As NASA’s Perserverance spacecraft speeds towards its February 2021 landing on Mars, many people are pondering the possibility of ordinary humans one day traveling to and living on the planet.

In the 1910s, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ masterfully written fictional books about Mars excited the public’s imagination with tales of humans traveling to the Red Planet and interacting with the native Martians. Hollywood’s 2015 movie, The Martian, teased the possibility of human survival (tenuous as it was) on Mars. Could humans really live, work and play on the surface of Mars, or will such an idea forever remain but a fantasy of literary fiction and cinematic CGI?

The problem of safely travelling to Mars aside, the first question that needs to be asked and answered is where would we live once we got to Mars? Due to the significant, constant solar radiation – not to mention periodic solar flares – that the surface of Mars is subject to due to its thin atmosphere (Earth’s atmosphere protects all life on its surface from the greater portion of the sun’s harmful radiation), we would have to live in some sort of underground structure.

Current estimates indicate at least five meters below the surface would provide the same protection level as our atmosphere. While the technology certainly exists to build such structures (NASA already has prototype Mars One shelters under construction), they would still have to be transported to Mars and constructed, perhaps by robotic construction crews, prior to any human settlers arriving.

OK, so we have a place to live once there, what other things are required? Foremost would be a supply of air to breathe – a properly-proportioned mixture of oxygen, nitrogen, and other trace gases to match that of Earth’s atmosphere. We would have to transport an adequate supply for the number of settlers on hand. That’s not a problem for a couple of astronauts carrying their own backpack supply, but certainly a more difficult task for a large number of settlers planning on emigrating there. It might be possible, over time, to grow enough oxygen-producing plants within specialized structures to generate the needed oxygen amount (to then be mixed with the other required gases); something, with enough space and time, that’s well within the realm of achievable, perhaps, once again, by robots pre-human arrival.

The next two requirements would, by necessity, be a high priority – food and water. At least initially, there would be no immediate means of obtaining water or growing crops, all water and food supplies would have to be transported to Mars, a significant and expensive logistics problem for those planning the trip, particularly if a large number. Terra-forming the Martian surface to generate a breathable atmosphere, a climate, and soil conducive to growing crops, and establishing an adequate water supply (from underground ice deposits) would probably take at least a few hundred years.

Could humans survive on Mars? Yes, at least a few could, for a short period of time, provided they took everything they needed for the time they planned to be there. Long-term settlement, however, would require a massive investment of time, money, technology, and effort; doable, yes, but would it be worth it? Perhaps. After all, the early explorers and settlers of our own planet faced many unknown challenges and life-threatening risks (though, perhaps, not to the same degree) when they set sail for distant lands, unsure of a safe arrival and what life would be like in the new world. In many ways, settling Mars would be a similar challenge, just on a much larger scale.

However, despite my own astronomy interests and science fiction-fueled dreams of traveling to distant planets, I think we humans would be far better off to invest all that time, money, technology, and effort into mitigating the significantly endangering environmental and social issues that are already confronting us. We live on a very unique (as far as we know), special and extremely beautiful island in the middle of a vast celestial ocean. It’s time we woke up to that fact and collectively worked to maintain and preserve that uniqueness, specialness and beauty, not only for ourselves, but also for the generations that follow.

Yes, the urge to and fascination of traveling midst the stars to other planets is exciting, and perhaps one day, in the distant future, humans will travel out there and settle other planets (including Mars), but if we don’t soon start to take care of the planet we live on, we’re not likely to survive as a species to ever step foot on any of those distant worlds.

This week’s sky

Mercury is too close to the sun, and, thus, not observable at present.

Jupiter (magnitude -2.54) is visible above the southern horizon around 8 p.m. It reaches its highest point (21 degrees) in the southern evening sky around 9:20 p.m., remaining visible until about 12:40 a.m., when it sinks below seven degrees above the southwest horizon.

Saturn (magnitude +0.35), as it has all summer, follows Jupiter into and across the early evening sky, becoming visible 18 degrees above the southeast horizon around 8:15 p.m. It remains visible until shortly before 10 p.m., when it disappears from view after dropping below 10 degrees above the southwest horizon shortly after 1 a.m.

Mars (magnitude -1.98 on Sept. 7, and -2.12 by Sept. 13) will continue to brighten this month and next, as it heads for its Oct. 13 opposition (when it will be at its brightest). The Red Planet is visible above the eastern horizon shortly after 10 p.m., reaching an altitude of 50 degrees above the southern horizon shortly before 4 a.m., and lingering in view until it’s lost in the dawn twilight around 6:25 a.m.

Venus (magnitude -4.3) rises in the east around 2:50 a.m., and reaches a height of 38 degrees (its highest point of the year) above the horizon before fading with the approaching dawn by about 6:25 a.m. On the morning of Sept. 13, look for the crescent moon directly above Venus in the pre-dawn sky.

Until next week, clear skies.

Events:

• Sept. 7 – Venus at highest point in sky for 2020
• Sept. 10 – Last quarter moon

Glenn K. Roberts lives in Stratford, P.E.I., and has been an avid amateur astronomer since he was a small child. He welcomes comments from readers at glennkroberts@gmail.com.

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