What If We Lived on Mars?

     The possiblility of life on Mars was a topic that was always thrown around, including the possible move from earth to mars. What if we were to live on Mars? Well, to begin, NASA has announced that they plan to have humans on mars by 2030. However the journey there alone would be something of a great obstacle to overcome. Astronauts take about two years to become a full qualitified astronauts in space, preparing their bodies and minds as to what could happen when they get far from earth. On top of that, the tempatures on Mars ranges from about -195F at the poles during the winder to 68F in at the equator in the summer. The tilt of Mars would provide similar seasons as to the earth, however only the northern hemisphere would be of comfortable ranges. The Southern Hemisphere would have far colder and far warmer summers than the north. But none of this compares to the gravitational difference between earth and mars. There would be no technology that could make up for the difference in gravity, therefore we would all have to adapt and get used to the lack of gravity on Mars.


   Another question is food and water. Firstly, scientists believe that beans asparagus and potatoes are viable crops for the soil on mars. If we were to grow crops, they would pull carbon dioxide from the air and create oxygen being beneficial to both plants and animals. Surely this would be a long process, but still is a possibility. On top of that, there seems to be an abundant amount of water on Mars, but for the first travelers on mars, it would take too much money or resources to obtain theses reservoirs. Instead, water would have to be pulled from the atmosphere when humidity levels are high. The first travelers would have to constantly wear suits while preparing the planet for a larger population, as food, water and shelter are not readily available for humans. The new world of 3D printing could come to help us for population, as scientists are figuring out ways to use 3D printers to create infrastructures using the materials on Mars.



     There are many challenges that sill hinder us from populating and living on Mars such as radiation on technology and humans, the mental strain from being away from home, and communication delays from Mars to Earth. Although the possibility of having Mars as our second home seems fairly close, there is still a lot more research to be done before we can begin.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Wow, I knew that humanity had been speculating about living on Mars for a number of years, but I didn’t realize that we had, to a certain extent, a real possibility of living there eventually. The truth is, there is a significant chance that the Earth won’t allow humanity to live on it forever, especially at the rates we humans are using up environmental resources and contributing to the destruction of the environment., For instance, climate change could present a serious threat to the survival of humanity if we don’t do something to actively slow down/prevent climate change. Additionally, we could go to Mars to search for additional resources, such as water, precious metals, or additional crop lands.
February 19, 2019 at 10:07 AM
Anonymous said…
This was a very interesting post over a topic I would have never considered! Life on Mars seems like a surreal experience for humans. However, I do not think I would want to pursue that lifestyle personally as it seems risky. Living on Mars would require humans to restart civilization as there is on Earth, something which seems almost impossible. Would humans still need jobs? Would there be internet? Would there be different “countries”/governments? Conflicts regarding diving into the unknown is what hinders us from fully exploring if life is possible on Mars. It is simply a topic which seems unrealistic for some to even comprehend as Earth is all we have ever known.
February 19, 2019 at 10:57 AM
Anonymous said…
This is a topic that i am very interested in. While the possibility of people living on Mars is there, there is no way that Mars will be able to sustain close to 8 billion people anytime near our lifetime. SO much has to be done for Mars to be sustainable for humans, and even once people do find that spot where you begin to live, so much can go wrong. Just think about all the little things that we have on Earth that create an environment in which most things blend to gather to create a society capable of sustaining close to 8 billion lives. The first couple of generation, if we are able to make the switch of planets, will be devoted to simply trying to survive on the hostile planet.
February 19, 2019 at 11:40 AM
Anonymous said…
I couldn’t imagine living on a completely different planet than my loved ones, and have mad respect for the astronauts who decide to train for life on Mars and live there in the future. I think this whole project will reveal new possibilities to the human race... Because— with the way we treat it— Earth won’t last forever. If we start developing on Mars now, we could be prepared in the future when we are forced to abandon Earth. For now, I am excited to follow the Mars people’s journey in space and see what they can uncover.
February 19, 2019 at 11:51 AM
Anonymous said…
If humanity is to live on permanently, we probably will have to terraform other planets eventually. Not only is Earth becoming more hazardous to live on, but what about afterwords? The sun will die out eventually, and we might have to leave the solar system as a result. As such, I think it’s time to think about the future, and the gateways space exploration and space technology open up to us. However, getting governments and businesses to put sufficient monetary investment into travel, technology, and research is going to become an enormous mountain to overcome, if it is one that we can overcome.
