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Terraforming - Terraforming (literally, "Earth-shaping") of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to the environment of Earth to make it habitable by Earth-like life. overruns - an instance of something exceeding an expected or allowed time or cost. Risk analysis - Risk analysis is a technique used to identify and assess factors that may jeopardize the success of a project or achieving a goal.

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Even with the development of technology and better utilisation of available resources, settling a colony on mars is going to be a Herculean task for the human race. It means a lot to us but also costs us a lot. The recent finding of water does suggest previous existence of carbon based life forms, suitable for our settlement, but temperature and atmospheric differences prevent the people from looking upto mars as their next home. so in essence even though mars might be our go to destination once Earth is no longer good enough, at present a settlement there is a distant dream, which people are working day and night to convert into a reality in the next decade.

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Does life on mars even make sense? Is the cost worth incurring to settle a colony there? What does it mean to the scientific community? What negative effects can it have on the civilisation on earth? Why not invest the money on making a better Earth?

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deliquiscing-become liquid, typically during decomposition

augmented-elongated

suitport-an alternative technology to an airlock, designed for use in hazardous environments and in human spaceflight, especially planetary surface exploration.

biosignatures- any substance – such as an element, isotope, molecule, or phenomenon – that provides scientific evidence of past or present life. Measurable attributes of life include its complex physical and chemical structures and also its utilization of free energy and the production of biomass and wastes.

aqualung- the original English name of the first open-circuit, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (or "SCUBA") to reach worldwide popularity and commercial success

telerobotics-the area of robotics concerned with the control of semi-autonomous robots from a distance, chiefly using Wireless network (like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, the Deep Space Network, and similar) or tethered connections. It is a combination of two major subfields, teleoperation and telepresence.

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The technology is developing rapidly, both through the games industry, and through various applications such as remote telepresence surgery (surgeons in the USA operating on patients in France for instance), and field geology especially deep wells.

With humans in orbit around Mars, then they could explore the surface with telepresence. You get super human abilities too, as you can build telerobots able to fly (hard for a heavy human to do in the thin Mars atmosphere), or smaller or stronger than humans.
With several rovers spread out on the surface of Mars you can "hop" from one to the other in virtual reality, set up experiments, set them going to return to them later, or drive around on the surface of Mars in real time. The robots would be semi-autonomous, not just sit around doing nothing, but a bit like the game of civilization you set them going doing various tasks then pop over to another place on Mars to take over another robot, and so on.

Eventually we might have a sizeable colony in orbit around Mars and a sizeable "colony" of telerobots on the surface which might make materials for export to the orbital colony or indeed to Earth.

Telerobots could do mining, and all the things envisioned for a human surface colony, with almost no risk of contamination, either of Mars, or back to Earth of any micro-organisms on Mars.

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Mars, the red planet, is the planet that has recently drawn every countries attention. The planet has promising proofs that once life was there on the red planet. countries have gone to extreme ends to explore the red planet but only few have been successful. The martian soil is much more favorable for growing plants than the fertile soil. Plus the soil is having a rich mineral composition. The images taken by mariner 4 and ALH8001 proves that once water was present on mars. Still mission mars in working on finding more proofs o

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ANSHUL           APPLICATIONS OF LIFE ON MARS

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ANSHUL           APPLICATIONS OF LIFE ON MARS

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1. Mars can be used to reach other part of the space and can be used as a spacce station for further exploration of space (beyond mars).

2. The martian soil's composition is silicon, oxygen, iron ,magnesium, aluminum, calcium and potassium. These minerals are very rich and can be used for many purposes.

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1.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBL29F8YH0M

2.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzGV2Jr9H-A

3.http://www.space.com/17135-life-on-mars.html

4.http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/dr-marc-solar-system/life-on-mars.html

5.http://www.mars-one.com/mission

6.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Orbiter_Mission

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1.Space.com

2.Youtube.com (for videos)

3. Wikipedia

4. nat geo documentary

5. nasa website

6. mars.nasa.gov

7.www.nasa.gov

8. spaceplace.nasa.gov

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1. Do you think there are people somewhat like ourselves living on other planets in the universe or not?

2. Do you think there is life of some form on other planets in the universe or not?

3. What about the planet Mars -- do you think there is life of some form on Mars, or not?

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1 GULLIES -A gully is a landform created by running water, eroding sharply into soil, typically on a hillside. Gulliesresemble large ditches or small valleys, but are metres to tens of metres in depth and width.

2 ALH84001- Allan Hills is a meteorite that was found in Allan Hills, Antarctica on December 27, 1984 by a team of U.S. meteorite hunters from the ANSMET project.

3. MARTIANS - native inhabitants of the planet mars

4. MARINER 4- is a meteorite that was found in Allan Hills, Antarctica on December 27, 1984 by a team of U.S. meteorite hunters from the ANSMET project.

5. FOSSILIZED- preserved to become a fossil.

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Proof of Life on Mars Found in NASA Photos?

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Proof of Life on Mars Found in NASA Photos?

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Proof of life on Mars may have finally been found in a series of photos released by NASA taken by the Mars Curiosity Rover, which is currently searching the planet for signs of life. One particular photo seems to show a human-shaped shadow looming over the probe and fixing it.

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I began by answering questions about the costs, and the reasons etc, and the summary would sum up all the ideas given by me in the entire sequence. Even though the costs involved are very high, and many people think it does not make any sense, it is definitely sensible and has been a dream for the entire human race. Mars is the closest we have to our home planet, and therefore it is mentally within our reach. As Stephen Hawking has predicted, Earth has 200 years before we would need to get out of here. Where else do we go? A space colony makes sense, if and only if we get resources from earth every now and then. being on Mars is way better, because liquid water is available, and reusing stuff is easier. Also, the fact is that on Mars you are on solid ground, even though the atmosphere is thin, it can protect us from asteroids, unlike space colonies. even though establishing life as we know it on Earth is going to be difficult, there can be several changes and several innovations which would make life possible and then a colony on Mars would not only be "the next gaint leap" but also a solution to propagate life even after our home planet gives up.

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1) Terraforming 2) Being connected to Earth 3) Technological advancement

4) greater Investment

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Mars One has developed a mission to establish a human settlement on Mars built entirely upon existing technology. While the integration of systems proven in prior missions does greatly improve the chance of success, it by no means eliminates the risk or challenge of such an incredible endeavor. Sending humans to Mars remains a phenomenal undertaking by all standards and, as such, presents very real risks and challenges.

United States President John F. Kennedy said in his famous Rice Moon speech "We choose to go to the Moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard”.

Mars One takes on the challenge of establishing a settlement on Mars with the same frame of mind, knowing all great endeavors, especially space exploration, incorporate risk of lost time, resources, ... and sometimes lives. Venturing to Mars is no exception.

The challenge is to identify the risks in every step of the ten year Mission, from astronaut selection through training, from launch to living on Mars. Mars One has incorporated into its Mission plan a detailed risk analysis protocol, built by highly experienced individuals, some of them with experience at NASA and the ESA. Ever evolving, ever improving, Mars One is constantly working to reduce the risk of delay and failure at every level.
For example, the Mars lander will be tested eight times prior to the landing of the first crew, using identical vehicles. As is standard in the aerospace industry, every component will be selected for its simplicity, durability, and capacity to be repaired using the facilities that are available to the astronauts on Mars.

An important aspect of risk management is for quality information to be shared between suppliers and made readily available to all parties. In the case of the Mars One Mission, this includes sponsors, investors, aerospace suppliers, and of course, the astronauts themselves. Because the Mission is ultimately funded and supported by the global audience, Mars One also desires for the general public to have a sense of what the risks are and how Mars One is working to mitigate them.

Mars One identifies two major risk categories: the loss of human life and cost overruns.

Human Life

Human space exploration is dangerous at all levels. After more than fifty years of humans traveling from Earth to space, the risk of space flight is similar to that of climbing Mount Everest.
Mars is an unforgiving environment where a small mistake or accident can result in large failure, injury, and death. Every component must work perfectly. Every system (and its backup) must function without fail or human life is at risk.

With advances in technology, shared experience between space agencies, what was once a one-shot endeavor becomes routine and space travel does become more viable.

Cost overruns

Cost overruns are also not uncommon in large projects in any arena. The risk for cost overrun in the Mars One Mission is reduced by using existing technologies, and by the fact that about 66% of the cost is associated with launch and landing--both of which are well understood and proven variables.

The proposed Mars One budget includes a large safety margin to take into account significant mission failures as well as smaller but costly failures of components on Mars.

