How Much Further?

It's no secret that us humans are always evolving. We are always looking for new ways to improve, new ways to take on challenges, and more recently, new ways to make us a multi-planet species. A lot of us have question's about this and that's perfectly normal. Hopefully we can clear some of those up.

Is Mars Habitable?

We all know that currently, no, Mars is not habitable. It's dry and barren, no life at all. However, billions and billions of years ago there was liquid water that covered an estimated 30% of the northern hemisphere of the planet. Then the sun so generously, shot out a solar wind that made it lose it's magnetosphere, and made it this dry, and desolate planet that we are familiar with today. Now, the thin atmosphere makes it impossible for liquid water to live on the surface. It also makes any landing missions difficult, due to the ground not being thick enough to deliver a soft landing. This also means that it makes it more difficult to conduct our research of the planet. As of currently, Mars is not habitable. That may change, though.

The Polar Ice Caps

We have actually discovered polar ice caps on Mars. What does this mean? It means that there actually IS water, just not liquid water. Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have shown us that the ice cap is layers of ice and dust, around 2km. During the winter, a seasonal layer is added to the cap from carbon dioxide precipitating onto the caps. This seasonal layer can be up to a meter thick, but during the summer it turns back in to gas, and goes back into the atmosphere. There could have very well been life in those waters when they were liquid, that got frozen in the ice caps.

How are we Going to Fix This?

The Coordinated Community Modeling Center (CCMC), had a group of scientist who came up with a plan/model for how we could make Mars more hospitable. The models they provided, were used to simulate a magnetic field and a magnetosphere for Mars. It generates a magnetic dipole field at the Mars L1 point, with average solar wind. It would increase, until it covered the entire planet, creating a whole different atmosphere. It would then, eliminate a decent amount of the solar wind errosion process, allowing the temperature to grow, as well as the pressure. You can read more about it, and see the model, down below.



Will we Inhabit Mars?

We have people working towards this every day. Artemis 2, a mission that is being planned for November of 2024, will send 4 astronauts up. They say the distance itself is a huge factor. It could take around 500 days round trip, to get between the two planets, due to them being about 140 million miles away from each other. The lack of gravity would also be an issue, so the crew might have to be in oressurized cabins during the trip. This mission is only a fly by, and we won't step foot on Mars' moon until Artemis 3. The plan is, to have humans walk on Mars by 2040, although Elon Musk has said he belives it will happen sooner than that, possibly 2029. They are currently prepping the 4 who will take the trip, and running a simulation to learn just how it would affect them, to give us more insite on how to get ourselves ready for the trip. Personally, I see very good odds in our spieces being a multiplanet spieces, do you? How much further do you think we'll go?