February 20, 2019 at 6:19 AM
Anonymous said…
The notion of sustainability of organisms, meaning animals, plants, etc, is usually limited to boundaries of the Earth. Commonly, life outside of our planet seems like an trivial, odd idea to think about, for the Earth has been our natural habitat for a fare amount of time. However, we have to begin thinking about the tremendous effects and benefits that living outer space could bring to our species, collectively. Discovering new elements or materials and gaining space for storage or manufacturing can be one of our most forseeable advantages. On the other hand, most likely destroying the environment in other planets and breaking the state of equilbrium there will be the disadvantages. Thus, though we have to stay careful and thoughtful, humans together have to begin to see that we do not necessarily have to limit ourselves to just one planet.
February 20, 2019 at 6:26 AM
Anonymous said…
Your post sort of reminded me of the movie Martian, where Matt Damon had to survive on Mars after he got stranded. I’ve never considered living on a different planet, but it seems like a plausible. At the moment, it would be super expensive, but if we are able prime Mars’s environment, maybe there is a possibility of people living on Mars. Currently, the soil is too lethal to be able to grow any crops for people to consume. Once we are able to grow plants on Mars, we will be able to slowly but surely create an atmosphere that is not deadly to humans. I will probably take longer than our lifetime, but I believe that it will happen sooner or later. For now, we should focus on the planet we currently live on to make sure that it lasts to its fullest potential.
February 20, 2019 at 7:08 AM
Anonymous said…
This is an exciting prospect, possiblely living on another planet. I think that the estimation of 2030 is a little generous, being that it might take more than 11 years from now to be ready to send people to live permanently in space, but I do see that happening in our lifetimes. You mentioned that there are some crops that are supposed to be able to grow in the soil of mars, and that those crops would have the benefits of eventually modifying the atmosphere of the Red Planet. While humans have seen the negative impacts of tampering with the environment here on earth (see the Dust Bowl), it helps that there is no life on mars, and we have hundreds of years of expirance to draw upon when it comes to making decisions that will alter life as we know it on an entire planet. I will definitely keep an eye on how the new era of space travel progresses.
February 20, 2019 at 8:23 AM
Anonymous said…
It is pretty spectacular that there are possibilities for life on Mars. Because we are in the “Goldilocks Zone” on Earth, it is interesting that we may be able to bypass that and live further away from the sun. We live in a perfect spot to sustain all forms of life on Earth. If Earth was farther or closer to the sun, the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth would be either too much or not enough to sustain life. Yet, with the technological advancements you talked about, it may be possible to leave the Goldilocks Zone. Also, I didn’t realize that some of our recent technological advancements such as 3D printing could be applicable to our attempts of living on Mars.
February 20, 2019 at 10:14 AM
Anonymous said…
This blog post was very interesting! A human mission to Mars has long been the subject of science fiction, aerospace engineering, and scientific proposals. However, there are several physical challenges for human missions to Mars. For example, cosmic rays and ionizing radiation pose a health threat to humans. Areas on the planet pose great radiation risks, especially during large solar storms. Additionally, prolonged exposure to an environment of weightlessness may have negative effects on human health (for example, visual impairment). Although a move to Mars could entail physical risk, it is interesting to follow this journey and future discoveries.
February 21, 2019 at 2:23 PM
Anonymous said…
This was an interesting post! We’ve all kind of kept this idea of moving humans to Mars in the back of our minds (like in the movie The Martian or the short stories in The Martian Chronicles), and it’s interesting to consider the possibility! As you said, moving to Mars would likely be extremely costly, and involve large sacrifices, both financial and personal. It would be difficult to attempt to create an environment where humans could live without the aid of bulky space suits: we’ve adapted to living on planet Earth for hundreds of thousands of years, and it would take a long time to adapt to living on Mars. It’s cool to consider this possibility! Maybe we’ll see some developments on this topic throughout our lifetimes.
February 21, 2019 at 7:42 PM
Anonymous said…
It is not profitable to colonize and live on Mars at the moment. But one day, perhaps hundreds of years in the future, it will be. It is very costly to produce machinery that will transport humans, sustain a food and water source, and administer a governing or supervisory system. Although resources are diminishing on the earth, the cost of colonizing Mars now vastly outweighs the benefits. Unfortunately, Earth will be in a poorer state in the distant future, so it will be profitable and beneficial for humankind to live on Mars.
February 22, 2019 at 4:49 PM
Anonymous said…
This post was very interesting and shocking! I always thought that living on Mars was just another sci-fi movie plot, I never realized it could be a reality 10 years from now. Although it is an interesting idea, I would not want to live on Mars, although we have done a lot of research in it, there are stilll many unknown factors to account for. Additionally, setting up civilization on an entirely new planet comes with several questions. For example, how would money apply there? Would the concept of jobs even apply? Additionally, there could be several territorial disputes as leaders would have to create an entirely new map with country demarcations.
