Going to MARS???

Question

I had a CRAZY dream last night that the world was evacuating to MARS. Does anyone think that some day this could happen? Can we actually live on Mars? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Answer 1

We can't live on Mars with today's technology.

The atmosphere is only 1% of Earth's and is almost all carbon dioxide - we can't breathe the air, and there isn't enough air pressure to keep water liquid on its surface.

There is no liquid water on Mars (there is some ice below the surface around the poles, but no enough as far as we know for our needs).

Mars has no magnetic field, so the surface is unprotected from UV and cosmic radiation - anything living on the surface will not survive and will likely not be able to reproduce (plants, animals, insects).

But if we had a large enough domed enclosure to keep out the radiation and to keep a Earth-like atmosphere, and if we found or could create enough water, we could live there.

But since we haven't even set one human on Mars, and probably won't for another decade, its way too early to know if humans can survive there in any numbers or for any period of time.

Answer 2

Not without Terra-forming on  major scale. The start would be melting the ice caps then  finding a algae that could live on mars, we would then seed the planet with a genetically modified version of the algae, one that would produce massive amounts of O2 in compression to its size. ( My personal theory)There are bacteriae that can produce methane and oxygen with water and carbon dioxide, others produce ammonia and oxygen with water and nitrogen.

Both are greenhouse gases, that are far weaker than FCKWs, but far stronger than carbon dioxide.

Let's assume 1% of the surface is covered with such bacteriae and that those use sunlight with an efficiency of 0,1% to produce their greenhouse gas. This would cause one billion tonnes of ammonia and methane to escape into the atmosphere. That is enough to heat up the planet by 10 K in 30 years.

These gases would protect the surface from UV radiation, but would also be destroyed, which doesn't matter, because they'd constantly be replaced by the bacteria.

Through the heating caused by these gases, more carbon dioxide would be released into the atmosphere, which wouldn't only heat up the planet through greenhousing, but also make a much thicker ozone layer (carbon dioxide raises the formation of ozone), which would slow down the destruction of ammonia and methane, which would cause a higher concentration of these gases.

Here are three that are popular with NASA:

Large orbital mirrors that will reflect sunlight and heat the Mars surface.

Greenhouse gas-producing factories to trap solar radiation.

Smashing ammonia-heavy asteroids into the planet to raise the greenhouse gas level.

Answer 3

I think we need to shoot for living on another solar-system before Mars. Why would we try to live on Mars if we could live in a newer Solar-system. When our sun goes... that is Mar's sun also.

Answer 4

I don't see billions of people being transported to Mars or even 10's of thousands, however there may be a chance of civilization relocating in the ocean.

Answer 5

Possibility when Earth becomes too populated, toxic, or is close to Armageddon. Mars was once habitable and could be terriformed to suit our needs. Mars supports an atmosphere, ice, similar seasons and time. Getting there will be a problem. It would take a good 5 to 6 months for a shuttle to get there. But with techonolgy we have  these days mars is a possibility.

Answer 6

There is no place that cold on earth. The atmosphere has too much CO2 and will be that way until plants grow there.

Answer 7

No.  The end times will come to EVERBODY whether they like it or not.  The key is to be PREPARED.  I.e. the End Times will be even worse for non-Christians, because they have no assurance of going somewhere better after they die.  

And some people believe in a rapture (I'm not yet sure about this), when supposedly in the process of Jesus Christ returning, He will call all His followers to Heaven dead or alive so they don't have to face what's happening to Earth.  But I'm not sure this is real...

Answer 8

i dont think so, it would be like total recall the movie...minus the alien part

Answer 9

Plans have been made, yes. NASA plans to plant algae and other such O2 producing plants. Technically, we're just waiting for the technology to go that far and be able to return.

Of course there's still the question of water...

Answer 10

There are some kind of "plans" in the works for colonizing Mars but IMHO (my thoughts anyway) such a move is a very distant thing, like decades from now, and will cost trillions of dollars to pull off. One thing that people seem to forget about Mars - despite the wonderful and often beautiful photographs we receive from the rovers Mars is a heck of an unhospitable place. There is almost no atmospheric pressure (Mars lacks enough gravity to hold onto an atmosphere so even a thicker atmosphere would be lost to space), it is colder there at night than anywhere on Earth, etc. I just don't see colonizing Mars as practical even as interesting as I think the concept is.

Of course, with all that said, it is the only planet in our solar system within reach that we could safely land on. Venus is out because of the heat and crushing atmospheric pressure, so if we're going to travel to an alien world Mars will be the one.