Will Life On Mars Ever Be Possible? | Unveiled

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Will Life On Mars Ever Be Possible?</h4>

From ancient Babylon, Egypt, and Greece to modern times, Mars has fascinated those who observe the cosmos. Mars is the closest planet to ours, making it the next great frontier after the 1969 moon landing. But, despite promises from governments and billionaires, progress on Martian exploration has been slow in recent years. Will we ever take the next great step in space exploration? Can we?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question: Will Life On Mars Ever Be Possible?

To answer this question, we need to identify the major hurdles standing between humanity and the red planet. The most immediate problem is diminishing public support for space exploration. According to the Pew Research Center, 69% of Americans in 2023 believe that the US should be a leader in space exploration. While that’s high, it’s down 3% from 2018. And space exploration has never been a top priority for voters, who generally have more earthly concerns. In 2019, another Pew poll found that roughly two thirds of Americans believe that NASA should focus more on climate change than on space exploration. That sentiment was shared by former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver. 

Why, then, should we even care about Mars? 

First, it’s hard to overstate the significant technological and scientific advances a concerted Mars-shot could produce. The Apollo missions to the moon, for example, represented huge leaps forward in technology. The technologies developed for Apollo missions have affected everything from footwear to firefighting. They discovered new construction materials and load-bearing methods. NASA scientists pioneered solar panels, cordless power tools, and digital imaging tech now used in medical scanners like MRIs. The tremendous impact on our day-to-day lives has been immeasurable, permeating every aspect of modern technology. 

A Mars mission could do the same in the 21st century, ushering in a new era of consumer and industrial technologies. Biologists believe that studying Martian history could help us understand life on earth and elsewhere in the cosmos. That same 2023 Pew poll saw more than half of Americans excited about space tourism. Finally, there is no way to quantify the economic potential of space mining. Mars is the closest planet in the solar system to the asteroid belt. NASA has claimed that the mineral and rare element wealth contained within the belt is “equivalent to around $100 billion for every individual on Earth.” The installation of a Martian mining base could lead to a 21st century gold rush. 

A sobering but glaring fact remains however: even if the human race drummed up the collective willpower to explore and colonize Mars, there are two major practical obstacles. The first is its distance from Earth. On a cosmic scale, Mars is our closest neighbor, just one door over, so to speak. On a human scale, well … ‘close’ is a relative term. In truth, the average distance between Mars and Earth is 140 million miles. With our current technology, a one way trip to Mars takes about six and a half months. That means that, if something were to go wrong with a Mars mission, there’s very little help available for our astronauts. Worse, outside of earth’s magnetosphere, astronauts are exposed to solar radiation, which can penetrate spacecraft and spacesuits. The longer the trip to Mars, the more exposed astronauts are to harmful solar winds. While we’re currently working on countermeasures, we don’t yet have a definitive answer. To make Mars colonization feasible, we need to significantly cut down on that travel time. 

Fortunately, there are plans in the works to get us there faster. Scientific teams around the world are working on new propulsion systems that, if successful, could potentially open up our entire solar system to exploration. At the start of 2023, the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts - or NIAC - division approved 14 new propulsion concepts for Phase I development. 

In the summer of 2023, NASA announced a new partnership with DARPA and defense contractor Lockheed Martin. The organizations are going to design and build a nuclear powered rocket. A nuclear-powered engine could be three times more efficient than a standard chemical rocket. Projections cut a six to seven month odyssey with a chemical rocket down to just 45-day jaunt with a nuclear engine. NASA hopes to put a working prototype into space by 2025.

Private companies, too, are getting in on the alternative propulsion market. IVO Ltd. is partnering with SpaceX to launch and test their electric Quantum Drive in October of 2023. If successful, they could rewrite what we know about the laws of physics, creating thrust without propellant. 

