THERE are lots of ideas on how humans can terraform Mars, and turn the dusty, radioactive Red Planet into something habitable.
Scientists have suggested we start with Antarctic desert moss, and more recently, have even suggested lichen that can survive Mars-like conditions.
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But a Polish scientist says the physics of growing Earth’s hardiest plants on Mars are too out of reach – and a more extreme route to habitation is required.
Unlike Matt Damon in The Martian, future Mars colonists won’t be able to sustain themselves off a potato farm planted into Martian soil.
Martian soil and dust, known as regolith, contain perchlorates which are toxic to humans.
The planet’s pressure would also boil the water inside a human’s body if they were not wearing a pressurised spacesuit, according to Dr. Leszek Czechowski of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
In his paper, “Energy problems of terraforming Mars,” Dr. Czechowski suggests smashing the planet with asteroids from the Kuiper Belt or the dense, but currently theoretical, Oort Cloud.
He believes the Oort Cloud is home to billions of icy asteroids, which, if smashed into Mars, could give the planet an atmosphere.
Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than Earth, made up mostly of CO2.
But getting an asteroid from the Oort Cloud to Mars is a journey that would take roughly 15,000 years with current technology.
Whereas an asteroid from the closer Kuiper Belt could theoretically be brought to Mars over the span of decades rather than millennia.
A Kuiper asteroid, however, is more likely to break up when brought close to the Sun, according to Dr. Czechowski, who presented his study at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
Therefore, scientists would have to find a way to transport a large icy asteroid from the Kuiper Belt to Mars and smash it into the Red Planet.
The impact would shower the asteroid’s water material onto Mars, and also produce such a large amount of energy that it could help warm the planet.
To do that, Dr. Czechowski suggests engineers design a propulsion system that doesn’t rely on gravity to direct the icy body.
He proposes a spacecraft with an ion engine, powered by a fusion reactor.
Although, he explains little more about what this future spacecraft may look like.
How long does it take to get to Mars?
It’s not that short of a trip…
- There is an immense distance between Earth and Mars, which means any trip to the red planet will take a very long time.
- It’s also made more complicated by the fact that the distance is constantly changing as the two planets rotate around the sun
- The closest that the Earth and Mars would ever be is a distance of 33.9million miles – that’s 9,800 times the distance between London and New York
- That’s really rare though: the more useful distance is the average, which is 140million miles
- Scientists on Earth have already launched a whole bunch of spacecraft to (or near) Mars, so we have a rough idea of how long it takes with current technology
- Historically, the trip has taken anywhere from 128 to 333 days – admittedly a huge length of time for humans to be on board a cramped spacecraft.
