Mars, “The Red Planet”, the number fourth in sequence and second smallest planet in our solar system, I read somewhere about those astronomers who became mesmerized with the “Red Planet” mean “Mars” hundreds of years ago and still many are, when they first charted its movements in the sky. Now, the world is doing some practical to be live there, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) coming project on which they started working on its new spacecraft to get astronauts at Mars by 2030.
A year on Mars is almost double with our planet, lasting 687 days, that's how long it takes to orbit the sun because it sits farther away. There are also four seasons but they'll feel different, Red Planet is very cold and not only because of the distance from the sun but due to the atmosphere being hundred times thinner than earth's, so, it doesn't retain heat very long.
Did you know that the average temperature is minus eighty degrees Fahrenheit and in in winter it reaches negative 195 Fahrenheit, while during summer as warm as 70 degree Fahrenheit but that summer day can plummet at night to negative 100 degree Fahrenheit. One of the major reasons for the extreme temperature is that this planet Mars is covered with dust, causing the sand and rocks to lose their heat quickly. Powerful dust storms sometimes last weeks to months, even blanketing regions the size of the United States of America.
The Global Positioning System (GPS) system could track these intense storms and other weather patterns via a Martian Internet Service. Elon Musk’s, Starlink satellites orbiting earth could be the forerunner to a similar system circling the planet Mars. So the dust storms and the freezing temperatures are no doubt two major concerns. Our earth's atmosphere and magnetic shielding protect us from most of the radiation in the universe but outside our planet layer is an entire world teeming with dangerous particles and rays.
Red planet’s thin atmosphere exposes it to much higher levels of radiation than on earth. Construction of buildings underground might be good but they could be built above land with a shielding cover made up of regolith (loose deposits like dust and broken rocks). You can walk around without a spacesuit indoors but outside is a different matter and without the oxygen, you wouldn't be able to breathe because carbon dioxide is in the air. Space agency NASA is experimenting with turning carbon dioxide into oxygen. Its Perseverance Rover is testing this out with an oxygen generator the size of a car battery. As much as the gas is a problem for us, it's good for plants - they need it in the same way we need oxygen. The cold situations at Mars mean plants would need to rise in an enclosed structure or indoors, although food supply is an important point but the key ingredient to make living on Mars possible is water.
If you think living on Mars will be easy, it’s your think, a number of things you have to learn to try to make your breath normal at the Red Planet. With numbers of natural surprises one is the largest volcano in the solar system, the youngest volcano on the planet Olympus Mons, that located in Mars' western hemisphere.
Red planet has a number of and large volcanoes than those on Earth because this planet has a low gravitational pull that allows them to grow taller but less gravity means it will be harder to walk around. The sun will be smaller due to the distance and the sky will appear blue because the fine dust allows the blue light to penetrate the atmosphere more efficiently. When night comes, look out for the two moons: Deimos and Phobos. They are irregular in shape and unlike our moon.
There’s so much about the solar system’s fourth planet Mars, it’s unlike than earth but there's talk of re-engineering it to make the environment in atmospheres similar to earth. Currently, life at there will be far from the comforts of earth. Despite the uncountable challenges, living on the Red Planet would feel like something out of science fiction.
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