigate crops
this brings us to food the colonists
will need to eat food actually poses
slightly less of a challenge than
extracting water this is because once
the colonists build greenhouses they can
grow plants using recycled human waste
and artificial nutrients brought along
with them we actually already have the
technology to create self-contained
greenhouses that require very little
input from the outside world using
hydroponics the amount of nutrients and
water needed for plants to grow is
minimal due to the highly effective
methods used to recycle these resources
but the main challenge is building the
structure to house the crops obviously
building on the red planet will come
with some unique challenges but there is
good news since the gravity is much
lower on mars than on earth moving
materials requires less energy on the
downside everything needed to build
permanent structures will either need to
be brought with the colonists or
constructed out of martian rocks which
we still aren't entirely sure how to
utilize access to food and water for
martian colonists are currently being
worked on and there seems to be some
promising technology in the future but
that's the key the future as of right
now most of the technology to sustain
food and water production on mars for
colonists just doesn't exist and nutella
does there cannot be a colony on the
planet along with the basic resources
for sustenance the martian colonists
will need to breathe the air on the red
planet is not ideal for humans the
atmosphere itself is too thin and the
composition of the molecules in the air
is poisonous to our lungs the air is
mostly made up of carbon dioxide at
around 95.3 percent of total to put that
into perspective earth's atmosphere is
less than one percent carbon dioxide so
a human without a spacesuit would
definitely suffocate to death the oxygen
levels are around 0.13 percent on mars
and the nitrogen levels which make up 78
of earth's atmosphere only comprise 2.7
percent of mars atmosphere here are the
problems with those numbers the oxygen
levels are too low for humans to breathe
this is especially true since the
atmospheric pressure on mars is around
160 times lower than earth's meaning the
oxygen concentration on the red planet
is approximately 25 000 times lower than
on our planet also the high amount of
carbon dioxide will literally suffocate
any human who tries to breathe it on the
other hand the high amounts of co2 are
good for plants that use the molecule to
conduct photosynthesis however the bad
news is the nitrogen levels are too low
for plants to survive plants need
nitrogen in order to grow and the low
amount of it in the martian atmosphere
means the colonists will need to bring
their own nitrogen and fertilizers with
them on top of the deadly air
composition for the human colonists the
atmospheric pressure also poses a
problem on earth the average pressure
pushing on your body is about 14.7 psi
the pressure on mars is
.095 psi the problem with this is that
the low atmospheric pressure could lead
to air bubbles being trapped within the
body which could cause aneurysms heart
attacks or the rupturing of tissues
other than staying in a pressurized
spacesuit or habitat there's no way to
solve this problem quite yet but the
lack of atmospheric pressure also
creates all kinds of logistical problems
for the colonists of mars as well when
landing on the red planet the pilots
will need to brake hard as there isn't
as much air resistance to shave off some
of their entry speed like on earth this
is why when we send rovers to mars they
tend to do a lot of bouncing around and
impact the ground pretty hard during
landing for this reason airbags and
multiple parachutes are a necessity when
landing on mars for colonist ships they
need to employ reserve thrusters and a
number of other maneuvers to reduce
their speed when making a descent to the
martian surface this means that a number
of exploratory missions need to be
launched before attempting to colonize
mars just to get the logistics right it
would be a real bummer to send a group
of people to mars just to have them
crash land on the planet and since we're
a long way from launching even an
exploratory mission to mars the
colonization of the planet will have to
be put on hold until we know exactly
what we're dealing with there is some
good news however one misconception
about the red planet that has come from
movies and sci-fi shows us that wind
storms on mars will blow away structures
and astronauts with deadly force this is
actually not the case since the
atmosphere is about 0.63 percent as
dense as the one on earth the winds and
storms on the planet are actually less
intense on average a martian storm has a
wind of around 60 miles per hour however
since the air is much less dense it
feels more like a light breeze here on
earth so wind knocking over equipment or
structures is not something the
colonists need to worry about too much
that being said there are factors of the
wind storms that will cause significant
problems for the colonists the main
source of power for the humans who will
live on mars will be solar until other
infrastructure can be built the storms
may not have strong winds but they do
kick up a lot of dust and dirt this
means that constant cleaning and
maintenance of solar panels will be
necessary to ensure there's enough
energy to power the colony the debris
kicked up by the storms will also get
into cracks and jam up mechanical
equipment therefore inspection and
maintenance will need to be conducted
routinely this is especially true
because if something breaks getting a
replacement part is not an option
there's nothing that the colonists can
do about the storms on mars other than
being proactive and maintaining their
equipment unfortunately this will be
something the colonists will have to
live with every five and a half years
mars has a global wind storm that
completely envelops the planet in dust
this is on top of the regular wind
storms that blow across the planet daily
a different part of mars's climate poses
an even greater threat to the colonists
than storms the temperature on the red
planet is wildly different than here on
earth since the atmosphere is so thin a
lot of the heat from the sun escapes
back into space meaning that the average
temperature on mars is negative 81
degrees fahrenheit this again poses a
problem that does not yet have a
solution how do the colonists generate
enough heat to keep from freezing the
solar panels can be connected to heaters
and perhaps some form of natural gas can
be used as a heat source but as of right
now there are no plans for how to
indefinitely maintain livable
temperatures within a colony's habitats
and to make things worse the
temperatures on mars can dip as low as
negative 285 degrees fahrenheit which is
enough to freeze a person's skin and
cause frostbite within seconds you might
be wondering if the weather is such a
problem on mars why don't we just change
it by terraforming the planet we've
already changed our own planet through
burning of fossil fuels and overusing
its natural resources how hard can it be
to change the climate of mars turns out
terraforming mars is likely impossible