Mars One has developed a detailed risk analysis profile which guides both its internal technical development as well as the relationships it builds with its aerospace suppliers. This risk analysis profile will continue to evolve and improve over the years prior to the first humans walking on the planet Mars.
- See more at: http://www.mars-one.com/mission/risks-and-challenges#sthash.N65NvD8E.dpuf Copied from the MARS-ONE website

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Talking of questions, let's see... Do the dust storms matter? dust storms on Mars are really powerful, more than what we have ever seen on earth. what do we do with that? there is a popular solution wherein a pod is made in which the inner part remains still but the outer part would be mobile and navigable, therefore enabling us to counter it. Also, since the NASA rover which is already there hasnt been damaged much by these, let's not something that should be considered a concern beforehand How relevant is it to search for life on Mars? looking for life on mars is relevant, because if carbon based life forms existed and survived, that proves that human life could also thrive given some limitations. NASA is therefore trying hard for this, and this may even serve as an added incentive to go to mars. Why go there? thats even more Fundamental, and therefore all the more important. but this is an important metaphor, becasue once we are on Mars, we have cut the cord with our mother planet, and now are free to go about. we could look at space civilisations next, and other celestial bodies such as moons of Saturn or jupiter, which would also require a lot of innovation. What are the costs involved? the estimated cost of the MARS-ONE, as listen on their site is "After discussions with potential suppliers for each component and close examination, Mars One estimates the cost of putting the first four people on Mars at six billion US$. The six billion figure is the cost of all the hardware combined, plus the operational expenditures, plus margins. For every next manned mission, Mars One estimates the costs at four billion US$". - See more at: http://www.mars-one.com/faq/finance-and-feasibility/how-much-does-the-mission-cost#sthash.4onnlcZX.dpuf

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and this is also going to make an interesting read

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It seems plenty of people want to abandon the Earth. Interest in leaving the home world for a new start on Mars has never been greater and was one of the hot topics at the recent BBC Future World-Changing Ideas Summit in New York.

There is even evidence to suggest it may one day happen. Nasa is tooling-up for production of its new heavy launch vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS), capable of conveying humans beyond Earth orbit; Mars One has recruited hundreds of volunteers for its reality-TV-funded one-way-trip to the Red Planet and the Mars Society is stepping-up its studies into what it takes to be a Martian.

It is easy to imagine that human civilisation on Mars is inevitable. However, before you put all your worldly possessions on eBay and sign-up for a new start in Gale Crater, it is worth considering the obstacles that have to be overcome to build a sustainable extraterrestrial colony. It is not going to be easy.

Here are our five steps to building a new life on Mars:

1. Getting there

Within the next decade Nasa will finally have a spacecraft capable of making the journey to Mars. The massive new 2500 tonne SLS, combined with the Orion capsule, will enable astronauts to explore beyond the safety of low Earth orbit for the first time since the end of the Apollo Moon programme in 1972.

Although any long duration mission is also likely to employ a habitation module, giving the crew a bit more room to move around in, the nine month trip to Mars is going to be uncomfortable and boring. It could also be extremely dangerous.

Quite apart from the risks of launch (the recent Antares rocket explosion proves we should never take this for granted), during the transit to Mars the crew will be exposed to damaging levels of radiation that will significantly increase their risks of developing cancer. For anyone looking to have healthy Martian children (see below), cosmic radiation could also harm sperm and eggs.

Landing safely on Mars is also a challenge. Nasa used an innovative skycrane to lower its one-tonne Curiosity rover onto the surface in 2012. The Orion capsule weighs almost 10 tonnes and that is before you factor in any service module or landing rockets. The agency is currently developing giant inflatable heatshields designed to slow spacecraft as they approach Mars, making landing larger craft feasible.

The good news is that getting to Mars in one piece is essentially an engineering challenge but, speaking at the BBC Future World-Changing Ideas Summit, former Nasa astronaut Jeff Hoffman put his finger on a far bigger issue.

"It is going to be expensive," he admitted. "What it will take to finance the human exploration of Mars is hard to say."

The final figure is likely to be tens of billions of dollars, but Hoffman suggests that the new generation of entrepreneur billionaires who are "space nuts" might be part of a public-private solution. "[Paypal cofounder] Elon Musk says he wants to go to Mars and I hope he's successful," said Hoffman.
2. Become self-sufficient
Having successfully landed on Mars you need air, water, food and power to survive. In the short term you could rely on supplies brought from Earth or sent on supply missions but eventually you are going to have to produce your own.

Nasa's 2020 rover - essentially an upgrade of Curiosity - will carry an electrolysis experiment to extract oxygen from carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere.

"For the very first time we'll produce oxygen on the surface of Mars," said Hoffman, who's working on the instrument. "It's a hundredth of the scale we'll need for a human expedition, but it's a start."

Evidence suggests that Mars was once awash with water - with lakes, rivers and oceans. Today, it is highly likely there is still water at the ice caps and possibly under the surface. Extracting water from urine and sweat through an efficient recycling system - pioneered on the International Space Station (ISS) - will certainly help, but will not be enough to sustain a community, so tapping into a local water source will be essential.

Producing food on Mars could be much more difficult. The non-profit Mars Society has been experimenting with growing food in its isolated desert research station in Utah. "There was some interesting biology we were generating but not appetising biology," says software engineer and Mars enthusiast Digby Tarvin of his last stint working at the base 10 years ago.

Tarvin is about to return to the Utah research station to take command and says a lot of progress has been made since then. "People have grown some edible greens but it's not at the stage we can live on what we produce," he says. "One of the research projects we'll be undertaking is to use the local rock as a growing medium by adding sufficient minerals and additives." The idea is that, ultimately, colonists could grow crops in Martian soil.

As for power, that should be relatively straightforward, with fuel cells and nuclear batteries augmented by solar arrays. Nevertheless, all these resources will need to be carefully managed, which is why the next step is so essential:
3. Form a government
I have written before of the challenges of governing an extraterrestrial colony. The early missions - particularly those involving space agencies - will almost certainly be run with a hierarchical command system. The past 50 years of human spaceflight have taught us that, in the extreme environment of space, this is the safest way. However, there is a fine line between a Star Trek-type command structure and a brutal military dictatorship, and as the settlement matures, some sort of democracy is going to be favoured.

"A space colony is a tyranny-prone environment," says Charles Cockell, an astrobiologist from the University of Edinburgh who is also leading research on developing a constitution for space habitats. "If somebody gets control of oxygen, they could very well have control over the whole population and threaten dire consequences in return for extraordinary levels of power."

As a commander of a space colony on Earth, Tarvin is one of the few people to have any experience of overseeing a Mars base. "It's certainly not a Star Trek-style military environment," he says. "It's a small group of highly motivated people and it really doesn't take much effort to manage them."

A government also needs all the structures that go with it. Any new society needs an economy as well as systems to maintain the habitat, provide employment, health, childcare, social care and education. In short: Mars needs bureaucrats.
4. Expand
The first Mars settlers will be living in the capsules they arrive in, perhaps augmented by a few extra capsules sent ahead and maybe some inflatable domes. But just as settlers will be utilising local resources for water, food and energy, they will also hope to use local materials to build a larger colony or even spin-off colonies.

At the very least, it would make sense to use Martian rock to bury the habitats to help shield occupants from radiation. Later, the surface could be drilled to form caves or rock could be excavated for building materials - just as we build houses from stone on Earth. It might also be possible to extract useful minerals for metals or glass.

Robert Zubin, the president of the Mars Society, is one of the leading exponents of terraforming Mars - transforming the planet from an airless, barren world to an oxygen-rich green and pleasant realm with a fully functioning ecosystem.

There is, however, a fundamental problem with trying to imbue Mars with a breathable atmosphere. The Earth's atmosphere is contained within a magnetic bubble, known as the magnetosphere, generated by our magnetic field. Mars has no such field and any atmosphere it once had is likely to have been torn away by the stream of charged particles, or solar wind, blasted out from the Sun.

The past history of the Martian atmosphere is currently being investigated by the Maven mission but, over the decades, any terraformed atmosphere is likely to suffer the same fate.

5. Have children and establish a culture

Assuming their sperm or eggs have not been zapped by cosmic radiation on the way to Mars (something space agencies are already giving serious thought to), then sooner or later a certain percentage of settlers are going to want to have kids. It is, after all, the only way of perpetuating the colony over generations. For it to be successful, the population needs to be large enough to avoid in-breeding over subsequent generations.

Cameron Smith, an anthropologist at Portland State University in Oregon, has suggested that a population of 2,000 would be sufficient to ensure long-term survival. "If we're going to have a long-term future in space, it won't be done by a handful of astronauts, it'll be whole communities," he told BBC Future earlier this year.

Smith reckons that over generations a new culture would emerge, as humans become Martians rather than migrants. It's a view shared by Zubrin. "At some point the Mars base breaks out of becoming a base and becomes an actual village," he says. "A real society with real people living real lives, with children in schools and community orchestras."

A child born under the red sky of Mars will have a very different outlook to one born on Earth and may never return to the home world - just as many descendants of European settlers in the US do not have passports.

Every step to establishing human civilisation on Mars is perfectly possible. With a focused effort it is very much doable. One question then remains: do you really want to go? I mean really? Mars is a bleak, cold, airless, rust-stained world. Simply staying alive will be a daily challenge.
Discover more ideas from the World-Changing Ideas Summit If you would like to comment on this, or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook or Google+ page, or message us on Twitter.

