Did you knowNeural is taking the stage this fall?
Uncle Sams going toput American boots on Martian soiland Elon Musksbuilding the spaceshipthatll get them there.
Hooray for Mars!
Science doesnt have a PR agent.
Math doesnt have a marketing team.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
There is, of course, an ethical argument to be made about exposing any human to unnecessary risks.
But there have always been explorers willing to risk their lives in pursuit of adventure and advancing our species.
We need astronauts, and we need them to want to boldly go where no one else has.
The rest of us, however, should want no part of the red planet.
But Mars is no place for a human.
We seevideos of the Perseverance and Ingenuity roversand the red planet doesnt look so bad.
Its sunny, theres nobody there to mess with you, and honestly the views are spectacular.
But the colonists experience, with available technology, would be a living nightmare.
And every current plan to put a human colony on Mars involves science fiction technologies that dont exist yet.
First off, your flight over would beexcruciating.
The trip takes about seven months, which is longer than the average mission aboard the International Space Station.
That much time in zero-gravity causesmyriad health problems.
The damage to the astronauts cardiovascular system, on the other hand, may be irreversible.
But Martian colonists wont be recovering on Earth.
Theyll be on Mars where the gravity is a third of what it is on our home world.
If youre a colonizer though, the object is to stay there on Mars.
Andtheres no such thing as artificial gravity.
Neither of those are options for a Martian surface colony.
Worse, itd be a tossup whether physical deterioration ormental isolationwould pose the more immediate threat.
Life on Mars would be harsh, repetitive, and unyieldingly dangerous.
On Earth, when you cut yourself, blood tends to ooze out.
On Mars… well, nobodys ever cut or bruised themselves on Mars.
We know thatsurgery inzero-gravityis extremely challenging.
Blood pools differently in the body, and splatters differently outside of it, when were weightless.
What happens if you get a subdural hematoma on Mars?
How do you deal with blood clots in a low-gravity environment?
How do you deal with pregnancy in low-gravity?
How harmful is space radiation to human sperm and eggs?
Will children who are born and grow up in low gravity be able to survive in Earthsheavygravity?
Horror, 24/7
Life as a Martian colonist would be one of constant fear.
What dangers will humans, homesick and confined indoors, pose to one another as their mental states deteriorate?
The people who choose to colonize Mars will never see a blue sky, an ocean, or forest.
Theyll never feel the sunshine on their naked face.
Granted, technology could change.
We could invent the warp drive or an anti-radiation force-field.
We could discover a quantum physics workaround for gravity.
Magical space aliens could open a wormhole for us and teach us to breathe the Martian atmosphere.
Anythings possible in an infinite universe.
Earth might become uninhabitable though
Elon Musk says weneed to become a multi-planet species.