in theory terraforming is done by
adjusting the atmospheric composition of
a planet by adding more desirable gases
and extracting others unfortunately
recent studies suggest that there aren't
enough of the necessary elements on mars
to make it habitable for humans it is
theoretically possible we could bring
some of the missing ingredients to
terraform mars with us but that just
doesn't seem like a viable option the
amount of water and gas that would be
needed to terraform an entire planet
would be astronomical and here's the
thing if we can't terraform mars is a
mars colony even possible there may be
other solutions but who knows how long
it'll take to implement them perhaps
it'll be possible to pull asteroids into
the orbit of mars and use the materials
within them to help terraform the planet
but the more complicated the mission to
colonize mars gets the longer it's going
to take the more we examine the problems
with living on mars the further away the
dream of building a colony there gets
however the biggest problem of all might
be the unknown there are countless
scenarios we just can't plan for and as
the missions to colonize mars commence
the colonists will have to solve the
problems on the fly these problems could
be things like rogue meteors solar
flares or even alien microbes that have
yet to be discovered there are some
unknowns that we can already predict
will arise but we just don't know how to
deal with them until they happen it's
important to note that it can take
anywhere between 5 to 20 minutes for a
message to go from earth to mars this is
the same about a response so if the two
planets are on opposite sides of their
orbits it might take as long as 40
minutes to send and receive a message
this is not great in an emergency
colonists will need to make decisions on
their own and they won't always have the
expertise or resources of the people on
earth to help them solve their problems
we've said it before and we'll say it
again humans are fragile and things will
go wrong with the bodies of the
colonists if something does happen it's
not necessarily guaranteed that the
colonists will have the medication or
equipment necessary to treat the problem
we know so little about the effects of
prolonged space flight outside of
earth's magnetic field and what the
conditions on mars will do to the human
body that there can be no chance of a
colony until we learn more that's why
exploratory missions will be so vital
for the successful colony on mars and as
we've seen since the last mission to the
moon space exploration has slowly come
to a grinding halt there is some hope
but it's going to be a long time before
even the first manned mission to mars is
launched not only will the bodies of the
colonists be put to the test but any
spacecraft or equipment sent to mars
will be put under enormous strain as
well the vessels will travel through
different gravity fields during earth
liftoff space flight and landing on mars
it's not clear how the equipment and
vessels will react to the multiple
changes in gravity this is just another
piece of the puzzle we need to figure
out before colonizing mars can become a
reality as you can see the problems with
starting a colony on mars seem never
ending that is why it'll be a very long
time before it happens and it's not just
space and mars that are filled with
uncertainty even here on earth crazy
things can happen take the current
pandemic or whatever else the future
might hold for the human species our
issues on earth tend to slow the
progress of space exploration to be fair
there are a lot of things right here at
home we need to fix but it doesn't
necessarily have to be at the expense of
space exploration unfortunately not
everyone sees it that way there are some
scientists who believe that pandemic
could push the timetable for nasa to go
to mars back by 20 to 30 years this
mission would be to fly astronauts into
orbit around the red planet not to
colonize it so you can imagine how much
longer it'll take to reach that
milestone this is especially true
because there are always going to be
problems on earth that need our
resources and attention but something to
keep in mind is that only being a one
planet species is kind of like putting
all our eggs in one basket we are
currently at risk of having our entire
species wiped out by a single
catastrophic event if we were to
colonize mars or other planets the
species itself would have a better
chance of survival but humans don't tend
to think this way and this is especially
true of politicians and people in power
it's rare that they're more concerned
about things far in the future than
what's happening at the moment this is
another huge problem with colonizing
mars it just isn't important to most
people right now when the budget of the
united states space program is discussed
in the chambers of congress it's almost
always on how to cut it further it's
rare that nasa and space exploration are
offered more money and with lack of
resources the time it'll take to send
astronauts to mars and then eventually
colonize the planet it's going to take
longer and longer the answer from
politicians right now is that if nasa
wants to fund a mission to mars they
need to find other programs to cut this
could be why the private companies like
spacex and blue origin might be the
future of space exploration there's been
talk for a while about spacex launching
a mission to mars like nasa and other
space agencies they don't have all the
technology to make this dream a reality
quite yet but they do have the ability
to spend money on the mission as they
see fit and this might be what allows
private enterprises to go to mars before
any government programs do sure there
are a lot of problems with colonizing
mars for one thing we need to actually
send astronauts to explore and gather
information about the planet before we
can ever hope to colonize it and since
these types of missions are still
decades away it's more likely than not
that the red planet will not be
colonized in our lifetime but what are
the current estimates for any missions
to mars nasa is trying their best to
make it to the red planet by the 2030s
however this will not be a mission that
lands on mars but will only orbit the
planet and return home this would
provide valuable data but it would not
address many of the problems mentioned
earlier a more realistic timeline for
the first crude mission to mars is
probably not going to happen until the
2040s and again this will not put humans
down on the planet however if private
space companies feel that the
colonization of mars is worth investing
in they could send a manned mission to
set down on the surface within the next
few decades it's hard to get an
estimated timeline for when it'd be
possible to colonize mars it's
especially true since we don't have the
technology to even attempt a manned
exploratory mission at this time but one
thing is for sure there are a lot of
problems remaining than have already
been solved when it comes to colonizing
mars so if you're hoping to be one of
the first people to live on the red
planet i wouldn't hold your breath now
watch earth versus mars how do they
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