Perseverance. A word that is particularly important considering the present situation. It also happens to be the name of the rover that is planned to be sent to Mars on 17th July 2020. So, during a time when so much is going wrong on Earth, many look to Mars for some sense of hope. But how can we live on Mars and will it be in any of our lifetimes?
Many are hopeful that one day humans will be able to colonise Mars. However, before then we still need to send trained astronauts to Mars. These missions hold a lot of importance for the future of living on Mars. “The scientific importance of human exploration is really to investigate the geology of Mars, and to try and understand its history,” says Dr Jonathan Eastwood, senior lecturer in physics at Imperial College, London. Even though we have the technology to send rovers to Mars, the next step is to send people. But, at the moment, going to Mars is a one-way trip. “One day, yes, I think it will be possible [to return from Mars]. But whether it will be in my lifetime, I don’t know! On the one hand it’s very risky, but on the other it would also be incredibly expensive, requiring a decades-long programme to achieve it,” says Dr Eastwood. This means that before many people can go to Mars, we need to send a few well-trained astronauts first. Some may think that going to Mars is a wonderful opportunity that would be impossible to pass up, however the prospect of never being able to return home and dying on an alien planet puts off many as well.
But how will it even be possible to live on Mars? Mars, as inhospitable as it is, is the best candidate for colonisation. This is because it is the closest planet to Earth and has the most habitable environment. A main challenge for the first people settling Mars will be the frequent dust storms and the radioactive environment. These problems are being addressed by designers, who have created many ideas for pod-like homes that can be constructed on Mars. One particularly popular idea is to 3D print these homes. Last month I went to the Moving to Mars exhibition at the Design Museum where I went inside an example of what one of these 3D printed homes might look like. This showed that all the furniture and the house itself would be 3D printed out of the same material. Even the parachute used to land the landing module will be made into clothes.
The big problem is resources. At the moment, the heaviest cargo taken into space was 141,136kg, which seems like a lot except that this was only taken to Earth’s orbit and the amount of things needed by astronauts on Mars will be a lot more than that. This has meant that people have had to come up with solutions to this. Settlers are planning to grow their own food on Mars as it will be necessary for them to be partially self-sufficient. For them to be self-sufficient they will also need to be able to use the materials they have around them. Scientists at NASA are already trying to come up with a way to bind together the dusty rock, regolith, found on Mars’ surface. However, at present, we have not been able to bring back any rocks from Mars. “Right now scientists and engineers are planning to do this with robots – the Mars Sample Return mission which would see a series of rovers and orbiters returning samples of Mars’ soil and rock back to Earth,” says Dr Eastwood.
There is one last problem with going to Mars. It’s very expensive. This has caused many to worry that travelling to Mars will only be for the super-rich. Elon Musk wants to go and live on Mars in his own lifetime, and many others also share his passion for going to the red planet. Should space just be for the rich? The simple answer is no, of course not. Space tourism will continue to be very expensive, but it does not seem likely that going to Mars will become commercial in their lifetimes. Mars will be difficult to settle, there are problems present that you cannot simply buy your way out of, you need to be resourceful. Colonising Mars is the next step forward for space exploration. That is why it’s so important to the scientific community.
By Jamie Reger
