Humans living on Mars? Pushing the boundaries of human knowledge and exploration

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

It seems like everyone has Mars on their mind these days; there was a point in time when if we spoke about Mars, there was talk about “When Martians Attack,” and we would default to thoughts of a science fiction movie. Now, real questions are being asked about the possibility of humans living on Mars.

Is it possible?

The answer is yes—but not easily. There are many challenging obstacles in the way: getting to and from Mars, surviving the harsh environment, and producing food, water, and fuel.

In recent years, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has spoken and written about wanting to have a city of a million people on Mars by 2050. That may sound astronomically ambitious considering humans have never set foot on the Martian surface. This of course leads to more questions: how long would it take for humans to colonize another planet, and could it ever be possible for people to colonize worlds outside the solar system?

Elon Musk published a plan, which he unveiled at a conference in Mexico (September 2016), in the journal “New Space.” In Musk’s commentary, titled “Making Humanity a Multi-Planetary Species” he wrote about his vision of having 1,000 or more ITS spaceships, each carrying 100 or more people. The idea would be to get one million people to Mars within the next 50 to 100 years.

Serkan Saydam (Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research, and a Professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney), shared his thoughts with Live Science, “I believe by 2050 we will have a human colony on Mars.”

Saydam is a mining engineer who specializes in researching future mining.  According to Saydam, the first major step in establishing a successful Mars colony will be water, and that can be extracted from ice and/or hydrated minerals. He thinks water will then facilitate agriculture and then there will be the ability to grow food. Hydrogen from the ice and minerals could be used as an energy source for rocket propellant.

As usual, China seems to be at the helm of technology and has reported that they plan to start sending human crews to Mars in 2033. NASA aims to send astronauts there by the late 2030s or early 2040s. Once humans get there, the next step could be to build a colony.

Scientists have discovered that there are more hospitable new homes to be found on planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets. The problem with exoplanets is that they are very, very far away. We haven’t even sent a spacecraft to an exoplanet, and the only probes to leave our solar system were Voyager 1 and 2, which took 35 years, and 41 years respectively, to go interstellar. Exoplanets are much farther away.

Why, you might be asking, why are humans interested in colonizing planets?

Well, there are a few reasons: there are those who think that it is an essential step towards ensuring the survival of our species in case of a catastrophic event on Earth, such as a massive asteroid impact or a super volcanic eruption. For scientists and researchers, exploring and colonizing other planets can expand our knowledge of the universe and potentially unlock new technologies and resources. For example, studying the atmosphere of Mars may help us better understand the history of our own planet and potentially provide insight into how to mitigate climate change.

Finally, there may be economic benefits to colonizing other planets, such as mining for rare metals and minerals or establishing new markets for goods and services.

The idea of exploring and inhabiting other worlds has long been a fascination of human culture, and many people see it as an exciting and noble endeavor to push the boundaries of human knowledge and exploration.