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It seems plenty of people want to abandon the Earth. Interest in leaving the home world for a new start on Mars has never been greater and was one of the hot topics at the recent BBC Future World-Changing Ideas Summit in New York. There is even evidence to suggest it may one day happen.

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and then there are some people doing it right now

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Mars One's Journey (2011 - 2021)

Humanity has explored Mars since 1960, and we've never been closer. The next logical step for Mars exploration is permanent settlement, where crews that go to Mars stay and build a new society. Humans settling on Mars will inspire us all to make Earth a better place. Technology, scientific understanding, cooperation - is there anything we cannot achieve?

Mars One was founded in 2011 with the goal of sending humans to Mars to stay. Instead of trying to return them, more crews would be sent every two years, establishing a permanent, ever-growing settlement on the Red Planet.

Permanent settlement missions place even higher demands on the crew than a return mission. A first permanent settlement crew would be on Mars for two years before the second crew joins them. They would be able to communicate with friends and family on Earth, but only with time delays. Crew selection, training and testing on Earth would be necessary to make sure they can deal with this. Besides that, they would need to learn all the skills to survive on Mars without support from Earth, other than information. They would need to be able to fix every technical and medical problem, grow food and expand the settlement with hardware for upcoming crews. Crew selection is the biggest challenge of a permanent settlement mission to Mars.

Mars One had a business plan for such a mission to Mars, which can be summarized as monetizing the media value of the adventure of humans going to Mars. The Olympic Games are worth more than $4 billion dollars in broadcasting rights and sponsorships. The 1969 Moon landing is still the TV program with the highest viewership density ever. Imagine the value of a mission to Mars in the current media era. Mars One raised funds by having investors invest in a Mars One media company that held the rights to the mission.

In 2011, Mars One met with aerospace companies around the world to discuss the plan, including SpaceX, Hamilton Sundstrand, ILC Dover, MDA corporation, Paragon Space Development Corporation and Thales Alenia Space. With their feedback, Mars One developed a plan that was feasible, affordable and that had an acceptable risk. In 2012, the plan was announced, later followed by a job vacancy for Mars settlers. More than 200,000 people registered their interest on the Mars One website. More than 10,000 potentials finished the job application process, and Mars One narrowed down the applicants, first to 1058 round 2 candidates and then to 100 round three candidates.

In 2013 and 2014, Mars One had feasibility studies performed by Lockheed Martin, for a first robotic mission and with Paragon Space Development Corporation, for Mars suits and life support systems.

In 2016 Mars One ran out of funds and was unable to continue the selection program and the technical studies. In the years after that, several attempts were made to raise additional funds, but they were unsuccessful.

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Humanity has explored Mars since 1960, and we've never been closer. The next logical step for Mars exploration is permanent settlement, where crews that go to Mars stay and build a new society. Humans settling on Mars will inspire us all to make Earth a better place.

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something more, listen to the part concerning colonisation of mars

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StarTalk Radio Show by Neil deGrasse Tyson

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About This Episode

The crew of StarTalk Live continues their inaugural mission to Town Hall with a far-ranging discussion of space exploration. From asteroid deflection to the colonization of Mars, Commander Neil deGrasse Tyson, Co-Pilot Eugene Mirman, Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, Andrew Chaikin and John Oliver go where no one has gone before. You'll find out what Al Qaeda, the U.S. Senate, Maggie Thatcher, Russia, Spiro Agnew, NASA and the Tea Party have in common. You'll hear about Carl Sagan's plan for creating an atmosphere on Mars... and the reasons it might not work. You'll also learn about the Voyager missions, Chinese research into gravity wave propulsion, and the challenges to terraforming Mars, which involve more than just putting up a habitation dome using robots. As Buzz Aldrin says, "Try milking a cow in a space suit."

NOTE: All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: StarTalk Live at Town Hall with Buzz Aldrin (Part 2).

In This Episode

Related Episodes

Episode Topics

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StarTalk Live at Town Hall with Buzz Aldrin (Part 2)

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The crew of StarTalk Live continues their inaugural mission to Town Hall with a far-ranging discussion of space exploration. From asteroid deflection to the colonization of Mars, Commander Neil deGrasse Tyson, Co-Pilot Eugene Mirman, Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, Andrew Chaikin and John Oliver go where no one has gone before.

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Niel deGrasse Tyson answering questions about colonising mars. more links coming up

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StarTalk Radio Show by Neil deGrasse Tyson

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About This Episode

This week, Neil Tyson and Chuck Nice answer questions from our fans about colonizing Mars, from the smelly, to the psychological, to the political. What would happen to garbage on Mars without microbes to break it down? Which is a bigger psychological challenge for colonists: isolation, or getting along with each other? Are there treaties governing interplanetary colonization and homesteading? You'll learn all about terraforming, and how long it might take before pioneers would be able to grow crops outside of greenhouses. Find out whether it's more efficient to send pre-fab habitats or a large 3-D printer for ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization). Explore adaption, mutation, and speciation, as well as the possible impact of growing up in 40% Earth gravity. Discover what it would take to restore Mars' magnetic field, and whether Mars is more or less geologically active than Earth. Finally, step up to the plate for a description of the impact of Martian gravity and atmosphere on the first baseball game between the NY Yankees and the Martian Reds.
Previously recorded.
NOTE: All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: Cosmic Queries: Colonizing Mars

In This Episode

Episode Topics

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This week, Neil Tyson and Chuck Nice answer questions from our fans about colonizing Mars, from the smelly, to the psychological, to the political. What would happen to garbage on Mars without microbes to break it down? Which is a bigger psychological challenge for colonists: isolation, or getting along with each other?

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1)http://www.science20.com/robert_inventor/blog/ten_reasons_not_to_live_on_mars_great_place_to_explore-118531

2)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiiX-sfk2iI

3)https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDIQFjAHahUKEwjx4PHtz5HIAhUJco4KHZYLBGU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLife_on_Mars&usg=AFQjCNHSS--X2PEvjDKbDTxOikt346mkhw&sig2=HpZT67mRJbXdii6bRliogw&bvm=bv.103627116,d.c2E

4)http://www.space.com/8316-nasa-claims-life-mars-positively-false.html

5)http://www.space.com/13681-mars-biggest-mysteries-water-life.html

6)http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/28/tech/mars-photos-alien-life/

7) http://www.mars-one.com/mission/risks-and-challenges#sthash.N65NvD8E.dpuf

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-researching on the internet

-looking in the library for related books

-searching through newspapers

watching related videos from Youtube and other channels

-reading theses written by researchers

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Q1)What is the source of Methane on Mars?

Methane — the simplest organic molecule — was first discovered in the Martian atmosphere by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft in 2003. On Earth, much of the atmospheric methane is produced by life, such as cattle digesting food. Methane is suspected to be stable in the Martian atmosphere for only about 300 years, so whatever is generating this gas did so recently.

Still, there are ways to produce methane without life, such as volcanic activity. ESA's ExoMars spacecraft planned for launch in 2016 will study the chemical composition of Mars' atmosphere to learn more about this methane.

Q2)Does Liquid Water run on the surface of mars now?

Although large amounts of evidence suggest that liquid water once ran on the surface of Mars, it remains an open question as to whether or not it occasionally flows on the face of the Red Planet now. The planet's atmospheric pressure is too low, at about 1/100th of Earth's, for liquid water to last on the surface. However, dark, narrow lines seen on Martian slopes hint that saltwater could be running down them every spring.

Q3) Were there oceans on Mars?

Numerous missions to Mars have revealed a host of features on the Red Planet that suggest it was once warm enough for liquid water to run across its surface. These features include what appear to be vast oceans, valley networks, river deltas and minerals that required water to form.

However, current models of early Mars' climate cannot explain how such warm temperatures could have existed, as the sun was much weaker back then, leading some to ask whether these features might have been created by winds or other mechanisms. Still, there is evidence suggesting that ancient Mars was warm enough to support liquid water in at least one site on its surface. Other findings hint that ancient Mars was once cold and wet, not cold and dry nor warm and wet, as is often argued.

Q4) Is there life on Mars?

The first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars, NASA's Viking 1, began a mystery that remains tantalizingly unsolved: Is there evidence of life on Mars? Viking represented the first and so far only attempt to search for life on Mars, and its findings are hotly debated today. Viking had detected organic molecules such as methyl chloride and dichloromethane. However, these compounds were dismissed as terrestrial contamination — namely, cleaning fluids used to prepare the spacecraft when it was still on Earth.

The surface of Mars is very hostile to life as we know it, in terms of cold, radiation, hyper-aridity and other factors. Still, there are numerous examples of life surviving in extreme environments on Earth, such as the cold, dry soils of the Antarctic Dry Valleys and the hyper-arid Atacama Desert in Chile.

There is life virtually wherever there is liquid water on Earth, and the possibility that there were once oceans on Mars leads many to wonder if life ever evolved on Mars and, if so, whether it might be extant. Answering these questions might help shed light on how common life may or may not be in the rest of the universe.

