-Raiyat Haque
Could the next generation be the first Martians? For a long time scientists had their eyes on our neighboring planet Mars, the only planet in the habitable zone. SpaceX and NASA have tried to come up with strategies to colonize Mars and look for ways to sustain life over there but the question, is it possible? Should mankind abandon Earth and go to Mars? Or should we try to preserve our planet and whatever we have now?
Even if sometime in the future we go to Mars, there are some challenges to tackle for sustaining life. One of the prime factors of life is oxygen and unfortunately there isn't much on Mars. But, the atmosphere over there contains 95% Carbon dioxide and we CAN extract oxygen from there using a machine built by NASA which is known as Moxie. Then comes the next factor which is, food. There's no fertile soil on Mars's surface so we can't cultivate. So we'll have to use a hydroponic for cultivation of crops in a mineral & nutrient solution, hence no soil is needed for that. But the setback is that is we won't able to produce enough for all and have to import food from Earth.
Secondly, we are more likely to go underground for living as there's no global geomagnetic field on Mars. We can live on the surface in inflatable pressurized buildings, but then we'll have to wear spacesuits mostly to block radiation because the atmosphere over there is very thin, so the radiation emitted by the Sun is 2.5 times more than at International Space Station and that's too much for human body to endure. Moreover, temperature in Mars can go down to -153°C and the gravity over there is 1/3 that of earth, so probably we'll have to learn how to walk over there. Plus, there are some calamities such as powerful dust storms which are capable of clogging our devices. Interestingly, a day on Mars is 40 minutes longer than in Earth. So we get extra 40 minutes in spend!
Overall, it might seem impossible to sustain life over there but who knows in the long run we might be able to turn the tables, and make it possible!
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