What would it be like to live on Mars? The Mars Society recently sent seven people to Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic to simulate a martian colony. For four months they lived in a “tin can” habitat, wore space suits when venturing outside, and ate freeze-dried food. They could communicate with Earth, but there was the same time delay Mars colonists would experience.
They also gained 39 minutes each day, since Mars has longer days than Earth. Participants conducted science experiments, but also were experiment subjects: their sleep patterns were studied, as was their water use. The overall experience must have been good because one of the participants, Kim Binsted of the University of Hawaii, enthusiastically said she would volunteer for a real Mars mission.
Do We Need to Come Back?
Given the difficulties of returning humans back from Mars, Paul Davies, a physicist at Arizona State University, said a “one-way ticket” to Mars should be considered for future explorers. Going to Mars is risky, and would shorten your life expectancy. But “this is not a suicide mission,” he stressed.
The riskiest parts of space travel are the take off and landing, and by not coming back to Earth you reduce your risk by half. You also reduce the amount of zero gravity you are exposed to during space travel, which has significant hazards for health. Mars is the second safest place in the solar system, said Davies, and lava tube caves would make a good protected habitat.
The first four-person crew would establish and maintain a base, and additional people would join them over time. The initial mission “would be the first step in establishing a permanent human presence on another world,” he said.
Establishing a Mars colony also would provide humans with a lifeboat away from Earth disasters, such as asteroid impacts, plagues, or war. “But in my view, the reason to go is not to avoid disaster, but because it is the most likely object beyond the Earth to have life,” said Davies.
Scientists would do a great deal of research on Mars, and would have awards and accolades heaped upon them. “I don’t envision four miserable people sitting around on the surface waiting to die, but doing useful work,” he said.
However, Davies thinks NASA will not fund such a mission, so money would have to come from private enterprise and philanthropy. For example, “The TV rights [to] a spectacular like this, a real-life soap opera from another planet, I would think would be worth a lot of money.” The stars of the show might be all elderly people, since their life span would not be too greatly shortened by living on Mars. Davies asked for a show of hands for volunteers, and about one-third of the audience were up to the task.
Davies said he’d rather head straight to Mars and skip the moon bases planned by NASA. “Been there, done that,” he said.