The race to transport humans to Mars is begun. So, what exactly is wrong with our planet Earth? I would imagine the whole purpose is to start a brand-new civilisation altogether on a new planet from our experiences on Earth. Let’s not discuss too much about Earth’s conundrums as I want to focus this article on audacious plans to build the first city on Mars. Yes, that’s right, yesterday UAE announced that it was planning to build a city on Mars by 2117 and their engineers staged a blueprint of the city of the size of Chicago. Even though it is a long-term project and the outcome is hard to predict, the wild thought itself proves that the human determination has no bounds.
The planet Mars is often referred to as the Red Planet and can be seen with the naked eye. The reminiscent features of Mars to Earth is the reason that the explorers are so curious about it. There are others like Elon Musk and his company SpaceX stated previously that such thing is entirely possible given the advancements in technology today. Using the present technology, once we escape the Earth’s gravitation influence it takes nine months to land on Mars. The scientists are already talking about cutting this journey times to as little as 72 hours. Obviously, there are significant risks during the journey that are yet to be dealt with, but we can assume that the interplanetary transportation system will be taken care in years to come.
Once humans set foot on Mars, can they stake their claim? The current policy doesn’t allow to do so on the outer space – including Moon and other Celestial Bodies. Maybe this will all change over the next decades. The space agencies across the world have already sent their probes to study the Red Planet’s surface, climate and geology. It is still a long way to understand various elements like the atmosphere, surface geology and physical characteristics of this planet, but the scientists are exploring the parts of Earth that match conditions on Mars. The Human transition to Martian may not be so difficult as there are so many similarities between our planets like the day duration, the seasons, the physical characteristics, and so on. Perhaps with the complex life supporting measures and the ability to live in artificial conditions would allow human survival on Mars. You may remember the movie ‘The Martian’ which depicts the exact scenario of survival on Mars. All of this may sound fictional now, but who knows in future this will soon turn into a reality. Once the permanent settlements are established on Mars then there is a future for potential expansions.
Once we get there and establish ourselves do we emulate the same principles evolved during the civilisations? Would our interests be in the economic aspects and long term scientific research? Who knows? Only time will tell. But who would want to go to Mars in the first place? I certainly don’t stand a chance, but there will be some daring souls who would want to engage in a mission and live tens of millions of miles away from Home to Mome (a term for home in Mars). Provided the communications are established with the delays to Earth, you are guaranteed to receive a message from Martian relative roughly every hour. The observations to Mars continued from generations since medieval periods to the present day, so on that basis it is safe to say that the race begun a very long time ago, and the dream of landing of people on Mars would be a reality in future.