A NEW BEGINNING ON MARS – THRILLING OR TERRIFYING?

This world’s a treasure, but it’s been telling us to leave for a while now”

The above saying from the movie Interstellar has become a reality. Calamities in the year 2020 such as the Australian Bushfire, Hurricane, Flash Floods, and the Covid-19 Pandemic perhaps are the signs that the Earth is trying to provide saying it is time for us to explore and live beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Where will we go after leaving Earth? Which place can support life other than the blue planet? Space is a boundless 3D domain that has caught the eyes of humans for a very long time.  There are two trillion galaxies in the observable universe and (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) planets and counting found orbiting the stars in the cosmos.

Is it possible for the earthlings to visit another galaxy? It’s not feasible to visit the foreign star system and is not necessary to do so because our solar system itself provides us with another home that is at a distance of 164.43 million km away from earth. Any guesses about the planet? It is none other than the red rock, Mars.Why is it possible to live only on Mars and not on any other sibling of the Earth? What makes Mars exceptional that we can call it our second abode? Certain life-supporting elements make Mars a suitable planet for living like water, oxygen, sunlight. The soil on the red planet is believed to contain a humungous amount of water in the form of ice at the polar caps that can be extracted with advanced technologies. We know that oxygen is a life-supporting gas and the atmosphere of Mars consists of 96% of carbon dioxide which raises the question of the survival of humans on Mars. Well, the solution to this will be an oxygen generator called MOXIE, designed to convert carbon dioxide to breathable oxygen that will be sent to Mars by NASA in a rover. As we are aware that sunlight is the pre-requisite for growing plants which are the food source and there is a decent amount of light available on Mars which in return can be used to grow plants. The day length on Mars which is 24hrs 37 min is a conducive condition that can help humans to continue their daily routine normally as on Earth.

As we got to know that the Earth’s neighbor is capable to be called our next home, what are the advancements for the settlement on Mars? There are many spaces Agencies like NASA, ISRO, ESA that are working day and night to explore Mars cautiously so that they can move in the right direction to colonize Mars. Exploring space is not a mission of a particular group but a dream of millions to go beyond the stars. Among them, we have a headstrong company SpaceX which is working vigorously to fulfill the dream of fellow humans. So, what makes SpaceX notable? SpaceX is an American Aerospace Manufacturer and space transportation service company founded by Elon Musk. It has many goals and one among them is to transport humans, cargo to and from Mars using its starships as well as super-heavy rockets. Achievements like the first relaunch and landing of a used orbital rocket’s first stage in addition to the first re-flight of a commercial cargo spacecraft and many more make SpaceX capable of bringing the dream to reality.  As it is said by Elon Musk, “You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great – and that’s what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.”

So, are there no challenges faced for colonizing Mars? Have we accomplished everything to settle there? As we know Earth has a layer of blankets in its atmosphere that protects us from harmful UV radiations, maintains pressure and temperature that is ideal for the habitation. But Mars has a thinner blanket when compared to Earth resulting in a lower surface temperature, capable of leading to hypothermia in humans. It doesn’t have an ozone layer which makes us vulnerable to UV rays and other kinds of radiation coming from the sun. Its gravity is 38% in comparison to Earth’s gravitational force which in turn is challenging for humans to colonize as long exposure to zero gravity causes deterioration of bones and muscles. Spacesuits that are made of materials that can absorb a greater number of radiations, equipment that can help us to stay healthy in low gravity and there is a need for advanced technologies to tackle other challenges otherwise it would be difficult for us to survive on a new planet.

As it is said in the movie Interstellar, “We’ve always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that.

Or perhaps we’ve just forgotten that we are still pioneers. And we’ve barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us.”

So now we leave it on our readers to ponder upon, “A new beginning on Mars, thrilling or terrifying?”