Can Mars be Our Next Home?

 

Introduction

In the year 1610, on an astronomical day, Galileo Galilei’s curiosity was being fed by his scrupulous telescope. He had discovered a planet. Red, as it appeared but at a distance of 54.6 million kilometers from earth, was Mars. Famously known as the red planet, Mars is the 4th planet in our solar system and is the second smallest planet overall. It is said to have two moons namely called Phobos and Deimos, both moons were discovered by an American astronomer Asaph Hall in the year 1877. According to Greek mythology, Mars was the god of war and an agricultural guardian, and in various cultures, it is considered to represent masculinity and youth. 

It is said that in 2003 mars came so close to earth that it was visible to the naked eye and it is such a rare event that occurs once or twice every 60,000 years. Every 15 to 17 years Mars comes close to the earth and can be viewed by a telescope for a great view.  Scientists believe that life on mars is possible, from the past two centuries few scientists believed that they had sighted straight canals which meant the possibility of civilization but were proven wrong as it was mistaken for some geological evidence.

In the year 2003, NASA launched two rovers on Mars for research purposes, the rovers found evidence of the presence of water on the planet. A few years later more rangers were sent on mars which confirmed the presence of water.

Due to meteor showers, many martian rocks have fallen on the earth's surface allowing the scientists to study the planet better without leaving earth. One specific rock called ALH84001 was found to be containing a tiny piece of fossil in it, proving life on mars, but other researchers are dubious about it and the debate is still ongoing.

 

 NASA’s Mars rover named Curiosity

 Here are some amazing facts about Mars

●       Due to its distance from the sun, one year on Mars is 687 days and a day on the planet is 24 hours and 40 minutes long. Both earth and mars have the same day length but Mars takes 24 hours and 40 minutes to rotate around its axis in comparison to our home planet which takes 24 hours.

●       NASA says that Mars' atmosphere contains 95.32% of carbon dioxide, 2.7% of nitrogen, 1.6% of argon, 0.13% oxygen, carbon monoxide and some other chemicals.

●       Mars is said to have lost its global magnetic field about four billion years ago, yet some regions on the planet are 10 times stronger than anything on earth.

●       Mars has a mountain named Olympus Mons which is three times as tall as Mount Everest.

 

 

PROS and CONS of going to Mars

PRO

To our closest global neighbors, Mars is the best way to colonize. Venus and Mercury are found to be very hot and the Moon lacks an atmosphere which means people can tolerate the deadly bombings from the meteors. It's not fun!

History has proven that life on Earth is not guaranteed. We could look at the extinction of dinosaurs to understand that to secure human progress, we must become a ‘multi-planet species.

●       People on Mars can find objects much faster than robots. One of the key findings will be used to determine whether life exists on Mars or not. Further exploration of rocks, soil, and key features of Mars may help us to learn more about the lifestyle of the red planet and more insight into our planet.

●       People who live on Mars for a long time will have to make a living and look for special human settlements, grow their food, use solar energy and establish reliable water sources, just to get started. Developing these types of systems on Mars will translate into better technology here on Earth. New technologies, especially for ways of conserving water and maintaining efficient solar energy, are attainable.

●       The people who will live on Mars, without a doubt, will have robots and rovers that will help them in their search for a haven on this planet. Advances in robots and automatic navigation will be very complex and skewed in our daily lives here on Earth. To name just a few, we can see significant improvements in sensory energy in self-driving cars, perhaps nanobots working within our bodies, future medical techniques, and major advances in all forms of communication.

 

CONS

Mars is 54.6 million miles away and even though a spacecraft can travel more than 20,000 km / h, it will still take around eight or nine months, depending on where Earth and Mars are located to get there. Comparing this with a flight to the Moon will take only about three days.

●       It does not mean that it is perilous to send people to Mars. There are many things that might go wrong. People may freeze to death, starve, lose oxygen or be exposed to dangerous radiation, not to forget the catastrophic global storms which hit Mars for weeks together. Then there are possible mechanical failures of the rockets during the flight, crash crash, holes in the oxygen tanks, the list goes on!

●       It is an expensive job! The estimated cost of sending people to Mars is around $ 500 million. Although some analysts believe it could be more!

●       The connection between Earth and Mars can be very ‘long-winded’ negotiations, as the delay is between 7 and 24 minutes, depending on Earth's position in relation to Mars.

 

Conclusion

Mars is a place to explore because it is close to our Solar System, but there are many more reasons to explore the Red Planet. The scientific reasons for going to Mars can be summed up in a quest for life, understanding the surface and evolution of the planet, and preparing for future human exploration.