Want to go to Mars? Dutch organisation Mars One says it will open applications imminently. It would be a one-way trip, and the company hopes to build a community of settlers on the planet.
Uncharted waters, mountains or far away lands have always drawn explorers. History books show that desire for adventure, even in the face of extreme danger, did not deter the likes of Columbus or Magellan.
So it is perhaps not surprising that Mars One has already received thousands of prospective applicants. But there is no return – unlike the mission which hopes to fly to Mars and back in 2018.
Future explorers take note. Applicants must be resilient, adaptable, resourceful and must work well within a team. The whole project will be televised, from the reality TV style selection process, to landing and beyond.
One-way Only
Mars One’s co-founder Bas Lansdorp explains why this would be a one way flight.
During the seven-eight month journey, astronauts will lose bone and muscle mass. After spending time on Mars’ much weaker gravitational field, it would be almost impossible to re-adjust back to Earth’s much stronger gravity, says Landsorp.
Successful applicants will be trained physically and psychologically. The team will use existing technology for all aspects of the project. Energy will be generated from solar panels, water will recycled and extracted from soil and the astronauts will grow their own food – they will also have an emergency ration and regular top-ups as new explorers join every two years.
But is it realistic to believe that individuals could live and prosper in on the Red Planet?
Mars is in the firing line of the Sun’s high energy particles, called solar wind. The atmosphere of Mars is very thin as the solar wind is thought to have stripped much of it away.
On Earth, we are protected from the solar wind by a strong magnetic field, without this it would be much more difficult to survive. Although Mars once had similar protection around four billion years ago, today there is no such shield protecting it.
The Martian surface is therefore extremely hostile to life says, Dr Veronica Bray from the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, who is sceptical about the project.
There’s no liquid water, the atmospheric pressure is “practically a vacuum”, radiation levels are higher and temperatures vary wildly, she says.
“Radiation exposure is a concern, especially during the trip. This can lead to increased cancer risk, a lowered immune system and possibly infertility.”
To minimise radiation, the project team will cover the domes with several metres of soil, which the colonists will have to dig up.
“I have no doubt that we could physically place a human being on Mars. Whether they’d be able to survive for an extended period of time is much more doubtful,” adds Dr Bray.
Risks
Ambassador for the project, Professor Gerard ‘t Hooft, a recipient of the Nobel Prize for theoretical physics in 1999 admits there are unknown health risks. He says the radiation is “of quite a different nature” than anything which has been tested on Earth.
“They [the applicants] will be told that there are risks, but it will be our responsibility to keep the risks within acceptable odds.”
Nasa astronaut Stan Love knows first-hand the difficulties with technology that his colleagues have experienced on the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit.
The apparatus which recycles human waste and turns “yesterdays coffee into into tomorrow’s coffee needs frequent maintenance and would likely not survive years of continuous duty on Mars”, he says.
Love has recently returned from Antarctica which he says is a “picnic compared to Mars”.
“It’s full of water, you can go outside and breathe the air. It’s paradise compared to Mars and yet nobody has moved there permanently.”
Whether or not the mission will achieve its goal, the publicity generated from the “big-brother” style televised application process means the world will surely be watching.
(Courtesy: BBC)
