Saint Magnus: Mars Trek

So what are the problems of going to Mars? Well, first of all is distance. When Mars is at it's very closest to Earth, it's still 56 million km away, which is a pretty long trek by any-ones standards. But when it is at it's farthest from earth, it's 400 million km in the distance. So we need to build a pretty good spacecraft, which is what we are doing.

The Orion, built by Lockheed Martin. Designed by Nasa

to put people back on the moon and onwards to Mars

(Project Constellation)

The second problem is landing. Mars having twice the gravity of the moon, the spacecraft will be travelling at Mach 27 when it approaches Mars puny atmosphere. Heat Shields will slow it down to somewhere around Mach 2 and then we need some way to slow it down considerably more for a "safe" landing. And even when we solve that problem we're going to land pretty blind anyway, and probably in a big boulder-field with big mean stones just waiting to break a fuselage. So maybe elevators are the solution?

Sticks and stones may break my bones. Photo by Nasa Mars Pathfinder

So if we land, what then? Well we need pretty good spacesuits, the UV light passes right through the little remains of atmosphere that Mars still holds and would burn us to crisps if not properly protected, as does some sorts of ionizing radioation. Temperatures as low as -140C has been observed. Still the spacesuits would have to be a lot less cumbersome than those of today are, if the astronauts are to do some work there.

There are of course many other obstacles to over win, so why go? There are some reasons to choose Mars over other planets.

It is relatively close to Earth, it's the most like Earth, it has water ice, it's day (sol) is almost exactly as long as on Earth, it's almost exactly as big as Earth if you remove all oceans and lakes.

It's also pretty spectacular with the highest mountains and awesome canyons, it's sky is red during the day and turns blue before sunset. So colonization isn't totally impossible, if improbable at the near future.

Another more important reason is to find the second genesis, if we find life there in any form, it's one of the most important findings mankind has ever done.

It could also be that it is the first genesis. We may all be martians who long ago, through a meteorite or by some other means, life on earth may come from Mars!