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Humans Will Never Colonize Mars
The suggestion that humans will soon set up bustling, long-lasting colonies on Mars is something many of us take for granted. What this lofty vision fails to appreciate, however, are the monumental—if not intractable—challenges awaiting colonists who want to permanently live on Mars. Unless we radically adapt our brains and bodies to the harsh Martian environment, the Red Planet will forever remain off limits to humans.
Mars is the closest thing we have to Earth in the entire solar system, and that's not saying much.
The Red Planet is a cold, dead place, with an atmosphere about 100 times thinner than Earth's. The paltry amount of air that does exist on Mars is primarily composed of noxious carbon dioxide, which does little to protect the surface from the Sun's harmful rays. Air pressure on Mars is very low; at 600 Pascals, it's only about 0.6 percent that of Earth. You might as well be exposed to the vacuum of space, resulting in a severe form of the bends—including ruptured lungs, dangerously swollen skin and body tissue, and ultimately death. The thin atmosphere also means that heat cannot be retained at the surface. The average temperature on Mars is -81 degrees Fahrenheit (-63 degrees Celsius), with temperatures dropping as low as -195 degrees F (-126 degrees C). By contrast, the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was at Vostok Station in Antarctica, at -128 degrees F (-89 degrees C) on June 23, 1982. Once temperatures get below the -40 degrees F/C mark, people who aren't properly dressed for the occasion can expect hypothermia to set in within about five to seven minutes.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 01 2019, @10:36PM (6 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 01 2019, @11:37PM (5 children)
What I call an atmosphere on Mars has 30,000 times more CO2 molecules per cubic meter than in Earth's atmosphere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @12:03AM (1 child)
Trolly troll troll troll, hoppin' on the trolling trolley with a lolly taken from a baby named Holly
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @12:09AM
Reality is a mean troll. Downvote!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @12:29AM (2 children)
But it has almost nothing else in the atmosphere. If you remove everything except for CO2 from Earth's atmosphere heat won't be a problem.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @12:50AM (1 child)
Yes because the average surface temperature is determined by the air pressure, distance from the sun, rotation rate, and rate at which the system heats/cools.
For well mixed systems like the Venus and Earth atmospheres we need only consider pressure and insolation. Up high in the Venus atmosphere at mid latitude where the pressure is 1000 mbar, the temperature averages about 288*(1/.723^2)^0.25 = 339 K.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @12:54AM
This requires at least 100 mbar pressure atmosphere, so doesn't work with Mars: https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.6859 [arxiv.org]