Q5) Did life on Earth begin on Mars?

Meteorites discovered in Antarctica that came from Mars — blasted off the Red Planet by cosmic impacts — have structures that resemble ones made by microbes on Earth. Although much research since then suggests chemical rather than biological explanations for these structures, the debate continues. These findings do raise the tantalizing possibility that life on Earth actually originated on Mars long ago, carried here on meteorites.

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Atmospheric and Geological Conditions on Mars

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Atmospheric and Geological Conditions on Mars

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Atmospheric and Geological Conditions on Mars

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Mars is not a great place to live on for multiple reasons. The first reason is that it is much to cold on the surface of Mars, and cold means, colder than the poles of the Earth, which makes survival difficult. Next, there is a very thin layer of atmosphere on Mars, thus making it equal to a laboratory vacuum. The "It's been done" syndrome does not apply here, so naturally people would want to show that life can exist on Mars.

Another point is that there are frequent dust storms on Mars, making it pitch black and difficult to do activities that use light. More importantly, the technology used for self contained habitats on Mars has not yet been proven. The aforementioned includes the fact that it is very difficult to make Mars self sufficient as there is a need for parts and supplies from the Earth.

There are also better places to colonise such as space colonies, and they are much closer to Earth, and require the same amount of support as do planetary surfaces. In short, life on Mars is not impossible, but at the same time it is not the best alternative for future colonisation. There are bigger, more economical and suitable habitats.

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Q1 is life possible on mars ?

Well this is the most basic question. There are many evidence that support the fact that once there was water on mars. The landscapes resembles that once river used tom flow on the surface of mars and also that once there was life on mars.

Q2 What is the thickness of the atmosphere of Mars?

Ans  The atmosphere of Mars is thin, cold, and dry and contains much less oxygen than the atmosphere of Earth. The oxygen content of the Martian atmosphere is only 0.13 percent, compared with 21 percent in Earth's atmosphere. Carbon dioxide makes up 95.3 percent of the gas in the atmosphere of Mars. It also contains nitrogen and argon and very small amounts of water and methane. Additionally, the atmospheric pressure on Mars is only about 1/100 that of Earth's!

Q3 why mar’s atmosphere is so thin?

Ans Scientists are studying why Mars' atmosphere is so thin. It may be because there's not as much sunlight arriving at Mars as there is on Earth, since Mars is 1 1/2 times farther away from the sun than the Earth is. It may be that Mars had a lot of atmosphere in the early part of the planet's history, but once its magnetic field disappeared, this lack of a protective barrier allowed sunlight to strip away the upper atmosphere, making the atmosphere thinner.

Q3 what will the astronauts do on mars?

Ans  the astronauts will be busy performing three main tasks besides relaxing i.e. construction, maintanence, research

Construction involves working on the settlement so that they can make their new home a comfortable place to live. They will install the corridors between the landers, they will deploy extra solar panels, and they will install equipment, such as greenhouses, inside the habitat and many other stuffs.

Maintenance will be crucial to ensure long-term functionality of all systems. The astronauts lives depend on the technology present in the settlement. All these systems need to be checked and maintained regularly.

Research is also an important part of work on Mars, especially when the settlement is fully operational. What is the history of Mars? Did Mars have a long wet period, or just a few wet years every now and then? When did the dramatic climate change take place? Is there life on Mars now? The astronauts will do their own research, but will also collect data for other researchers, and transmit it to Earth.

Q4 When will we send a mission to the poles of Mars? What are the dangers of such a mission and why?

Ans In the continuing pursuit of water on Mars, the polar regions are a good place to probe, as water ice is found there. NASA has already sent two lander missions to the poles of Mars. The first,mars polar lander(1999) - an ambitious mission to set a spacecraft down on the frigid terrain near the edge of Mars' south polar cap and dig for water ice with a robotic arm - was lost upon arrival. The 2007-2008 Phoenix Mars Mission to the north pole of Mars, on the other hand, was a great success. Phoenix landed farther north than any previous mission, at a latitude equivalent to that of northern Alaska on Earth, and used a robotic arm to dig through the protective top soil layer to the water ice below, bringing both soil and water ice to the lander platform for sophisticated scientific analysis

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Mars, a planet towards which man has looked for century as a place where life could potentially dwell.Over the last few years , various missions have sought to determine the probability of such an evolution.  What  we need to support life on mars is a habitable planet. As we know that all form of life require water. This raises a problem on Mars as the planet today is dry and barren with most of its water locked up in the polar ice caps. The planets atmosphere is also not suitable as it is very thin  and allows radiations from the sun. But scientists think that in the past water may have flowed across the surface in rivers. There has been many observations like tiny ufo’s in the atmosphere of earth and also many rocks blown from the red planet. Samples from many meteorites provide hints of possibility of life in the early history of the red planet.

The first closeups of the red planet came from flyby photos taken by mariner 4. Followed up by images from Viking orbiters that revealed dry surface with landforms that give hint that at sometimes there was water on the dry planet. Future missions on mars would include sample returns, bringing pieces of the Martian crust back to Earth. It might be possible that our earth transfers materials to mars.

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Mars is a fascinating planet, the most like Earth of all the planets in the solar system, and may help us to understand much about the origins of life on Earth. Undoubtedly, it's a wonderful place to explore, especially with augmented reality vision. But though it was quite Earth-like in its first few hundred million years, it is not at all Earth like now. Earth remains by far the most habitable place in our solar system. The most inhospitable places on Earth, such as Antarctica, even in the depths of winter, and at the centre of the continent, are far more habitable than anywhere else in our solar system. Space colonies and the poles of the Moon, are both more easily habitable than Mars, and more easy to make self sufficient. Why is that? Read on to find out more.

You see so many news stories about the possibility of humans colonizing Mars, and many readers may get really excited by the idea. But few of these stories mention the many drawbacks and downsides of human colonization. I thought it might help redress the balance to talk about this.

Note, this article runs to an estimated 33 printed pages. You can now get it as a kindle book, if you prefer, for $0.99 + VAT.

Ten Reasons NOT to Live on Mars - Great Place to Explore

1. Cold

You would agree that the center of Antarctica in winter is cold, not the best of places to set up home? Well Mars is far colder. At the Curiosity site, which is close to the equator, typical night time temperatures are -70 °C. Occasionally it drops to below -100 °C. It is often cold enough for the CO ₂ in the atmosphere to freeze out as dry ice. A human couldn't survive those temperatures without technology.

Average temperatures on Mars are similar to Antarctica. The only reason the entire planet isn't covered in ice is because it has so little water to turn into ice, and as the atmosphere is a near vacuum, the ice sublimates into water vapour (like dry ice) and collects at the poles.

It gets warm at midday, briefly, can go over 0 °C. So is not cold all the time, but the average temperature is similar to Antarctica, and it has these huge temperature swings of 70 °C, sometimes more, between day and night, just about every day. You can check the current Mars weather for Curiosity.

Maximum temperature for the sol in red, minimum in blue, data from Curiosity Rover REMs weather station on Mars.The light blue (cyan) line shows the temperature -78°C at which dry ice sublimates into carbon dioxide gas.Night time temperatures even in equatorial regions are often well below this temperature And winter midday temperatures, warmest part of the day are typically well below -20 °C. The average temperatures vary from around -30°C to well below -50°C.

It's not too surprising if you think about our Mount Everest, which is also near the equator, but with thinner air (a third of sea level though still fifty times denser than Mars "air"), it has average summit temperatures varying from -35°C in the coldest month to -20° C in the warmest month. From late December to early January the summit of Mount Everest never rises above -33C.

Check out also Opportunity's solar panel temperatures - at night these got very cold, below the sublimation temperature of dry ice every night, Martian winter or summer. Opportunity is almost at the equator, landed 1.95 degrees South (Spirit landed 14.57 degrees South and Curiosity landed 4.5 degrees South).

Mars might not look as cold as Antarctica, because it has ice only at its poles. But that's because of the thin atmosphere. Over most of the surface, ice sublimes directly to water vapour without ever turning liquid. There is also not much water vapour. As a result it is extremely dry near the equator, cold enough so that it would have a permanent ice cover, like Antarctica, except that it is too dry, and the atmosphere is too thin to support it.

If you are just looking for new land for humans to live in, there are many uninhabited areas of Earth that could be made habitable with the levels of technology proposed for Mars. It makes much more sense to colonize Canada, or Siberia, or the Inner Hebrides of Scotland (where I live) or the Arizona or Sahara deserts, or indeed the sea bed, than Mars.

For undersea colonies, see The Long, Ongoing Dream of Undersea Colonies, Atlantica Undersea Colony - idea to build a city under the sea off Florida and Phil Pauley's ideas for Sub Biosphere 2 which applies some of the ideas for space habitats such as hydroponic based growing food to a sea colony - which submerges itself below the sea.

Phil Pauley's concept design for sub biosphere 2 - it's able to lower itself to the sea floor (video). and video here

For more sea colony ideas and the background to it, and early experiments, see also the Long Ongoing Dream of Undersea Colonies (Discover Magazine, June 2012) and Underwater Habitat (wikipedia).

