SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 01 2019, @11:04PM (1 child)
hmmmm abou that low pressure situation on mars and feeling cold:
i was always wondering why the earth oceans aren't evaporating into the infinite vacuum of space.
one would think that a glass of liquid water would boil and turn into "steam" at the zero pressure of space?
also why the gaseous athmosphere doesn't get lost over time ... gravity of earth versus (for all pratical purposes) infinite vacuum of the universe ... hmmm... once the gaseous athmosoher were lost there would be no more pressure pressing on the ocean surface only gravity. but would gravity alone be enough to keep liquid water from turning into steam? hmmm...hmmm...hmmm.
anyways, so we are solid astronauts on mars and no pressure... would i feel cold?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 01 2019, @11:39PM
sry. i argue like so:
a dewar flask is a closed container inside another container holding the first container surrounded by a vacuum
whatever is inside the central container keeps its temperatur for a long time.
the astronaut is the "whatever" inside a spacesuit (central container) inside a dewar which has a outer wall ending in infinity.
mars is not a vacuum but with a little pressure ... so heat can be conducted but alot less then on earth?
so a naked martian inside a 1 bar, 4 meter diameter (transparent and sturdy) hamsterwheeling rubber ball would feel like inside sauna until feeling hungry and thirst and returning to habitat before feezing to death?