Now don’t get me wrong. Homeboy loves Earth. But every now and then, when I get existential thoughts, I wonder what would happen if the human race shifted to another planet. That is when the scientific and rational man in me kicks in to remind me that there are only a few planets which are habitable by humans. One of them is the red planet. While I was on one of these *existential trips*, I looked up all there is to life on Mars and found some fascinating facts on it. I’ve listed some of these down. Have a look, and get ready to have your minds blown!
1. Moving around will become super easy! The gravity on Mars is much less than that on Earth which means that just moving muscles on Mars requires less effort than standing up on Earth!
How easy it will be to leave the bed in the morning if I were to live on Mars! *sigh*.
2. We’ll have to wear spacesuits all the damn time! The weather on Mars is extreme and unpredictable (more unpredictable than Delhi and Mumbai weather)
I mean, just the difference in temperature between Monday and Tuesday is like 170 degrees. To top it all, there’s only Carbon Dioxide on Mars so taking the spacesuit off doesn’t seem like an option!
3. Due to the thin atmosphere and reduced sunlight, you can’t grow food on Mars. So you’ll have to keep the food supplies stocked for years!
The stock of food supplies comes nowhere near to the supplies you keep for the weekend when you aren’t going out. Since growing food on Mars is impossible, we’ll have to keep a humongous amount of food stocked. Some scientists have invented artificial leaves made of silicon rubber which harvest solar energy, converting it into fuel.
4. Water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink! The surface of Mars is covered with ice caps, so extracting water is next to impossible due to low temperature.
The only way we can have water on Mars is by getting ammonia ice in large amounts. That would heat up the atmosphere a little which would convert the ice in the North Pole to gas. This would make the atmosphere pressurized enough for us to take off our spacesuits. Finally, as the water vapor content in the air increases it would start raining and snowing and then there will be water! All we need is some ice. Ice, ice baby!
5. We’ll have to get used to dust storms. Well, these are nothing like the dust storms in North India during monsoon. Oh, and the dust will cause more damage than just blurring your vision!
Every 26 months, it’s summer at Mars and there are dust storms. The dust gets caught in the atmosphere and darkens the daylight (remember that the sunlight is already reduced). The dust can also get into the electrical equipment, causing a lot of damage. Needless to say, staying indoors won’t help you much!
I don’t know about you, but when I found out about these facts, I was shaking! Sure I knew to live on Mars wasn’t going to be easy but for it to be this hard was surprising to me. This only took my fascination with the Red Planet several notched higher! If you happen to be in the same boat as me, the second season of Mars is premiering on National Geographic.
For those of you who have been living under a rock, Mars is a show set in the near future, that explores the journey of a crew to the Red Planet. The second season of the show opens a decade after the mission with the colony expanded to over 300 settlers. The show explores the tussle between science and corporations which is relevant even in contemporary times.
The second season of Mars is premiering on National Geographic, 17th September 9 PM. Don’t forget to tune in!
BRB, guys! Gotta catch up on all the episodes!