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This week Inkl conducts a quick round-up of recent news about Plan B for our planet. While the world continues to coalesce towards actions to address climate change, there are some who believe it is already too late. The pessimists amongst us contend that our best hope now lies not on Earth but on Mars. With this in mind, we review some recent news stories about how and when we might be able to get to Mars….It seems poetic that in this, the year of David Bowie’s passing, Life on Mars is being discussed as a viable objective for the future of the human race.
Climate change is now recognised by a vast number of individuals, institutions and governments, as being the biggest international threat to humanity. In recent weeks this threat has been underscored by new and disturbing news - 2015 was officially the hottest year on record, sea levels continue to rise, more erratic weather is expected, future food and water shortages loom, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are at record highs.
In the meantime, our global population (which currently stands at 7.4 billion) is set to rise to 9.6 billion by 2050. This fact alone forces us to consider a depressing possibility - that maybe the climate change crisis cannot be overcome.
The phenomenon of global warming posits numerous questions, most of which we struggle to answer. So perhaps it is not surprising that some among us are now starting to prepare for the worst, and looking for a way to escape our potentially doomed planet.
But is life on Mars really an attainable goal? NASA certainly thinks so, as they hope to have humans on the red planet by mid-2030s, which is only 20 years down the track. However, to most of us, it still feels like science fiction. And so it should, because there remain a number of critical obstacles to overcome - the lack of gravity, low oxygen levels and absence of rain, to name but a few. So what can be done about these issues and how much longer till we’re finally ready to buy a one-way ticket to Mars?
Firstly, there are glaring issues about how we’re going to physically transport ourselves to Mars. Outer space travel for the masses would not only be physically cumbersome, but also cost millions. Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are attempting to overcome the economic burden of transporting humans to space, and are leading the arms race in terms of lowering the cost of space travel. Both companies’ rockets employ a partially-reusable launch system, and SpaceX hopes to reduce the cost of space travel from $184 million to $39 million. Similarly, Blue Origin’s vision is to ‘dramatically reduce the cost of space flight’. With individual entrepreneurs such as those behind SpaceX and Blue Origin, physical transportation to Mars is becoming less of a hindering factor to life on the red planet.
Secondly, the issue is where to live on Mars. NASA has recently announced that a future SpaceX rocket will carry a test living space into Mars and obtain data about living there. Further, Europe and Russia launched a joint mission in March, called the ExoMars probe, which will attempt to find evidence of life on Mars. It is looking for signs of the gas, methane, which biological organisms produce as waste. Previous missions have detected small whiffs of methane, and if the ExoMars is able to find a substantial amount, the results could be life changing. Scientists can trace where other organisms have inhabited the red planet and potentially humans can follow suit.
Next, humans need to find some way to forage food to sustain themselves on Mars. Scientists in the Netherlands have successfully cultivated vegetables with simulated Martian soil (just like in the movie The Martian!). The growth of these vegetables matches the growth of regular vegetables grown in normal compost, suggesting that farming on Mars is a real possibility.
But even with food, transport, and a place to live, we face critical questions about what impact long periods of space travel might have on the human body. American astronaut Scott Kelly recently returned from a year-long trip to the International Space Station which was meant to be a trial for life on Mars. He returned 3.8 centimetres (1.5 inches) taller, with extremely sensitive skin, muscle soreness and loss of bone density. Now, armed with this new knowledge from his trip, scientists are researching various ways in which these long-term effects of weightlessness can be counteracted.
- Scott Kelly spent a year at the International Space Station.
Scientists are also inventing new, self-sustaining ways of adapting to life on Mars. On April 8, a rocket will carry four strands of fungus into space. Scientists hope that the extreme environment in the solar system can help develop new medicines for humans, both in space and also on Earth. The fungus which will be taken into space is known to produce drugs that can counteract osteoporosis symptoms. This is extremely important for space travel due to the high chance of bone loss.
There are other issues that are yet to be resolved. Every 26 months, Mars hides directly behind the sun, an event called the Mars Solar Conjunction. This causes loss of communication between Earth and the red planet, and was experienced by NASA in 2015 where they lost communication with their rovers for 15 days. Whilst this is okay for the spacecraft, it would be somewhat terrifying for humans to lose contact with Earth for that length time. Research would still need to be conducted in this field to prepare for the event.
Although challenges remain, much of what previously was considered just a scientific fantasy has now been broken down into a series of actionable steps. In 2015, NASA released a report titled ‘Nasa’s Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration’. The report contained a detailed 3-step plan for putting humans on Mars. The plan focuses on the physiological and psychological aspects of living in space, living on Mars and creating deep-space habitats, and finally, creating long-term colonies on the planet.
This report, coupled with other missions, provides evidence that real progress is being made towards living on Mars. Although the cost of researching and implementing these plans will be very expensive, it is not only NASA working towards making the planet a viable option for humans. China also plans to launch a Mars probe in 2020, and India is eager to partner with the US for future space exploration missions. With the will and the investment of the world’s biggest countries, perhaps this goal could be achievable after all.
NASA Chief scientist Ellen Stofan argues that sending humans to Mars would not only provide an alternative ending to our climate change crisis, but also expand scientific developments and technologies on Earth in ways that were previously unimaginable.
It’s clear that there are still big questions which remain unanswered in our quest to settle on Mars. Even if we do get there, and we are able to solve the technological and scientific challenges of building a sustainable presence on the planet, one question still remains - do we have the brave souls who will need to make that first trip for all mankind? This time (in the words of NASA) ‘unlike Apollo, we will be going to stay’.
