For years, scientists have been exploring the idea of one day inhabiting (Earth’s neighboring planet) Mars. Throughout the history of our world, humanity has faced many challenges. From natural disasters, over population, and economic issues to destruction caused by humans. To some Mars could be the answers to our problems.
Aside from Earth, Mars is the most studied planet. Since 2004 two robot rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) have been patrolling the surface of Mars. To this day, these rovers are sending communications back to Earth. There have been many different conspiracies of life already existing on Mars. Ideas of using the reddish-brown planet as a back up place to go (in case the apocalypse happens). There are currently 8 active missions on Mars that have potential to answer some of the questions that have been lingering in the thoughts of many people. Eventually humans will have to find somewhere else to live, so why not look to the planet right next door?
There are many reasons leading people to think that human life on mars is possible. The human body is capable of adapting to the temperature and the gravity of Mars. Enough sunlight reaches the surface for humans to use solar energy as resources and there is still a thin atmosphere that offers protection from radiation from the sun. There is also water in the ground that is frozen and could be extracted for human use.
Recent space imagery was received by NASA on Sept. 28, 2015 from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The imagery showed that there are downward slopes (on the surface of mars) that was formed by contemporary moving water. There have been other signs of water on Mars before, but this time the conditions could possibly be thought of as more habitable. Even though the water on Mars would have to be pretty salty (to keep it from completely freezing on the cold and desert planet), this is still some helpful evidence towards hypothesis’ that were built on colonizing the planet.
This however, is just another stepping stone in the mission to Mars (for there are so many variables that need to be factored in) and correlation does not equal causation. As of now, there isn’t a way of actually being able to tell if Mars can support human life. With so many elements making it difficult for scientists to study Mars it could be years before we find another piece of evidence but there are many ongoing projects continuously trying to fulfill the questions we have.
News like this gets me excited for science; recently NASA NASA has laid out plans to reach an asteroid near Mars and Mars by 2025 and 2030 respectfully. This is science at work and like our grandparents before us could be a defining moment in our history if we see this feat (hopefully well within our lifetime) just a decade or so away.
I’m very interested in this topic because I have often thought of overpopulation, wondering just how soon a problem like that would need to be addressed. Anyways, it would be extremely helpful if Mars would be able to support human life although several things need to change before that happens. I found a YouTube video on terraforming, or the process of altering a different planetary surface so that it can become inhabitable for ourselves. Mars has several issues like it extremely cold temperatures that currently make it uninhabitable for humans, but this video offers some interesting ideas on how we could alter Mars to make it live-able.
Interesting post! This immediately caught my eye as I have been researching climate change as of recently. Personally, I believe that we should be investing into our present rather than future expenditures, We need to do something about our energy consumption before looking for another home. Although, I guess our technological advancements place us at odds with ourselves. I think Mars could be a realist place to live. With a presence of a water source, there could most likely be other forms of life on Mars. I’m not really sure if this poses an issue or not… Whatever it may be, we should look more into the situation before sending Astronauts up in there.
This topic and your blog is completely amazing and extremely interesting. I have always thought about the possibility of life in another planets. Obviously there are myriads of movies, documentaries etc about life on other planets but I recently found this theory that might mathematically explain the probability of life on another planet. This is called the Drake equation created by Dr. Frank Drake that tries to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. Here is a little video explaining it with more details. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AnLznzIjSE