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What Does Mars Mean for Us?

By crooky | May 26, 2008

The recent (and happy) announcement of the successful Mars Phoenix Lander mission last night should give anyone who has dreamt of manned colonization of Mars a reason to think. We’re learning more and more all the time about our second-closest solar neighbour and this time around, we’re looking for water. Scientists have hypothesized that there is water ice (and yes, there are other kinds of ice, that’s why I specified) just inches below the surface. Knowing more about this ice will tell us lots of things about Mars but will also help us determine if a colony on Mars is at all feasible.

Don’t misinterpret what I’m saying - NASA is not planning on setting up a colony on Mars. What’s I’m saying is that they data they’re going to gather over the next three months will give us some of the information we (”we” meaning “dreamers”) need to go through the thought exercise about colonizing Mars.

Here’s why Mars is an interesting choice for colonization:

1. Their day is about the same length as ours and they have a similar axial tilt which means they have a summer and a winter season - like Earth.

2. All of the basic elements needed to support life are there, they just need tweaking (aka Terraforming)

3. There’s about the same amount of land currently available on Mars as we have here on Earth.

4. There is an atmosphere on Mars, it’s just much thinner than ours.

Here are some of the drawbacks that might not make colonizing Mars feasible:

1. Terraforming is a very long-term project and we’re not 100% sure it can be done at all.

2. Because of the internal structure of Mars (lack of a Nickle-Iron core), Mars has a very weak global geomagnetic field. This means that a lot more radiation reaches the surface of Mars than Earth. Google “Madame Curie” if you’re not sure why this is a bad thing. NASA estimates that three years of living on Mars would exceed allowable limits.

3. The odd orbit of Mars will result in greater seasonal temperature fluctuation.

4. The soil on Mars would not currently permit growing crops. Colonists would need to truck in fertilizer or chemicals from Earth until the ecosystem had adequate soil nutrients to support agriculture.

5. The gravity on Mars is only 1/3rd of Earths and we just don’t know enough to know if humans can live in low gravity permanently (or long term).

Beyond these concerns is the question of why go there in the first place? Granted, we seem to be using up our resources here on Earth quite rapidly but do we need a global escape plan? Humans are really, really good at reproducing. It is likely that every new planet we colonize would fill up quickly. Would terraforming another planet for us to live on every help our problems here on Earth? I doubt it.

It would always be too expensive to ferry individual people to Mars so the population of that planet will have to grow from a relatively modest group of colonists. That leaves 99% of us slobs back here on Earth, breathing our own pollution and generally fucking things up. I guess what I’m saying is that I’m excited about Mars exploration but I don’t think it’s going to make life on Earth any better. Those are problems we need to solve on our own.

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for ten years.

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