February 23, 2019 at 8:42 AM
Anonymous said…
This topic was very interesting. I never thought living on mars was attainable. At its current rate of decay, the earth will not be habitable in the near future. Land is decreasing, water Is increasing, and global warming is causing major climate change. According to my own research, living on mars is a viable option. Mars has a resource called Goliath, this could be turned into concrete. Its underground cave system could be turned to underground habitats for humans to protect them from sun radiation. Even people like Elon Musk are creating rockets, and technology to get humans safely to Mars!
February 24, 2019 at 9:11 AM
Anonymous said…
This was a very interesting post! Living on Mars seems unrealistic, however, with the rate that humans are using up the resources that Earth provides it may be more plausible than we think. If the Earth was to become uninhabitable, there is no way the entire human population could be saved and transported to Mars. We'd have to completely restart civilization, and Mars doesn't have nearly as many resources as the Earth does. Living on Mars would be very difficult and life on another planet in general would be hard for humans to adapt to. This just shows that we need to work even harder to preserve the Earth, so moving to another planet doesn't even have to be an option.
February 24, 2019 at 11:44 AM
Anonymous said…
What a fascinating topic! It was surprising to me that we actually have a possibility of living on Mars, an idea that has long occupied the science fiction genre and our imaginations. Personally, I would not consider living on Mars simply because I prefer staying within the comforts of living on Earth, though at the rate that we are burning up Earth’s resources, future generations may have no choice but to inhabit other planets to survive. Additionally, the thought of colonizing and living on another planet intimidates me, so I hold admiration for the astronauts who are willing to undergo the entire journey towards living on Mars. Because of this, I am still interested in our progress towards sustainably living on Mars and I would like to see where future technology and space explorations will take the human race.
February 24, 2019 at 3:50 PM
Anonymous said…
Life on Mars is an exciting prospect, however, I don’t think I would go to Mars. I would miss my family and friends and the life I left behind. I think the mental strain would be worse than the physical. Establishing life would also be challenging because only half of the planet would be habitable and water would be hard to find.
February 25, 2019 at 2:36 PM
Anonymous said…
Humans are runing the Earth by consuming resources faster rhan we can replenish them. Although I do believe that our species will eventually need to inhabit another planet to survive, I don’t anticipate Mars being that planet. Many scientists agree with this sentiment, and the search for a different inhabitable planet is still ongoing. An interesting thing is that the Mars One mission, a privately funded mission dedicated to sending humans to live on Mars in 2024, had its assets liquified earlier this year, bankrupting the company and indefinitely suspending the mission. The mission itself was met with massive backlash, so we can only hope NASA will fare better.
February 25, 2019 at 2:55 PM
Anonymous said…
It was very interesting to think about the eventual possibility that humanity begins a move towards Mars; thank you for this eye-opening blog post. Even though a move may eventually be required due to the depletion of resources on Earth, this possibility is still very far into the future. Moreover, in my opinion, if and when a move happens, it will be extremely difficult and might not even be on Mars. First, any space exploration, specifically immigration, will be far too expensive for anybody but the billionaires of society. Moving the few hundred people that can actually afford the move to a different planet will barely make any impact on the depletion of resources. Furthermore, the people with the wealth to move to other planets will also be the people that are least likely to want to move since their businesses are based on Earth. Additionally, privately funded missions to Mars have confirmed that it will likely be a very long time until Mars is habitable to humans. Also, many of these companies that have explored Mars explorations have also shut down, so a different path is needed before Mars, or any planet, will be populated by humans.
February 25, 2019 at 7:42 PM
Anonymous said…
The idea of living on a whole different planet is absolutely absurd. In the last decade, so much research has been conducted on or related to Mars. These studies show that Mars could potentially support life on the planet; however, I do not think I could ever live on Mars. The idea of being isolated from everyone and being in charge of colonizing a whole new planet is frightening. There still needs to be further research on colonizing Mars, about the idea of the planet being suitable for our human biology. Genetic changes would have to occur for humans to survive on Mars.
February 25, 2019 at 10:10 PM
Anonymous said…
As technological advances emerge, it is very interesting to examine possibilities, such as living on Mars, that seemed impossible only several years before. If we were to live on Mars, the effects on the human body are fascinating to examine. The side-effects of travelling to, landing, and living on Mars are far greater in terms of both psychology and physiology. Travelling outside of Earth’s protective magnetic field to a distance so great that our planet is no more than a speck on the horizon will have a profound effect on the crew.
February 26, 2019 at 7:18 AM
Anonymous said…
This was a really interesting blog post! Although the opportunity to possibly live on Mars seems very intriguing, it does come with many unanswered questions. Personally, if given the chance, I would live on Mars as it seems like a very important opportunity. Many of the strains of living would be accumulating food and money to create the infrastructure but I feel that with enough time and effort this can be possible. On Earth, we continue to use up many of our nonrenewable resources and increase pollution rates, so living on Mars may become a possibility in the distant future.
