A little under a year ago, I went to the movies with my Dad to see the highly anticipated movie called The Martian. If you do not know, The Martian follows Matt Damon as he becomes stranded on the planet and must survive until NASA figures out a way to rescue him. I will not ruin the ending in case someone plans on watching but it is a great movie that I highly recommend watching. The movie did prove that it is possible for a single human… but is it possible for us to colonize Mars? What future plans do we have for Mars? In my personal opinion, I think it would be incredibly difficult to get a large population there, much less set up show and call it our new home, and I am going to tell you why.
First we must talk about the time it takes to travel to Mars.Going to or from Mars takes approximately eight months. With the current technology, the travel time will stay eight months until a new discovery in space travel happens. Another challenge humans face is creating a rocket or vessel large enough to fit multiple people into, instead of small six person manned missions. Getting to Mars is very hard with current technology. The conditions on Mars are rough to stay the least Mars’ atmosphere is deadly. According to Cool Cosmos, Mars’ atmosphere is approximately “100 times thinner than Earth’s.” In the movie The Martian, every time Matt Damon walked outside, he had to wear a special suit with his own supply of oxygen. On top of the air, the weather conditions are also unfriendly. According to Tim Sharp, a write for Space.com, the average temperature is minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit and could drop all the way down to minus 195 degrees Fahrenheit. Not only is the temperature difficult to deal with, there are also multiple types of dust tornadoes that happen periodically that can be harmful to standing objects. Another aspect that must be talked about with colonizing Mars is the logistics that come with our everyday life. Think about all the different types of tools or “things” that you use in a day. Toothbrush, shoes, different types of technology ,etc. Now multiply all of those things by thousands and thousands of people. It is already incredibly difficult to just travel to Mars, now imagine all of the supplies we would need to sustain everyday life!
Obviously, there are firm believers that think it is very possible to take a large population to Mars and live normal lives there. One person that is a strong advocator for the colonization of Mars is famous inventor and scientist Elon Musk. Musk is the creator of multiple companies, but most notably Tesla and SpaceX. Musk is extremely ambitious and almost obsessed with Mars. According to Robin Seemangal, writer for Observor.com, SpaceX, Musk’s company, plans on sending its Dragon V2 rocket to Mars in 2018. Right now, Musk is focusing on reusable rocket booster engines, but he plans to soon reveal his plan on building a city on Mars.He plans to have people traveling to Mars by 2024. Here is ten facts about Musk’s SpaceX that you might want to learn more about.
Sources
http://observer.com/2016/06/elon-musk-charts-path-to-colonizing-mars-within-a-decade/
http://www.universetoday.com/111462/how-can-we-live-on-mars/
This is a great article to read! I really like the movie Martian, and I thought it was really interesting to watch how Matt Damon was able to adjust his habits and overall lifestyle in order to survive on Mars. You bring up a great point, and it would be interesting to see if humans actually can colonize Mars. I think that would be awesome if humans had another planet to live on, although I’m not sure if I would be volunteering to take the first spaceship out there! Here’s a cool article on what NASA has to say about colonizing Mars: Check it out!
I find it interesting that people advocate for the colonization of Mars. To me, it seems way to early for us to successfully colonize another plantet. Sure maybe we could put a few people on Mars, but the costs would be astronomical and the possible failure rate would be very high. I think it’s good that you mentioned Elon Musk, because he is a major player in SpaceX and other technological advancements currently going on. I think it’s crazy how Elon Musk and SpaceX conducted the first non-governmental space launch in history. I’m going to be honest, I think Musk has a really neat idea, but I really do not see city-building on Mars to be practical any time soon. This post really made me think deeply about space travel and potential colonization. I do think it is important to note that SpaceX had a terrible time launching one their rockets just the other day. Their $60 million rocket blew up, along with a $200 million satelite that it was carrying. So like I said, it might not be as easy to hit the 2018 and 2024 deadlines as one might think.
I find it interesting that people advocate for the colonization of Mars. To me, it seems way to early for us to successfully colonize another plantet. Sure maybe we could put a few people on Mars, but the costs would be astronomical and the possible failure rate would be very high. I think it’s good that you mentioned Elon Musk, because he is a major player in SpaceX and other technological advancements currently going on. I think it’s crazy how Elon Musk and SpaceX conducted the first non-governmental space launch in history. I’m going to be honest, I think Musk has a really neat idea, but I really do not see city-building on Mars to be practical any time soon. This post really made me think deeply about space travel and potential colonization. I do think it is important to note that SpaceX had a terrible time launching one their rockets just the other day. Their $60 million rocket blew up, along with a $200 million satelite that it was carrying. So like I said, it might not be as easy to hit the 2018 and 2024 deadlines as one might think.
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/28594/20160913/musk-spacex-rocket-explosion-most-difficult-complex-failure-ever.htm