If you are especially keen to set up a space colony, rather than one on the Earth, then a colony close to Earth, closer to the sun, and without the night time shielding effect of a planet would be like the tropics compared to Mars. Why colonize Antarctica first, when you can colonize the tropics?

2. Vacuum

Yes Mars does have an atmosphere, it's true. But it is so thin, it would count as a laboratory vacuum on Earth. For most purposes, you might as well be in space or on the Moon.

A human would need to put on a spacesuit to survive the low pressure, never mind the lack of oxygen. The pressure is so low, your saliva and the moisture coating the interior of your lungs would boil. The average Mars surface pressure is well below the 6% Armstrong limit which absolutely is the limit for human survival. Average surface pressure is about 0.6% of Earth sea level. A leak in your spacesuit would kill you quickly. No oxygen to speak of either.

The atmosphere does have some benefits, as a source of CO ₂, but even then, is low pressure so has to be pressurized to be useful. In a space colony, then you could make CO ₂ from the carbonaceous near Earth asteroids; it's not that hard to find ways to make it in space if you expand your habitat e.g. with greenhouses and need more atmosphere. And our atmosphere is mainly nitrogen and oxygen, only 0.04% CO ₂, and CO 2 levels above 1% are hazardous to humans.

The CO ₂ on Mars has some value for making rocket fuel, using imported hydrogen as a feedstock. But again, rocket fuel in the form of water is abundant in many places, even available at the poles of the Moon, so this is not a major advantage of Mars over anywhere else.

So again that's not a major benefit over space or the Moon.

3. The "it's been done" syndrome

Okay I know that Mars hasn't "been done" yet. But many explorers who want to colonize Mars have as their main motivation that it is new. They aren't interested in colonizing the Moon, because it has already "been done". They just want to be the first people on a new planet. If that's your motivation, then remember, as soon as the first colonists arrive on Mars then it will already "be done". For a colony to survive it would need massive support from Earth, billions of dollars every few years.

Those of us who lived through the Apollo landings will remember how much excitement there was about the first landings - and then within just two or three years, it became boring to the public, to see astronauts on the Moon, because "it has been done already". Apart from occasional moments of human interest such as the first time a golf ball was hit on the Moon, the general public lost interest totally and the news dropped to the back pages of the papers.

Eventually the public lost interest in the Moon except for occasional highlights such as the first golf ball hit on the Moon, which probably did travel a mile or so, making it unofficially probably the longest golf drive ever.

For scientists, the Apollo missions stopped immediately after the most interesting mission to the Moon, Apollo 17, once it was safe enough to send a geologist, not just test pilots, the first true geological "field mission" on the moon. Much about the Moon is still unknown and can only be discovered on the ground.

The same would likely happen to Mars, if astronauts are sent there mainly for a political aim, to be first to get humans to Mars. Missions done for scientific reasons like the settlements in Antarctica can last indefinitely, continually producing new and interesting discoveries.

The same would surely happen with colonists on Mars. Just as the Moon may seem boring to you now, well same would be true of Mars after a few years.

4. Dust and Dust storms

Every Martian summer, roughly every two Earth years, you get a higher chance of global dust storms. These can last for weeks, and the light from the sun drops by over 99%. Here is a photo showing progression of a dust storm as seen by Opportunity.

In the middle of this dust storm, less than 1% of the light that reaches the top of the Mars atmosphere made its way to the ground where Opportunity photographed it.

These storms often continue for weeks on end, and the dust storm season happens every two Earth years. In dust storms like this, artificial light is needed to grow plants, solar power won't work, and the dust is also potentially hazardous for humans. And you won't see far from your hab or if you try to travel.

Though the winds are not hazardous - the dust is as fine as talcum powder, or cigarette smoke, or they wouldn't be lifted at all - and the atmosphere is a near vacuum. The strongest winds would barely move an autumn leaf.

This gif animation by Emily Lakdawalla shows how the sun faded during the dust storm as viewed from Opportunity. There's a big gap at the end where the sun was too dark to do these images. See her post from 2007: Dust storm update: rovers still OK

During the dust storms, then artificial light is needed in middle of the day to grow crops, and you won't be able to see anything. Solar power won't work.

As a minor point, the dust itself may be hazardous to humans. Some studies showed that moon dust may be somewhat hazardous - not as much so as asbestos, but enough to be of concern. Mars dust may be similar (we don't know its constitution well yet). It also has high levels of perchlorates, and may also have traces of gypsum, both of which could be hazardous to humans if breathed in.

This last issue may be addressable however. The surface of Mars is covered in dust. However, the suitport should help prevent explorers from bringing it into the habitat. Normally dust gets onto the suits and then would be brought into the habitat. Apollo astronauts found that dust got everywhere. It could also risk clogging up machinery. But with the suitport idea, the suit is never brought into the habitat, so reducing this risk.

Not much you can do about the darkness during the dust storms though except artificial lighting, and just sit them out.

5. Contamination

It is almost inevitable that a colony on Mars will eventually contaminate the planet with Earth micro-organisms. At current levels of technology, I don't see how that can be avoided. A human is host to about 100 trillion micro-organisms in 10,000 different species. A habitat would have many other micro-organisms too, in the food, in the soil, other supplies, and floating in the air.

Some of those may be able to reproduce on the surface, particularly lichens, and some hardy micro-organisms, polyextremophiles that may be able to survive in marginal habitats of cold salty brine that may form around deliquescing salts in the morning and evening. See my Might there be Microbes on the surface of Mars?. Some of these can do just fine in human habitats but have surprising hidden capabilities to survive in extreme conditions. The rovers are sterilized to prevent contamination - humans can't be.

Now if you aren't a scientist that mightn't bother you much. But back on Earth you would be known as the people who irreversibly contaminated Mars. You would probably get a fair bit of negative press for doing that, and through all the future of human history would probably be known as much as the humans who contaminated Mars as the first to colonize the planet. For some idea of the potential value of a pristine Mars see How Valuable is Pristine Mars for Humanity - Opinion Piece?

This would make it hard or impossible to tell whether or not any of the life forms you find on the planet are introduced Earth life or native (many micro-organisms on Earth are poorly characterized). It would also complicate experiments to look for trace biosignatures in the deposits on Mars, some of these sensitive enough to detect a single amino acid in a gram of soil.

The contamination could also affect your water supplies. There's also the possibility that it could evolve on the surface through adaptive radiation into new forms hazardous to humans, because the conditions are so different (strong UV, cosmic radiation etc). These then could return to the habitats some years later, still retaining their abilities to survive in a human habitat, but with extra capabilities from their evolution on the surface of Mars.

Some sources for contamination include

Habitat not completely self contained - e.g. maybe you need to dispose of human wastes outside the habitat - or some chemical builds up which needs to be vented to the exterior.

Spacesuits leak. The problem is - that the more flexible the spacesuit, then the more joints it has, and these continuously leak air. Could you contain micro-organisms within the spacesuit without them leaking out of the joints?

. It may be possible to do something about this, but no-one has yet designed an airlock that vents no air at all out of the spaceship. The suitport gets close to this, but is designed more to prevent dust getting into the cabin than to prevent air getting out. Some air would still escape, about a cubic foot in the current design of the suitport.Airlock

Accidents. E.g. spacesuit breached in an accident on the surface. Or one of the spaceships crashes during landing. Even if crew survive, the hull may be breached and contaminate Mars with the micro-organisms inside the habitat. If anyone dies, then that is a major contamination right away.

Suitport - astronaut crawls into this suit through the hole in its back, then the airlock is closed and he or she then walks on the surface carrying this portable airlock on his or her back.

This reduces the amount of air released from the interior of the spacecraft with each EVA but you'd still lose a cubic foot or so each time. Hard to see any way that air could be sterilized in typical spacecraft conditions.

Spacesuits also leak air constantly through the flexible bearings in the joints, another way microbes could escape to the surface.

And what if the astronaut has an accident on the surface which breaches the suit - or indeed - the ship itself has a hard landing and crashes on Mars with the contents strewn on the surface? After an accident like that, it might well be impossible to reverse contamination of Mars with Earth life - as microbes imbedded in dust grains are protected from UV light and can be spread anywhere on Mars in the global storms.

What it amounts to is that to contain contamination we would need to land a biohazard laboratory on Mars, with the crew and all its contents as the biohazard to be contained and kept away from the surface of Mars.

We don't have the technology to do that yet at a reasonable cost. Indeed I'm not sure it is possible at all with present day technology when you take account of possibilities of accidents and hard landings.

There is also the possibility of life already on the planet. Some scientists think there may be life on the surface even now in the harsh conditions there. If so, there is a remote possibility that it might be hazardous to humans. Could be a pathogen like Legionaire's disease which we are not immune to. Could be that it infects other micro-organisms so infects micro-organisms within the habitat. Or could be an allergen for humans, e.g. when you breath in the micro-organisms into your lungs. This chance is probably very low, but not impossible. It's been reviewed many times by biologists, and so far, no-one can really say for sure, they can't go so far as to say that it is impossible based on the scientific knowledge of Mars so far.

