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Some Scientists and astronomers on Earth have already started thinking that Earth is not going to hold the damage done by humans for more time. That includes Robert Zubrin, who is an aerospace engineer and an author who is best known for his plans to go to Mars and make the Red Planet inhabitable in another 1,000 years.
Basically if we think about colonizing other planets the agency that should be most talked about is NASA and if we talk about scientists and astronomers then it is Robert Zubrin.
Why Mars?
While Earth is most like other neighbors like Venus, still Mars attracts us towards itself because of the following:
The day at Mars which is also known as Sol is similar to Earth. The day at Mars is of 24 hours 39 minutes and 35.244 seconds.
Mars has a surface area that is almost the same as that we have on earth. Consider the fact that only 29.2% of Earth’s surface is dry and Mars has a Surface area of 28.4% than that of the total area of Earth.
Mars has an axial tilt of 25.19-degrees and Earth has a tilt of 23.44-degrees.
Mars thin atmosphere that is about 0.7% of Earth’s is enough to protect the residents from solar and cosmic radiation.
Recent observations by Spirit and Opportunity have also suggested the presence of water on Mars.
How to Send Humans to Mars?
The initial phase is to transport humans to the distant planet. This in itself is a very difficult task. For the same Robert Zubrin and two other colleagues developed the Mars Direct Plan which relies on transporting humans to Mars using the existing technology and a budget of $20 billion.
The heart of Mars Direct Plan includes a launch vehicle that is called Ares. Ares is similar to Saturn V. Ares has a modified space shuttle external tank, two solid-fuel rocket boosters and four shuttle main engines that are mounted to the external tank’s undersurface.
Initially if the Lander in launched in 2013 it would ride an ERV or an Earth Return Vehicle with a 100-KW nuclear reactor on a small rover. It will take some eight months to reach Mars and then create 112-tones of Methane and Oxygen propellants. Out of the created gases 96-tones will be used to return the ERV to Earth at the end of the planet.
After 26-months of the launch of ERV another vehicle called the Mars Habitat Unit or MHU will be launched. It will be having a crew of 4 and will take some six months to reach Mars. Once on Mars the crew will spend 18 months on the surface and will complete a set of experiments aided by a small rover vehicle carried aboard their habitat unit and powered by the excess Methane that was created by the ERV.
How to Colonize Mars?
When Humans are capable of landing on Mars they will be tempted to raise a colony in Mars. This is the most critical procedure but if we go by Zubrin it can be done in 1,000 years.
Zubrin has suggested that the main thing to consider while we go on Mars is the fact that its atmosphere is not like Earth and humans will have to Terraform the entire planet before it can be considered inhabitable.
What is Terraforming?
Terraforming is the process of deliberately changing the planet’s environment to produce a world that is habitable by humans. There is some scientific debate over whether it would ever be possible to Terraform Mars or not. According to Zubrin it is possible. He has suggested that initially we will have to raise the temperature of the planet. Since Mars is at a distance of 142 Million Miles from Sun the surface temperature of the planet ranges between -129C to 0C.
It is necessary that we raise the temperature of the planet and that can be done in more than one way. We can develop huge mirrors that can orbit around the red planet and direct the sunlight on its surface. Other plan includes colliding asteroids with Mars. Asteroids are rich in ammonia and when heated ammonia releases enormous amount of green house gases that can raise the temperature of the planet.
If we are successful in Terraforming the planet then the next step is to do some plantation. Since we have already got enough CO2 on the planet, we can use plants to convert CO2 to O2 which is the most necessary gas for human survival. But during plantation we have to keep in mind that the dead plants should be harvested so that they don’t form any more CO2.
This step will develop O2 on the planet that will be used by humans and will also raise the temperature of Mars, which in turn will melt the rich water deposits on the planet. After this humans will be able to move around without any artificial Oxygen cylinders or space suits.
What can go wrong?
The above plans are still too futuristic and cannot be easily followed. The reasons are:
Radiation levels for the trip to and from Mars are very high. These radiations will significantly raise the risk of cancer and birth defects.
It is not known whether the gravity on Mars can support human life or not.
Humans that will be born and brought up on Mars will not be able to resist the high gravity on Earth if sometime they plan to come to Earth to meet some of their distant relatives or come for a holiday to Earth.
All these trips are thing of the future and we are not sure what the technology holds for us.
May be the first step of planting fails as we don’t know how plants will cater to the low gravity of the planet.
