Suppose man sucessfully traveled to and from Mars. After 24months, the Mars crew returns to Earth...

Question

Would the crew's age be different than it would be on Earth since they were far away from Earth for a period of 24months? Immediately before the Mars mission, suppose a Mars crew member is 33years old. Immediately after the member returns to Earth, will he be 35years old?

Answer 1

That's an interesting question. I do not know the proper answer to it but the following could be some interesting factors to consider...

What boost the aging process depends on several factors such as:

1- Your metabolism and genetics

2- The environment you live in

Basically, for #1, you have to consider how you are genetically built because everybody's cells age at a different rate and this will affect how you look (e.g. asian tends to look younger physically than others).

For #2, it inculdes the air you breath in, the food you eat (and also what you see?).

The chemistry of the air you breath in may affect your body greatly.

What's more, the food you eat, it's definitely not fresh food from the farm. We know that on expedition like this, thye eat reserves that have a lot of conservatives.

And, I'm not too sure, but I believe that the mood of somebody who sees Mars landscaping all the time would appreciate other colors like blue, green, yellow (other than red)...that's why I think that overtime, if you see the same thing over and over again, you could get really depressed and that would show physically.

Angeken

Answer 2

Why do you correlate age with Earth.  I don't think time and distance are related.  If you are gone for 24 months then your body will age 24 months....just my opinion, of course.

Answer 3

No, they'd be the same age. 24 months is 24 months no matter where you are.*

*There are exceptions when traveling really, really fast, or when you're near an extremely strong gravitational force like a black hole, but those won't have any noticeable effect on a Martian mission with our technology. This gets into relativistic physics, which is generally beyond the scope of the question.

Answer 4

There would, technically, be a trifling change in the ages, but not enough to measure.

The difference caused by time dilation over a space voyage to Mars, at conventional space craft speed, would be about 1/625 million.  Assuming that they spend one year in actual space travel, the returning crew would be 1/625 millionth of a year younger than those who stayed behind on earth, or about 1/29 th of a second younger.

For the effects of Einsteinian time dilation to start to be noticeable, you have to travel nearly the speed of light.  In order for the crew to pick up half a year on those staying on earth, the space craft would have to travel at 86% of the speed of light, over 160,000 miles per second, and maintain this speed continuously for one year.  (This would not happen in a trip to Mars, which would take only minutes at that speed.)

Answer 5

Actually, their age *would* be different.  But, perhaps only by a fraction of a second.

When Apollo 8 returned from the moon, it was estimated that they "aged" about 300 microseconds more than someone standing on the Earth at sea level.

(I don't think they filed for any overtime, however...)  

Answer 6

Lol sounds like your getting the twin paradox mixed up with ordinary space travel.

Answer 7

the fluctuation in age doesn't come from the distance traveled, but from the speed and time traveled.

if you put very precise clocks on the shuttle and left one here on earth, the shuttle's clock would show that less time has passed. this is based on einstein's theory of relativity which has been proven in precise experiments using airplanes with a similar experiment.

mind you, the time would be minuscule and measured most likely in seconds not years. you would have to travel closer to the speed of light for there to have serious effect on the time difference. i believe that i heard of a theory that if a team traveled for two years at near the speed of light, more time would have passed on earth and they would come back t have their friends and family gone.

Answer 8

Your astronaut would have aged 24 months.   The length of the Martian day is immaterial.  Time dilation is only relevant at near C speeds.  A martian expedition would never get anywhere near such speeds.  Perhaps 30 thousand miles per hour.  Not 186 thousand miles per second.  Big difference there.  Because of fuel requirements I seriously doubt if humanity will ever have to worry about near C speeds.  

Answer 9

In terms of subjective time, the astronauts would experience a little less, measurable with an atomic clock.  But they wouldn't notice.

If the radiation problem isn't solved, they'd feel much, much older than a twin back on Earth.  Perhaps two decades.

Yeah, if you are born on February 29th, you only have a birthday a quarter as often as most other people.  And if you lived through, say the year 2100, you'd miss even another.

But it's not the length of the day or the length of the year that makes you older.

Answer 10

If the round trip was 2 years,the crew member would be 35.

precision chronographs on the apollo moon missions showed

a slight lag.it is theorized that speed for the duration of flight

shows a supportive connection to Einsteins theory of time slowing down with increase in velocity.

credit to AMES research and NASA