6. Unproven technology for self contained habitats

This also applies to space colonies too, but I suggest that it is best to work on this in space colonies close to Earth first, where you can deal with emergencies more easily.

The ISS is not at all self contained. They can't even wash their clothes, but get new clothes sent up when they need clean ones. All the dirty ones are disposed of in the supply vessels which burn up in the atmosphere.

Human waste products can be problematic in a small habitat. Though urine can be recycled, without too much trouble, feces is much harder to deal with and in the ISS is again disposed of in the supply vessels.

Atmosphere regulation is hard in an enclosed habitat. In the ISS there is a complex environmental regulation system which filters out many different harmful gases that can build up in an enclosed human system (that includes ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, acetone, hydrogen chloride, nitric oxide, carbon monoxide as well as carbon dioxide and many others) and keeps the oxygen levels right. If this goes wrong in the ISS (as has happened several times) you can send replacement components or emergency oxygen from Earth but on Mars you would be in trouble.

Micro-organisms are problematical in an enclosed habitat. This is something the Russians found out with Soyuz. In the ISS many measures are taken to keep the numbers of micro-organisms low, including keeping the atmosphere very dry and filtering them out. Still they have occasional build ups of biofilms. (For an overview of this issue see Microbial Colonization of Space Stations

The ISS is not at all self contained. They can't even wash their clothes, but get new clothes sent up when they need clean ones. All the dirty ones are disposed of in the supply vessels which burn up in the atmosphere.

Human waste products can be problematic in a small habitat. Though urine can be recycled, without too much trouble, excrement is much harder to deal with and in the ISS is again disposed of in the supply vessels.

Atmosphere regulation is hard in an enclosed habitat. In the ISS there is a complex environmental regulation system which filters out many different harmful gases that can build up in an enclosed human system (that includes ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, acetone, hydrogen chloride, nitric oxide, carbon monoxide as well as carbon dioxide and many others) and keeps the oxygen levels right. If this goes wrong in the ISS (as has happened several times) you can send replacement components or emergency oxygen from Earth but on Mars you would be in trouble.

Micro-organisms are problematical in an enclosed habitat. This is something the Russians found out with Soyuz. In the ISS many measures are taken to keep the numbers of micro-organisms low, including keeping the atmosphere very dry and filtering them out. Still they have occasional build ups of biofilms. (For an overview of this issue see Microbial Colonization of Space Stations)

All of this is solvable but requires complex machinery to keep it going. There are ideas for self contained habitats using natural methods, such as Biosphere 2, the ESA's Mellisa and the Russian BIOS-3 but these are larger than the first habitats, and again is not 100% proven technology for space yet.

Biosphere 2, first large scale attempt at a self enclosed biosphere type habitat. The experiment was a failure but much was learnt and in future it may be possible to set up totally self contained habitats in space. The technology is not mature yet however.

7. Hard to make self sufficient - need for parts and supplies from Earth

Yes there are lots of resources available on Mars. But they are available in space too, mining the NEOs. Mining on Mars will be hard to do, as hard as in space. You still need to use space suits because of the vacuum conditions. And however much you can make from native Mars materials, at least at present levels of technology, then many components and replacement parts will have to come from Earth.

Opportunity rover in Endurance crater- the longest lived rover on Mars. It has been operating since 2004 and (as of writing this) is still running. All the other rovers have lasted for less than a decade. Though human habitats would be designed for durability, eventually they also would fail.

None of our rovers on Mars have lasted for very long, except for Opportunity which has been active since 2004 (it's sister rover Spirit stopped working in 2010).

Human habitats presumably would be rated to last longer than that. Yet, the habitats would be extremely complex technologically. Things would go wrong eventually, and you would need parts from Earth.

Also, the modules for the ISS reach the end of their design life after a few decades and most of the station will probably de-orbited in the 2020s, with the modules degraded beyond reasonable possibility of repair - and the same would be true on Mars.

It seems unlikely that you could really supply all the food by plants grown on Mars, and if you were able to do that, yet sometimes crop failures would surely occur, especially early on. Again this needs food to be supplied from Earth.

Medicine would be needed too, and other supplies that need high levels of technology.

Spacesuits are also complex mechanisms that could fail, and that the colony would be surely unable to make, and only able to do some repairs for them.

Its best to think of spacesuits as more like mini spaceships than aqualungs. A typical NASA spacesuit would cost about $2 million dollars to build from scratch (not including design costs). It requires about 5,000 hours of work and would take someone who had all the necessary skills about two and a half years to build, given supply of all the parts and materials needed. See Space suit evolution (NASA).

Especially, you are totally reliant on the environment regulation of the air composition and temperature of the habitat, and again if this machinery breaks down and can't be repaired, you die.

There is no way a Mars colony could be totally self sufficient in the near future - except with some game changing technology such as nanoscale 3D printing or self replicating nano-technology.

8. Boring landscape to unassisted human eyes

The landscape on Mars may seem quite stunning in some of the photos. But these have been digitally enhanced with the white balance changed, to help geologists to recognize rock types. To human eyes it is a dull reddish gray or brown. The sky is the same colour too. It will be hard to distinguish different colours and everything looks much the same.

You probably wouldn't get much chance to explore it directly for safety reasons and because it takes so long to put on your spacesuit. Mainly you would just see the view from your window whatever that is. You would soon get tired of the dull gray landscape and skies.

9. Accidents

Okay so accidents happen. On Mars they may well be fatal if they result in damage of your spacesuit or habitat.

Also, in a vacuum, you can die just because you have forgotten one step in your checklist while you put on your spacesuit - or because you get interested in what you are doing and forget to allow enough time to get back within your oxygen reserves. Or just get delayed, e.g. a sprained ankle on Mars might well kill you because you then can't get back to your oxygen supply in time to top up.

And if you get caught in a solar storm, that could be deadly again if you are far from the nearest shielded habitat or rover at the time.

In the future we may use robots for exploring most of the time rather than humans for safety reasons even when there are humans close by who could go. Especially for really long duration multiple day EVAs, rovers controlled by telerobotics may become the norm rather than humans. No need to carry food, oxygen or water. Able to just stop anywhere and work on something for days on end or just spend days or weeks on a single experiment out in the open. The people operating them via telerobotics can switch from one to another, as you do with the game civilization, doing all the interesting things, while the robots do the boring stuff.

"Robots do it better" may well be a slogan much in use in future space settlements.

10. Mars is too small to be worth colonizing

Yes I know the surface area of Mars is large, comparable to that of Earth. But there are several other consequences of such a small planet.

Cosmic Radiation - high levels, would need to limit the amount of time you spend on or near the surface without protection from the cosmic radiation - otherwise you have an elevated chance of getting cancer.

Low gravity - so far it's not known whether humans can remain healthy long term in a Mars gravity. Same is true for the Moon but is easier to return sick astronauts from the Moon to Earth, e.g. if it is found that bone loss is as bad in low gravity as in zero g. There have been many biologically surprising results for zero g, and there may be surprises for low g as well.

The human body is complex, and impossible to simulate in detail in a computer model. You can't just draw a straight line from zero g to full g and interpolate to find the effect of low g. For all we know, it could even be worse than zero g or better than full g in its effects on human health.

Issues astronauts encounter in zero g include, bone loss (in zero g is about 1% per month), muscle atrophy (about 5% per week to start with), blood loss (about 22% within a few days, could be a contributing factor for heart atrophy). Many of these clear up on return to Earth; as a rule of thumb it takes one day to recover for every day in orbit. But the evidence so far suggests you might not recover from bone loss completely. You can easily lose 20% of your bone mass in a long duration space flight. Long term you can get serious vision problems too, one third of astronauts returning from space have impaired vision and in one case the impairment was permanent.

We have no way to truly simulate less than 1 g for long time periods on Earth. It might be completely safe for humans but again it might cause long term problems like zero g. As well as effects on adults, it might also be, for instance, that children's bones don't grow in low gravity, or that it is impossible to give birth safely.

UV radiation - has hazardous levels of UV radiation, again have to be careful about exposure.

Atmosphere not recycled through continental drift. This is mainly relevant for long term prospects. On Earth CO₂ which gets captured in the seas eventually recycles to the surface through continental drift and volcanoes. If we were somehow to find a way to introduce an atmosphere to Mars it probably wouldn't last long in geological timescales - unless some alternative cycle can be set up.

Surface area is far less than for space colonies - if you thought the surface of Mars was large, well space habitats potentially have much more space available. See my post Asteroid Resources Could Create Space Habs For Trillions; Land Area Of A Thousand Earths. So we shouldn't get too hung up on the large surface area of Mars, as it's not the only place we could colonize.

Okay all of those can be addressed, protection from cosmic radiation, centrifuge sleeping quarters and indeed the whole habitat could be set spinning to increase the gravity felt inside, and UV radiation easy enough to protect against. The area for colonization is comparable to Earth so only seems small in comparison to space colony potential.

