We know Mars is the nearest neighbor capable of supporting human life, humans have been
attempting to reach Mars for decades and there are plans to begin living on Mars within the
next decade.
So, is life on Mars possible?
Will humans ever reach mars?
If so, how will be the first year on mars?
There will be many aspects to consider before making such a large decision like moving to
the Red Planet and let’s find out how is this going to happen.
To accomplish the colonization of Mars, the greatest issue (or limitation) is the weight
of the payload (spacecraft, personnel, fuel, supplies, and so on) that must be transported.
We still believe that sending something into space is equivalent to launching a gold bar.
The payload mass is typically a modest fraction of the launch vehicle’s overall mass.
The Saturn V rocket that took Apollo 11 to the Moon, for example, weighed 3,000 tonnes.
However, it could only launch 140 tonnes to low Earth orbit (5 percent of its initial
launch mass) and 50 tonnes to the Moon (less than 2% of its initial launch mass).
The size and capabilities of a Mars spacecraft are limited by its mass.
Every maneuver necessitates the use of fuel to power rocket motors.
Fuel is required to fire rocket motors in every move, and this fuel must now be transported
into orbit aboard the spaceship.
According to SpaceX’s plans, the crewed Starship spacecraft will be refueled in orbit
by a separately launched fuel tanker.
This implies that far more fuel may be transported into orbit than on a single launch.
Another issue, which is deeply intertwined with fuel, is time.
Missions to the outer planets that send unmanned spacecraft travel complex paths around the
Sun.
They slingshot around several planets using what are known as gravity assist techniques
to gather enough momentum to reach their destination.
This saves a lot of fuel, but it can also lead to missions taking years to complete.
This is not something people would want to accomplish.
The Hohmann transfer is the most fuel-efficient route to travel between Earth and Mars because
both planets have (almost) circular orbits.
Without getting into too much detail, this is the process by which a spacecraft performs
a single burn into an elliptical transfer orbit from one planet to the other.
A Hohmann transfer between Earth and Mars takes around 259 days (between eight and nine
months) and is only achievable every two years because of the different orbits of Earth and
Mars around the Sun.
A spaceship may reach Mars in less time (SpaceX claims six months), but it would require more
fuel.
Assume our spaceship and crew arrive on Mars.
The next obstacle is landing.
A spacecraft approaching Earth can use the drag produced by contact with the atmosphere
to slow down.
This enables the vessel to safely land on the Earth’s surface (provided it can survive
the related heating).
However, Mars’ atmosphere is roughly 100 times thinner than Earth’s.
Because there is less possibility for drag, landing successfully without some type of
assistance is impossible.
Some spacecraft utilized airbags to land (such as NASA’s Pathfinder mission), while others
used thrusters (such as NASA’s Phoenix mission).
The latter, once again, requires more fuel.
It would be more expensive in terms of gasoline to accomplish it that way.
Since the 19th century, when American astronomer Percival Lowell suggested that the channels
on Mars were ancient canals created by intelligent extraterrestrials, the concept of living on
Mars has been a classic of science fiction.
NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft performed the first Martian flyby in 1965, while the Soviet
Union’s Mars 3 lander became the first spacecraft to land softly on Mars six years later.
There have been several successful trips to Mars since then, including the deployment
of four Mars rovers — the now-defunct Sojourner and Spirit, as well as the still-operational
Opportunity and Curiosity — and NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which created a map
of the whole planet.
NASA is currently preparing a human expedition to Mars for the 2030s.
It’s unclear where people would land on Mars for that mission, but for a future Martian
space colony, “you’d want a permanent base someplace in the low northern latitudes,”
according to Ashwin Vasavada, a deputy project scientist for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory.
Mars, like Earth, has seasons because of its tilt on its axis, but it also has a second
periodic influence due to its very elliptical orbit.
When the globe is furthest from the sun, the southern hemisphere is oriented away from
it, resulting in far colder winters (and far hotter summers) than those in the northern
hemisphere.
If you lived in the northern hemisphere, you’d get around seven months of spring, six months
of summer, a little more than five months of fall, and just about four months of winter.
A year on Mars is approximately 1.88 Earth years, and a day is somewhat longer than 24
hours.
The average temperature on Mars is minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius.
However, temperatures can range from minus 195 F (minus 126 C) in winter near the poles
to 68 F (20 C) in summer in the equator.
Temperatures might also fluctuate substantially within a given week.
Mars is around half the size of Earth in diameter and has a significantly thinner atmosphere,
with less than 1% of Earth’s atmospheric capacity.
The makeup of the atmospheres is also drastically different: Mars is largely carbon dioxide-based,
whereas Earth’s is rich in nitrogen and oxygen.
Mars’ atmosphere has changed over time: evidence on the surface suggests that it was
previously warmer and wetter.
Living species on Earth are responsible for a large portion of the planet’s methane
emissions.
It is also the major component of naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas reserves, with volcanic
and hydrothermal activities also contributing.
Because of the important role that natural life plays in the generation of methane on
Earth, the presence of methane on Mars has been confirmed.
It’s remarkable how little the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse
gases has to change to make such a difference in our climate.
We have increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere by a fraction of a percent since the 1950s,
yet this is already producing major changes in our climate.
This is because CO2 makes up such a little portion of the Earth’s atmosphere.
It is measured in parts per million (ppm), which indicates that there are a million additional
molecules for every carbon dioxide molecule.
It has a concentration of only 0.041 percent, yet even a little percentage change results
in a significant change in concentration.
Mars is a terrible place for human settlement.
Various technologies have been invented to help long-term space travel and may be used
for Mars colonization.
The longest straight space mission is 438 days held by cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, while
the greatest time spent in space is 878 days held by Gennady Padalka.
For the Apollo 17 lunar landing, the longest period spent beyond the protection of the
Earth’s Van Allen radiation band was around 12 days.
This is tiny in comparison to NASA’s proposed 1100-day mission to Mars and returns, which
might take place as early as 2028.
Scientists have also speculated that the environment of Mars settlements might hurt a variety of
biological processes in humans.
There are a variety of bodily side-effects that must be reduced as a result of increasing
levels of radiation.
Furthermore, Martian soil has large quantities of pollutants that are harmful to human health.
Gravity differences may hurt human health by weakening bones and muscles.
There is also the possibility of fractures and cardiac issues.
Current rotations on the International Space Station keep humans in zero gravity for six
months, which is similar to a one-way journey to Mars.
This enables researchers to have a better understanding of the physical state in which
astronauts on a mission to Mars would arrive.
The surface gravity on Mars is just 38% of that on Earth.
Another big issue that we will need to address is communication.
During the half-sole, when Earth is over the Martian horizon, communication with Earth
is rather simple.
Mars already has communications satellites thanks to NASA and ESA including communications
relay technology in many of Mars’s orbiters.
While they will ultimately wear out, further orbiters with communication relay capabilities
will probably be launched before any colonization trips are attempted.
So, all the above-stated factors lead to the conclusion that Mars travel might be possible
but will be dangerous.
Humans have a lot to research before we ever make it to the Martian planet.
But one thing to keep in mind is that humans need to become interplanetary species.
This is because soon we will run out of space for our population.
But, we will have to wait and see if we can make it to mars.
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