Re: Could humans really survive on Mars?

Date: Fri Apr 27 16:54:16 2001
Posted By: Nicolle Zellner, Grad student, Studies of the Origin of Life/Astrobiology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Area of science: Earth Sciences
ID: 988157556.Es

Message:

Could humans _really_ survive on Mars? Good question. My answer is that, yes, one day technology will allow us to terraform regions of Mars to make them more Earth-like and suitable for human habitation. Technology will also make it possible for us to grow food on Mars, make oxygen, and move around outside.

What would we have to change? Well, first of all, we'd have to figure out some way of making the atmosphere suitable for sustaining life. It's unlikely that we could globally change its composition, but we might be able to change certain areas by enclosing living space in a rounded or tent-like dome. Plants would be able to use Mars' natural CO2 atmosphere to produde oxygen and we would then be able to breathe.

Mars' lower gravitational field is a problem when we consider moving around on the surface. On Earth, gravity in equals pressure out and so our fluids (blood, water) stay in our bodies. On Mars, the lower gravitational field would mean that our fluids would burst out of our skin unless we did something to equalize the opposing pressures. We would therefore need to protect ourselves with some sort of pressure suit.

The average temperature on Mars is about 218 K (-55 C, -67 F), and Martian surface temperatures range widely from as little as 140 K (-133 C, -207 F) at the winter pole to almost 300 K (27 C, 80 F) on the day side during summer. But we live in Antartica, and we live there for extended periods of time. On a recent news show I heard that the temperature there just a few days ago was -90 F, so it is possible to live for long periods of time in cold temperatures. Where I live, 80 F is a beautiful day!

When will all this happen? Recent on-line news articles report that the Russians have plans to land humans on Mars by as early as 2020. See

http://www.the times.co.uk/article/0,,3-117832,00.html

for more information on that. Recent NASA budget overruns and escalating costs of the International Space Station will probably affect the United States' goals of putting humans on the moon - probably not before 2050, but who knows?

Members of the Mars Society, a group of people dedicated to settling Mars, are living in a remote area of Alaska and experimenting with ways (ideas, materials, and experiments) that would allow humans to survive on Mars. They are also planning on building a similar environment in the desert. See http://www.marssociety.org/ for more information about this group and their projects.

People like to explore - it may even be in our genes to go where no one has gone before. Technology is advancing more and more rapidly and it really is just a matter of time before we leave Earth to settle other planets. Our first stop will probably be Mars.

For more about Mars, check out: http:/ /seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/mars.html

For more about growing food in space, check out: http://spaces cience.com/headlines/y2001/ast09apr_1.htm

Information about building homes on Mars can be found at:
http://space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/nano_mars_010423.html

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