But it all contributes to make Mars not quite as enticing as it would seem at first.

Colonizing closer to Earth first

I'll not go into this in any detail here, as it rather strays from the main topic of this post, and I've covered it in Asteroid Resources Could Create Space Habs For Trillions; Land Area Of A Thousand Earths. But in short the amounts of resources available to build space colonies just from the Near Earth Objects (NEOs) is surprising. There is easily enough material in NEOs to build habitats with many square kilometers of living area, and with just about all the materials we need to make them.

Longer term, space colonies have more potential for human habitation than planetary surfaces - and that is including the Earth itself. There is enough material in the asteroid belt to build colonies with the land area of a thousand Earths.

Nerius is a likely target for materials for a space colony, as it is one of the larger NEOs to get to, and easier to get to than the Moon. Though only 300 meters across, it has enough material for cosmic radiation shielding for three square kilometers. of space habitats following the design of the Stanford Torus. Mars's small moon Deimos has enough to shield an area more than twice the size of Switzerland (e.g. as lots of Stanford tori). Then, when you get to the asteroid belt, there is enough material there for cosmic radiation shielding for a thousand times the surface area of Earth. This is a different idea from the idea of hollowing out the asteroids which creates much less living space, Nerius could only make a 300 meters diameter habitat if you hollow it out.

In the nearer term the most habitable surface areas of any celestial body in the solar system outside of Earth are probably the poles of the Moon, where there are the "peaks of (almost) eternal light" that get constant year round light. This would give near constant solar power and light for greenhouses except during eclipses. They are also right next to the craters of eternal night which are thought to have deposits of ice and are the coldest places in the inner solar system. So a fascinating place to explore and live, and with just about all the materials you need to build a small near to self sufficient colony.

The peaks of (almost) eternal light might need to be explored scientifically using rovers first to minimize contamination, for instance maybe there are layered deposits of ice preserving a record of the history of the early solar system and the solar winds. That exploration could be done by humans too, however, by telepresence. The moon is far enough away from Earth for telepresence exploration from L1 or L2 to be worth doing.

NASA artwork from the 1970s for the Stanford Torus design

This was something we could build already with 1970s technology and would be far easier to build today. Also, we would have sufficient resources to build this using materials from just one small NEO such as Nereus (perhaps the most accessible of them all, 300 meters across and easier to get to than the Moon in terms of delta v). It has enough material to provide cosmic ray shielding for about 3 square kilometers of habitat living area. There are many other NEOs comparable in size or larger.

One would of course start smaller, but eventually colonies of this size and larger could be constructed, mainly with use of resources available in space within easy access from Earth.

Other colonies could be in the other Lagrange locations, or orbit the Earth or co-orbit the sun with the Earth. Long term, a location close to the Earth makes for faster trade both ways, and permits space tourist visits. Shorter term it also makes for easy assistance and backup in case of emergencies, and astronauts can if necessary be returned to Earth within a day or two.

Also, technical assistance for near Earth colonies can be given by experts on Earth in close to real time without the light speed delays of Mars. In the near term, just because of unavoidable communication delays from Earth during emergencies, I think that explorers who travel as far as Mars would probably have the best chance of success if they are experts who have "written the manual" on the spaceship systems, together with scientific experts able to make fast real time decisions about experiments on the surface.

For more about all this see my Asteroid Resources Could Create Space Habs For Trillions; Land Area Of A Thousand Earths.

Solution to all of this for Mars - telepresence

So, I'm not "against mars colonization". Would be great if these problems could be solved and maybe with some future technology they could be. Perhaps self healing spacesuits and spaceships, able to hold in contamination even in a hard landing or accident? Perhaps some successor to the suitport that is self cleaning and lets no air escape at all? Or we might find out things about Mars that lead us to decide that it is okay to introduce Earth micro-organisms to it.

But in the meantime, space colonies would seem to make much more sense than a Mars surface colony. But Mars is such an interesting place to explore especially for scientists. With enhanced vision, the boring landscape would become interesting to look at and explore. And our mechanical rovers on Mars are so slow, experiments take months to complete, and they do in a month what a human could do probably in an hour.

So, what can we do? Well the answer is telepresence. The technology is developing rapidly, both through the games industry, and through various applications such as remote telepresence surgery (surgeons in the USA operating on patients in France for instance), and field geology especially deep wells.

With humans in orbit around Mars, then they could explore the surface with telepresence. You get super human abilities too, as you can build telerobots able to fly (hard for a heavy human to do in the thin Mars atmosphere), or smaller or stronger than humans.

Video of Robert Michelson's entomopter.

On Mars it might be easier for machines to fly with insect type flight with rapidly beating wings, using the bumble bee wings vortex effect for lift. On Mars that can work scaled up to wings a meter across because of the thin atmosphere also assisted by the low gravity. That's the idea of the entomopter. One way you could build telerobots able to fly on Mars.

With several rovers spread out on the surface of Mars you can "hop" from one to the other in virtual reality, set up experiments, set them going to return to them later, or drive around on the surface of Mars in real time. The robots would be semi-autonomous, not just sit around doing nothing, but a bit like the game of civilization, you set them going doing various tasks then pop over to another place on Mars to take over another robot, and so on.

Image from the Telerobotics Symposium held in 2012, one of the recommendations was that telepresence be used to explore Mars during the early orbital missions.

Eventually we might have a sizeable colony in orbit around Mars and a sizeable "colony" of telerobots on the surface which might make materials for export to the orbital colony or indeed to Earth.

Telerobots could do mining, and all the things envisioned for a human surface colony, with almost no risk of contamination, either of Mars, or back to Earth of any micro-organisms on Mars.

As an astronaut, you could explore the surface within your spaceship in a shirt sleeves environment, no need to put on your spacesuit. The orbital spaceship would spin for gravity, probably using a tether system in early versions of the colony. With an onmidirectional platform and telerobots on the surface, you could walk and run over the surface too, as if you were there but with enhanced vision and capabilities.

We could actually grow plants on the surface of Mars too by telepresence, since seeds can be sterilized. There are two types of hydroponics, and sterile hydroponics doesn't use micro-organisms, instead supplies all the nutrients the plants need in the water. Aeroponics is a version of hydroponics especially useful for space missions which uses minimal water as the roots grow in moist air.

We could have greenhouses on the surface, and export the food to orbit using fuel also created on the surface of Mars.

"Little Prince" rover (concept by Martin Miklica) to support a single plant on Mars. Since seeds can be sterilized (unlike humans or animals), plants on Mars could be grown without any risk of contaminating it with Earth micro-organisms.

Named after the "Little Prince" who looked after a single rose on his asteroid in the fictional book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

It's possible that plants may be the first living Earth colonists of another planet.

Video of the Little Prince rover

Later on, if the decision is made to send humans to the surface, you already have the telerobots there and whatever technology is associated with them, for the humans to use for their habitats.

See also

Encouraged by the interest in this article, I've written many more articles since this one, on related topics. See for instance:

Then, on same subject as this article but a more leisurely treatment:

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Ten Reasons NOT To Live On Mars - Great Place To Explore

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Mars is a fascinating planet, the most like Earth of all the planets in the solar system, and may help us to understand much about the origins of life on Earth. Undoubtedly, it's a wonderful place to explore, especially with augmented reality vision.

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NASA Chief says there is Life on Mars - THE EVIDENCE   -  anshul

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NASA Chief says there is Life on Mars - THE EVIDENCE   -  anshul

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NASA Chief says there is Life on Mars - THE EVIDENCE

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Exclusive Mars Images Compilation by Rami Bar Ilan November 2014 https://www.facebook.com/groups/583999221722964/ Music "Cydonia" by Erez Netz 1990

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Life on Mars: Exploration & Evidence   -  by anshul

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Life on Mars: Exploration & Evidence   -  by anshul

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When imagining locations where extraterrestrial life could potentially dwell, few places inspire the imagination like one of Earth's closest neighbors. For centuries, man has looked to Mars and imagined it as a home for other beings. Over the last fifty years, various missions to the red planet have sought to determine the probability of such an evolution. But how likely is life on Mars?

This image from NASA's Curiosity rover looks south of the rover's landing site on Mars towards Mount Sharp. This is part of a larger,high-resolution color mosaic made from images obtained by Curiosity's Mast Camera. Image released August 14, 2012.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

When searching for life, most astrobiologists agree that water is key. All forms of terrestrial life require water, and while it is possible that life could evolve without the precious liquid, it is easier to search for conditions that are known to be optimal, rather than conditions we suppose could be." [ 5 Bold Claims of Alien Life ]

This raises a problem on Mars. The planet today is dry and barren, with most of its water locked up in the polar ice caps. The planet's thin atmosphere allows radiation from the sun to irradiate the surface of the planet, adding to the environment's challenges. Evidence for water first showed up in 2000, when images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor found gullies that appeared to have formed from flowing water.