The low gravity will not be able to hold a dense atmosphere on Mars. So humans will always be open to some cosmic radiations.
Basically if we think about colonizing other planets the agency that should be most talked about is NASA and if we talk about scientists and astronomers then it is Robert Zubrin.
Why Mars?
While Earth is most like other neighbors like Venus, still Mars attracts us towards itself because of the following:
The day at Mars which is also known as Sol is similar to Earth. The day at Mars is of 24 hours 39 minutes and 35.244 seconds.
Mars has a surface area that is almost the same as that we have on earth. Consider the fact that only 29.2% of Earth’s surface is dry and Mars has a Surface area of 28.4% than that of the total area of Earth.
Mars has an axial tilt of 25.19-degrees and Earth has a tilt of 23.44-degrees.
Mars thin atmosphere that is about 0.7% of Earth’s is enough to protect the residents from solar and cosmic radiation.
Recent observations by Spirit and Opportunity have also suggested the presence of water on Mars.
How to Send Humans to Mars?
The initial phase is to transport humans to the distant planet. This in itself is a very difficult task. For the same Robert Zubrin and two other colleagues developed the Mars Direct Plan which relies on transporting humans to Mars using the existing technology and a budget of $20 billion.
The heart of Mars Direct Plan includes a launch vehicle that is called Ares. Ares is similar to Saturn V. Ares has a modified space shuttle external tank, two solid-fuel rocket boosters and four shuttle main engines that are mounted to the external tank’s undersurface.
Initially if the Lander in launched in 2013 it would ride an ERV or an Earth Return Vehicle with a 100-KW nuclear reactor on a small rover. It will take some eight months to reach Mars and then create 112-tones of Methane and Oxygen propellants. Out of the created gases 96-tones will be used to return the ERV to Earth at the end of the planet.
After 26-months of the launch of ERV another vehicle called the Mars Habitat Unit or MHU will be launched. It will be having a crew of 4 and will take some six months to reach Mars. Once on Mars the crew will spend 18 months on the surface and will complete a set of experiments aided by a small rover vehicle carried aboard their habitat unit and powered by the excess Methane that was created by the ERV.
How to Colonize Mars?
When Humans are capable of landing on Mars they will be tempted to raise a colony in Mars. This is the most critical procedure but if we go by Zubrin it can be done in 1,000 years.
Zubrin has suggested that the main thing to consider while we go on Mars is the fact that its atmosphere is not like Earth and humans will have to Terraform the entire planet before it can be considered inhabitable.
What is Terraforming?
Terraforming is the process of deliberately changing the planet’s environment to produce a world that is habitable by humans. There is some scientific debate over whether it would ever be possible to Terraform Mars or not. According to Zubrin it is possible. He has suggested that initially we will have to raise the temperature of the planet. Since Mars is at a distance of 142 Million Miles from Sun the surface temperature of the planet ranges between -129C to 0C.
It is necessary that we raise the temperature of the planet and that can be done in more than one way. We can develop huge mirrors that can orbit around the red planet and direct the sunlight on its surface. Other plan includes colliding asteroids with Mars. Asteroids are rich in ammonia and when heated ammonia releases enormous amount of green house gases that can raise the temperature of the planet.
If we are successful in Terraforming the planet then the next step is to do some plantation. Since we have already got enough CO2 on the planet, we can use plants to convert CO2 to O2 which is the most necessary gas for human survival. But during plantation we have to keep in mind that the dead plants should be harvested so that they don’t form any more CO2.
This step will develop O2 on the planet that will be used by humans and will also raise the temperature of Mars, which in turn will melt the rich water deposits on the planet. After this humans will be able to move around without any artificial Oxygen cylinders or space suits.
What can go wrong?
The above plans are still too futuristic and cannot be easily followed. The reasons are:
Radiation levels for the trip to and from Mars are very high. These radiations will significantly raise the risk of cancer and birth defects.
It is not known whether the gravity on Mars can support human life or not.
Humans that will be born and brought up on Mars will not be able to resist the high gravity on Earth if sometime they plan to come to Earth to meet some of their distant relatives or come for a holiday to Earth.
All these trips are thing of the future and we are not sure what the technology holds for us.
May be the first step of planting fails as we don’t know how plants will cater to the low gravity of the planet.
The low gravity will not be able to hold a dense atmosphere on Mars. So humans will always be open to some cosmic radiations.
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