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Mars Landing: the dream of the decade? – Nickologist

By CoperNick

Miriam Giorgi

 

May 7, 2020

 

Have you ever wondered why Mars has been the first planet subject of creation of hypothesis regarding life outside Earth, aliens/martians, etc…?

Almost everyone at least once in their life heard about Martians, possible life on Mars, water on Mars and many other fact that created during the years curiosity among scientists, persons, even comic book drawers, but have you ever searched why, and if all these things are true?

 

The exploration of Mars has been a goal of national space programs for decades. But human landing on Mars itself has always been a challenge for NASA, Russia and other space institutions, and still now it’s kind of a race to try, as it was for the moon, to get on the planet, with human expeditions, first than the others, because until now only Mars Rovers has touched the planet’s ground, and a human being going up there would really mean a giant leap for mankind as Neil Armstrong said as touching Moon ground.

 

But let me tell you why Mars.

 

Except curiosity, economics, research, the real reason why scientists have always had real hope on Mars life is another. You need to know that in the Universe everything has the same structure. As our own solar system is in a place called habitable zone in the Milky Way, a zone, as the word says, which has exactly the perfect distance from the black hole in the middle of the galaxy, not too far, not too close, so are Earth and Mars from the Sun. The perfect distance so that life could be possible in both planets. Not too close to burn everything and prevent life, not too far to freeze the surface. This is mainly why Mars has always been at the center of everything since 20th century.

Let’s even say that if the Earth would be destroyed by global warming or any other natural disaster, Mars could become a shelter for human being to keep existing.

Moreover a solar day on Mars last 24 hours and 39 minutes, not very different from Earth, and the seasons are similar. We also need to say, though, that Mars has half the radius of Earth, one-tenth it’s mass and one year on Mars is the equivalent of 1.88 of ours.

 


Illustration 1: Earth and Mars in the habitable zone of the Solar

 

When will the expedition happen?

 

As I was saying before, Mars landing, with human actually touching the sandy ground of the planet, has always been a dream, an idea, a project to develop, and now it seems like it could actually happen in 2033, with NASA astronauts. But it’s not for sure yet because the physical and mental preparation is long and tough, and many arrangements are to be made, many calculations, but still having a concrete plan is for sure the best way to start a project, especially a huge one like this that has been first proposed in 1947 by Wenrher von Braun.

A thing that will help a lot with the mission is that we – because this information are of public dominion – already know a lot about Mars thanks to the many Mars Rovers that have been sent during the decades and that sent to us incredible pictures and data about their surroundings.

 

But how will settlers live there?

 

This is probably the cue question that we all are asking ourselves knowing that Mars doesn’t have a strong and developed atmosphere as ours, and the levels of oxygen are very low, and the gravity is different, so how I was saying before physical and mental preparation are very important. A movie that I strongly recommend to watch is The Martian, because it’s realistic and show how settlers may live and the problems they may overcome – except that the gravity is different from how it’s shown in the movie and is much harder for human body to adjust to it (I can say this due to personal experience on a simulator).

Anyway, the idea is to create this base, called Mars habitat, with life-supporting systems – similar to ISS systems – that must provide everything Mars environment doesn’t.

Some difficulties the settlers may overcome are exposure to radiations, toxic soil, low gravity, lack of water and cold temperatures due to no atmosphere. More reasons to explain why this mission has not yet been undertaken.

An equipment part that is mandatory is a special EVA suit, for extravehicular activities, but in this case for walking on the surface of the planet, designed to resist abrasions, radiations, and help the astronaut to adjust to the much thinner atmosphere. This Biosuit would be structured as a mechanical counterpressure suit, which means the pressure would come from the structure and the elasticity of the material, when previously the pressure came from gas, and this gas pressure would make the suit rigid and not flexible anymore.

Everything to make as easy as possible the exploration of the planet.

 

As we get to the end of this article, I’d like to talk a bit more about Mars Habit because it’s something that fascinate me. These structures are a real challenge for architects because bringing heavy material on Mars wouldn’t be easy, and also because as I said before this habitat has to provide everything the settlers need, so shelter from radiations, breathable oxygen, water and liveable weather.

A thing that it’s still getting considered is if this Habitats has to be temporary or permanent. If temporary they may have a smaller and lighter volume so the transportation on Mars would be easier, but if permanent they’d require much more volume for a long term shielding from radiations so they would be heavier and harder to be launched. Furthermore, if the habitas would to be larger they would even need a larger crew.

 

 

Considering everything previously said we can conclude that, apart from all the money needed for the mission, and the preparation, everything has to be decided and discussed to the minimal details before any final statement. Nothing can be left to the case, the all mission has to be thought with it’s possible downsides and upsides.

This mission on Mars is to be considering both dangerous and instructive for science. Security is important, and training as well, and maybe one day we all will have the chance to assist to this huge leap for mankind.

 

 

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