Since man first realized a heliocentric solar system and accepted the concept that other planets orbit our sun, man has dreamed of traveling to other worlds.
As a young child in the 1940s and 50s, I listened to Flash Gordon on the radio. The TV version with its hokey animation by today’s standards was exciting in its time.
Then came Lost in Space, Star Trek, and Star Wars.
Science
Fiction has almost always led true science.
You must think it before you can build it.
We have
landed men on the moon, mapped most of our planets, and launched a satellite beyond
our solar system. Now NASA and Jeff Bazos’s
Space-X are contemplating a space station on Mars.
I do not
doubt that landing men on Mars is within our current technology, but supplying
a space station on Mars would be an expensive herculean task.
Mars is
approximately one-half the diameter of the Earth. Mars’ gravity is about 2/5th of
earth’s; a one-hundred-and-fifty-pound person on earth would weigh fifty-seven
pounds on Mars. The temperature
variation on earth ranges between -126 degrees to 136 degrees; on Mars, the
temperature range is between -191 degrees to -24 degrees.
There is a
universal difference between manning a space station on Mars and colonizing the
planet.
Over several
generations, the gravity of Mars would result in the evolution of the human
body in response to the environment.
Bone density would likely decrease as would muscle tone. Mars residents would possibly be taller and
thinner than Earth residents. Their
physiology would likely prevent them from returning to Earth due to
gravitational differences; a fifty-seven-pound person on Mars would weigh one-hundred-and-fifty
pounds on Earth.
Though
future technology would probably allow the colonization of Mars, it would be a one-way
ticket.
It would be
better for us to concentrate on reversing our unsustainable population increase
and healing our planet. Both are doable,
but we are humans, and cooperation for the greater good against our need for short-time
gratification is not in our DNA.
the Ol’Buzzard
Helluva commute.
ReplyDeleteEarth's population growth may be 0 by 2050 and may even start to decline. BUT it will continue to grow in some countries already over populated and under developed. Putting a human on Mars is OK but as you point out, leaving them there for any length of time is not likely a good thing.
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