The last and most daunting barrier to colonizing Mars is that the red planet is a dead planet. Mars is arid, rocky, and cold. The Martian atmosphere, such as it exists, is over 100 times thinner than ours. The average temperature on Mars is about -80 degrees Fahrenheit, and Martian gravity is just over one third of standard earth gravity. Those are workable problems. But, when you factor in the lack of liquid water and a lack of oxygen, Mars appears to be less than hospitable.

To be clear, there is water on Mars, in the form of ice, especially at the poles. Studies have also discovered ice sequestered underneath the Martian surface. While we don’t yet have technologies needed to extract and thaw that ice, NASA is hopeful. They hold a yearly competition for university science departments called the Mars Ice Challenge. They’re optimistic that emerging technologies will make ice mining a feasible solution.

The atmosphere, though, is a tricker problem. The Martian atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide. There is virtually no oxygen to speak of - bad for humans - and very little nitrogen - bad for plants. On top of that, because the air pressure is so low, colonists would have to live in pressurized habitats.

There is a debate among scientists and engineers about the ethics of how to deal with these issues. Some advocate for exploring and colonizing space ‘in-situ,’ adapting ourselves to the environment. Others say that sustainable colonization requires terraforming, or adapting the planet to our needs. NASA is currently working on options for both. For example, NIAC has partnered with Techshot Inc. to create sealed biodomes for in-situ colonization. Using screw mechanisms to mine subsurface ice for water, they would deploy large colonies of oxygen-producing cyanobacteria and algae. This way, colonists could have a sustainable source of oxygen. 

Terraforming is a more complicated matter. We would need to essentially create a livable atmosphere from scratch by triggering a greenhouse effect. Filling the atmosphere with greenhouse gasses would both thicken it and warm the planet. Elon Musk once proposed nuking Martian poles to release greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. The problem is that Mars likely doesn’t naturally have enough of those compounds to terraform the planet completely. Scientists have proposed importing ammonia, methane, or other hydrocarbons from planetary bodies within the solar system. The practicality of those plans is dubious given current technology. However, with upgraded propulsion systems, it would be much easier to travel to various moons and asteroids to extract those elements and transport them. 

Another, slightly more feasible plan would be the importation of fluoride compounds like PFCs and CFCs. These compounds have more ‘bang to the greenhouse buck’ than CO2 and ammonia. Generating 170 kilotons of fluoride compounds per year could get us where we need within a decade. This could be achieved either by bombarding  the planet with PFC and CFC rockets, or by local mining efforts. 

Even if we managed any of these complex terraforming schemes though, all that work to create a habitable environment would be undone by solar radiation. Current research suggests that, at some point in the distant past, Mars was a warmer, wetter world with an Earth-like atmosphere. But along the way, the Martian magnetosphere died, and solar winds wiped its atmosphere away. Without a magnetic field to protect the planet, any atmosphere we created would be temporary. And without protection from solar radiation, astronauts, explorers, scientists, and colonists are all at increased long-term risk for cancer. 

As of now, the technology to give a planet a magnetic field is well beyond our abilities. However, NASA’s former chief scientist Jim Green has devised a plan for that. He’s proposed erecting an artificial magnetosphere at the L1 Lagrange point between Mars and the Sun. Due to the distance, it could be much smaller than a planet’s magnetic field and still shield Mars. With that magnetic shield in place, the atmosphere would stabilize and start to slowly terraform on its own. Without any further intervention, the air pressure and temperature would both significantly increase over time.

President John F. Kennedy announced America’s moonshot in his famous 1962 speech, saying that: “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” The fact is, in terms of difficulty, colonizing Mars makes traveling to the moon look like child’s play. The obstacles are as substantial as the potential rewards. In a world contending with climate change layered on top of our day-to-day concerns, it’s easy to dismiss Mars exploration as a pipe dream. But, while their work may not always make headlines, many scientists around the world are still making strides towards that goal. They are slowly, quietly developing the technologies needed to make humanity a multi-planetary species. 

Mars colonization would require a tremendous investment of money, effort, and hope. If humanity can come together with a common goal and a common dream, one day life on Mars may very well be possible.