February 26, 2019 at 7:31 AM
Anonymous said…
This is a really interesting topic. From a biological standpoint, gravity is much more essential to human functions that it many seem. To us, gravity seem like is is a hindrance to what we do and only holds us back. After further research, I found out that the way that out blood circulates through our bodies relies heavily on the effects of gravity. Without this, the ways that the human body would function would have to change on mars, and it might be a permanent and painful change. This also brings up the question of if they can come back and what the effects of a stronger gravity would be if they did. Also, what would happen in children were born on mars and could the ever meet their counterparts on earth? Would this start the separation of the human species and start a whole different one that isn’t compatible?
February 26, 2019 at 7:32 AM
Anonymous said…
Living on another planet is an incredible idea that I personally do not want to partake in. The margin for error and the undefined potentials are too great for my comfort. The idea is cool, but there are a lot of variables that we have to iron out solutions for before we decide to take the plunge. The biggest factor playing into our ability to survive on Mars, in my opinion, is our biology. Humans evolved on Earth to survive on Earth, and we are not going to adapt to Mars’ gravitational and temperature conditions in the span of a few generations. The same obstacle can be said for plants, though perhaps to a lesser degree. Simulating a suitable environment for humans on Mars may take less time than we think, but there is still an innumerable amount of variables that need to be addressed before widespread Mars colonization will be possible.
February 26, 2019 at 9:42 AM
Anonymous said…
I’m not sure if we will ever be able to live on Mars in my lifetime, but I hope we discover a way to. It would be fascinating to be able to witness humans flying to Mars and creating a new community there. It’s interesting to think about how humans and other organisms will adapt and evolve on Mars, considering it is so different to Earth. At some point, will the humans on Earth and the humans on Mars be completely different? As we start using up all the resources on Earth, we need to start looking for alternatives elsewhere.
February 26, 2019 at 6:13 PM
Anonymous said…
If living on Mars were already an established practice, I would definitely try to go live there, but right now, we don't even know how to sustain lives there. Even if it somehow became possible in my life, I feel like it would be too early for me to try and live there. Pioneering the practice of living on Mars would mean surviving in an environment nobody has been in before as well as gathering data about Mars to help in the effort of increasing sustainability on Mars. It is simply such a new experience for humans that being one of the first people to do it would come with extreme responsibility. Right now, we can barely sustain ourselves on Earth, and while figuring out how to live on Mars may help solve that, the effort and resources required to figure that out can be argued to be put to better use trying to survive better on Earth.
February 26, 2019 at 6:24 PM
Anonymous said…
I feel as though we should be no hurry to push for the settlement of Mars, because this process would be immensely labor some and expensive. The predictions that you included of 2030 being when people would inhabit Mars seems way too early. There is still so much research to be acquired from Mars. Millions of variables of space travel and the settlement of Mars would require the greatest minds of the world. As of right now I believe we should focus our resources on bettering the current planet we are on.
February 26, 2019 at 7:13 PM
Anonymous said…
The prospects of humans living on Mars in the near future was always part of our general knowledge, but your post was eye opening to how close that goal really is to becoming a reality. I think that looking toward colonizing Mars is a fascinating option, considering the fact the Earth’s essential but finite resources are increasingly being used and wasted every day. Although there are little to no signs of catastrophic damage to Earth and its sustainability for humans at this moment, future generations throughout this century and the following ones could experience more limited and strained conditions in their lifestyle on Earth. However, although life on another planet seem ideally efficient and amazing, I think that strains on living on Mars would include the financial costs that would not yield ideal results. For example, the resources and money used for food growth may not actually successfully grow amounts that was needed.
February 26, 2019 at 9:13 PM
Anonymous said…
Reading your blog was really mind-blowing to see how close the dream of living on Mars is becoming a reality! In my personal opinion, I would not want to live on Mars. However, I don't agree with the idea that because we are reaching a point where the earth's resources are being depleted and cannot sustain life at the rate it is currently growing because even if humanity does migrate to another planet, the cycle would start all over again. I think we need to focus on preserving and protecting the earth that we live on today.
February 27, 2019 at 10:25 AM
Anonymous said…
I found your blog post fascinating. I can understand the appeal of mankind moving to Mars since the news at the moment revolves around how the Earth is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Also Mars seems appealing since it is something so new and interesting. However, personally i could never see myself wanting to move to another planet and I don't see it as a viable solution to the environmental crisis we are in right now. The venture to move to Mars would be costly and difficult. I think we as humans should focus on preserving our planet and reducing the negative impacts we are having on it.
February 27, 2019 at 7:30 PM
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