But Mars wasn't always a desolate wasteland. Scientists think that, in the past, water may have flowed across the surface in rivers and streams, and that vast oceans covered the planet. Over time, the water was lost into space, but early conditions on the wetter planet could have been right for life to evolve. One estimate suggests that an ancient ocean could have covered as much as 19 percent of the planet's surface, compared to the 17 percent covered by Earth's Atlantic Ocean.

"With Mars losing that much water, the planet was very likely wet for a longer period of time than was previously thought, suggesting it might have been habitable for longer," said Michael Mumma, a senior scientist at Goddard, said in a statement.

It's also possible that liquid water flows on a modern Mars, either on the surface or beneath. The debate continues today on whether features known as recurring slope lineae (RSLs) form from ongoing water flows or running sand. "We've thought of RSL as possible liquid water flows, but the slopes are more like what we expect for dry sand," Colin Dundas of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, said in a statement. "This new understanding of RSL supports other evidence that shows that Mars today is very dry.

Water beneath the surface may be even better for life. Underground water could shield potential life from harsh radiation. There's evidence for an ice deposit the size of Lake Superior. "This deposit is probably more accessible than most water ice on Mars, because it is at a relatively low latitude and it lies in a flat, smooth area where landing a spacecraft would be easier than at some of the other areas with buried ice," researcher Jack Holt of the University of Texas said in a statement.

Over the last four billion years, Earth has received a number of visitors from Mars. Our planet has been bombarded by rocks blown from the surface of the red planet, one of the few bodies in the solar system scientists have samples from. Of the 34 Martian meteorites, scientists have determined that three have the potential to carry evidence of past life on Mars.

A meteorite found in Antarctica made headlines in 1996 when scientists claimed that it could contain evidence of traces of life on Mars. Known as ALH 84001, the Martian rock contained structures resembled the fossilized remains of bacteria-like lifeforms. Follow-up tests revealed organic material, though the debate over whether or not the material was caused by biological processes wasn't settled until 2012, when it was determined that these vital ingredients had been formed on Mars without the involvement of life.

"Mars apparently has had organic carbon chemistry for a long time," study lead author Andrew Steele, a microbiologist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, told SPACE.com.

However, these organic molecules formed not from biology but from volcanism. Despite the rocky origin for the molecules, their organic nature may prove a positive in the hunt for life.

"We now find that Mars has organic chemistry, and on Earth, organic chemistry led to life, so what is the fate of this material on Mars, the raw material that the building blocks of life are put together from?" Steele said.

A microscopic view into a thin slice of the Martian meteorite Nakhla. A fracture (tan) and tunnels (in boxes) are similar in size and shape to tunnels associated with DNA in terrestrial rocks. How these were formed is not known, however; no DNA was found.

Credit: Oregon State University

Scientists also found structures resembling fossilized nanobacteria on the Nakhla meteorite, a chunk of Mars that landed in Egypt. They determined that as much as three-fourths of the organic material found on the meteorite may not stem from contamination by Earth. However, further examination of the spherical structure, called an ovoid, revealed that it most likely formed through processes other than life.

"The consideration of possible biotic scenarios for the origin of the ovoid structure in Nakhla currently lacks any sort of compelling evidence," the scientists wrote in a study in the journal Astrobiology. "Therefore, based on the available data that we have obtained on the nature of this conspicuous ovoid structure in Nakhla, we conclude that the most reasonable explanation for its origin is that it formed through abiotic [physical, not biological] processes."

A third meteorite, the Shergotty, contains features suggestive of biofilm remnants and microbial communities.

"Biofilms provide major evidence for bacterial colonies in ancient Earth," researchers said in a 1999 conference abstract. "It is possible that some of the clusters of microfossil-like features might be colonies, although that interpretation depends on whether the individual features are truly fossilized microbes."

All of these samples provide tantalizing hints of the possibility of life in the early history of the red planet. But a fresh examination of the surface has the potential to reveal even more insights into the evolution of life on Mars.

NASA's Viking probes were the first ever to successfully set footpad on Mars in a powered landing. The Viking 1 lander set down in July 1976 and didn't go silent until November 1982. Viking 2 landed in September 1976 and kept working until April 1980. Credit: NASA

Credit: NASA

The first closeups of the Red Planet came from flyby photos taken by Mariner 4. Followed up with images from the Viking orbiters, the crafts provided detailed images of the surface that revealed that the surface of Mars was dry, but contained landforms that indicated it may not have always been so. Gullies, ocean beds, signs of erosion, and the vast polar caps inspired hope that Mars could have at one point hosted life.

When NASA set the first lander down on the Martian surface, one of the experiments performed sought traces for life. Though Viking's results were deemed inconclusive, they paved the way for other probes into the planet's environment. [ Mars Explored: Landers and Rovers Since 1971 (Infographic)]

Exploration of Mars was put on hold for more than two decades. When examination of the planet resumed, scientists focused more on the search for habitable environments than for life, and specifically on the search for water. The slew of rovers, orbiters, and landers revealed evidence of water beneath the crust, hot springs - considered an excellent potential environment for life to evolve - and occasional rare precipitation. Although the Curiosity rover isn't a life-finding mission, there are hopes that it could pinpoint locations that later visitors might explore and analyze.

Future mission to Mars could include sample returns, bringing pieces of the Martian crust back to Earth to study. More experiments could be run by hand on Earth than can be performed by a remote robot explorer, and would be more controlled than meteorites that have lain on Earth.

"Mars 2020 will gather samples for potential return to Earth in the future. It's time for the sample-analysis community to get serious about defining and prioritizing Mars sample science, and in helping to make the case for the future missions that would get those samples home," David Beaty, co-leader of NASA's Returned Sample Science Board and chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Directorate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said at a 2017 workshop.

But the hunt for Martian life may be stymied by concerns over how to prevent infecting the Red Planet with Earth life. Current international policies impose heavy financial burdens that make exploring potentially habitable regions of Mars an extra challenge.

"Bottom line is that a thorough cleaning of a spacecraft aimed to in situ search for life on a special region of Mars today would easily cost around $500 million," Dirk Schulze-Makuch told SPACE.com via email. Schulze-Makuch, a researcher at Washington State University, and his colleague Alberto Fairen of Cornell University authored a commentary article published in the journal Nature Geoscience arguing for less-strict protection measures for Mars.

"With that amount of money, you can entirely finance a 'Discovery-type' mission to Mars, similar to Pathfinder or InSight," he added. "Therefore, if we'd relax planetary protection concerns in a Viking-like mission today, we could add another low-budget mission to the space program."

The transfer of material from Mars to Earth and presumably back again has sparked some debate about the possibility of contamination early in the history of life. Some scientists argue that a meteorite from Earth could have traveled to Mars - or vice versa. Debates rage over whether or not tiny organisms would be hardy enough to survive the voyage through a freezing, airless, radiation-filled vacuum and kick off life at its new home.

The idea of such seeding is not limited to interactions with Mars. Some have proposed that debris from outside the solar system could even be responsible for spawning life on Earth. But in terms of the Red Planet, it is possible that scientists might one day find life on Mars - and it could be a close relation.

"If we find life on another planet, will it be truly alien or will it be related to us? And if so, did it spawn us or did we spawn it?" researcher Dina Pasini, of the University of Kent, questioned in a statement. "We cannot answer these questions just now, but the questions are not as farfetched as one might assume."

Follow Nola Taylor Redd at @NolaTRedd, Facebook, or Google+. Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+.

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When imagining locations where extraterrestrial life could potentially dwell, few places inspire the imagination like one of Earth's closest neighbors. For centuries, man has looked to Mars and imagined it as a home for other beings. Over the last fifty years, various missions to the red planet have sought to determine the probability of such an evolution.

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A team of Nasa recruits has begun living in a dome near a barren volcano in Hawaii to simulate what life would be like on Mars.

The isolation experience, which will last a year starting on Friday, will be the longest of its type attempted.

Experts estimate that a human mission to the Red Planet could take between one and three years.

The six-strong team will live in close quarters under the dome, without fresh air, fresh food or privacy.

They closed themselves away at 15:00 local time on Friday (01:00 GMT Saturday).

A journey outside the dome - which measures only 36ft (11m) in diameter and is 20ft (6m) tall - will require a spacesuit.

A French astrobiologist, a German physicist and four Americans - a pilot, an architect, a journalist and a soil scientist - make up the Nasa team.

The men and women will each have a small sleeping cot and a desk inside their rooms. Provisions include powdered cheese and canned tuna.

Missions to the International Space Station last six months. The US space agency has recently conducted four-month and eight-month-long isolation experiments.

While others focus on the technical and scientific challenges of the journey, the isolation experiments address the human element of exploration and problems that arise living in tight quarters.

"I think one of the lessons is that you really can't prevent interpersonal conflicts. It is going to happen over these long-duration missions, even with the very best people," said Kim Binsted, a Nasa investigator.

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A team of Nasa recruits has begun living in a dome near a barren volcano in Hawaii to simulate what life would be like on Mars. The isolation experience, which will last a year starting on Friday, will be the longest of its type attempted.