Why we should not land on Mars

KEVIN JIA

website manager

The Issue The Red Planet, otherwise known as Mars, has been the talk of the town for decades with NASA launching spacecrafts from Pathfinder in 1996 to Perseverance in 2020 and SpaceX preparing to human explolaunch the first crewed flight in 2026. However, the number of hazards displayed by previous generations of spacecraft, such as mechanical failures, has brought people to think: should we really land on Mars? Mars is 55 million kilometers away from Earth, at the minimum, and the distance increases as the on maRs Earth orbits around the sun. Thus, the journey between Earth to Mars would take around eight to nine months. Anything wrong can happen with- Along with these hazardous conditions, the in that time frame: mechanical failure, starvation, most common worry about landing on Mars is the freezing, or loss of oxygen. lack of oxygen. The atmosphere on Mars carries

Even if the crew can make it, the conditions on little to no amounts of oxygen with over 95% of the planet itself are harsh. Humans would have to the atmosphere consisting of carbon dioxide and be able to adapt to the change in their environment only 0.13% being oxygen. This would force those like temperature changes and lower gravity. It also on the planet to wear space suits at all times or comes with the risks build a camp that of crop failure, global dust storms, or lethal anyThIng WRong can provides a sustainable amount doses of radiation. of oxygen for Mars also has a lack of natural resources happen WIThIn ThaT TIme months until they can receive a new needed to survive on the planet like toxic fRame: mechanIcal faIlRusupply or produce enough on their soil and water. Global dust Re, sTaRvaTIon, fReezIng, own. If anything storms carry small were to happen particles of dust at speeds ranging from oR loss of oxygen to the crew, sending out a rescue 33 to 66 miles per team from Earth hour. They can cover large areas for a few days would be more difficult than surviving on the planbut sometimes have been noted to cover up the et. Communication between the two planets would entire planet for weeks nonstop. This is an extreme take a long period of time as it ranges from five hazard against those who want to colonize Mars, to twenty minutes depending on the orbit of both because though the severity of the storms may not Earth and Mars. Sending out another spacecraft to be extreme, the amount of dust accumulation and rescue others would take even longer, as the crew, radiation from static electricity can pose a large spaceship, and other resources would be needed threat. to be found before liftoff with an additional eight to nine months.

ssue WITh human exploRaTIon s

However, some may argue that exploration and colonization on the Red Planet would be beneficial, as the catastrophes can be avoided by sending rovers on Mars — this is what NASA has been doing with their new rover Perseverance. Perseverance has successfully landed on Mars recently and has been roaming the planet and collecting data. Now, using rovers to scope out the area may be effective, but the more rovers sent out to explore the land before we do, the more the demand for us to provide financially increases. Many space rovers have already been sent out in the past, but a majority of them have been a failed mission with only five successfully landing on Mars. The projects are extremely expensive, with experts suggesting that an average cost to Mars could break half a billion United States Dollars, let alone including the costs of the research process; including the entire research process done by SpaceX, it has been estimated to reach over 10 billion dollars in research money.

Along with the financial downsides, the rover still does not guarantee safety. The entire planet cannot be scoped out without human civilizations discovering it themselves. The possibility of dangerous species on Mars is likely along with the fact that they may never be discovered until humans set foot on the planet. These probabilities can be lowered and potentially eliminated if humans were to send more and more rovers to the planet in large quantities. However, this would make the financial situation stated above even worse as it would put Earth in an economic crisis.

However, in the end, human advancement has occurred for centuries and human exploration on Mars is just another step that we may be willing to take. The chances are just too low for our current timeline and would be bet- ter to start human experimenta- tion years into the future. It’s not something that I, person- ally, would be willing to risk as it has a fair chance of ruining

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