• Question: Why can't humans live on mars

    Asked by anon-187579 to Laura on 6 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Laura Kent

      Laura Kent answered on 6 Nov 2018:

      Well hopefully one day we will be able to! But there are lots of things we have to get right first. Firstly, we actually need to have a human land on Mars which is a little way off yet. And then we would need a way to get that person back as otherwise they will get stuck there. NASA is working on a rover that will be able to land and blast back off.

      The weather on Mars is extreme with the average temperature below zero and the atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide. So we would have to make sure anything we take there will survive in these conditions, including electronics which is where my work would come in! IT would probably mean we would need to wear space suits or live in well constructed houses that could provide humans with warmth and enough oxygen.

      I think it would be really exciting to be the first people that land on Mars and start to build for human life there. They would need to work out how to farm the land and feed everyone.

Comments

  • Photo: Marton

    Marton commented on :

    Well Mars isn’t a really comfy planet – it can get really cold, we cannot breathe the atmosphere, and there’s a lot more harmful radiation coming from space we have to deal with.

    However, there could be solutions for all of these problems. For example, the first people on Mars could build their camps inside caves where they would be more protected from the radiation and the storms.

    I really hope we’ll see it in my lifetime. I think we as a species could do it, and it would be incredible.