Amadou Sow

Since the beginning of time, the human race has only existed on one planet: Earth. With the advancements of technology, the thought has arisen on whether or not we could see humans living on another planet, with Mars being the most likely candidate. The reasoning behind scientists’ idea for humans to live on Mars is backed by the Earth being viewed as a dying planet. Despite what billionaires and others may think, moving to Mars is not an easy task and could take years upon years for us to reach that potential goal.

Despite the good that has come from the improvements to technology, it has done great harm to the Earth as well as overpopulation causing a problem. According to prb.org, 2019 was the highest recorded population since the beginning of time with 7, 692, 000, 000. That number is projected to grow significantly and reach nearly 9 Billion by 2030.

The Earth’s shortened lifespan is due in part to humans adding more industrials and removing animal life and trees in certain areas. Another issue with this is adding factories all over the world and the chemicals that these factories spill out enter into the atmosphere and have lowered the quality of air for us humans. A report by livescience highlighted just how much humans have had an effect on nature, and it’s stated that “since the start of agriculture 11,000 years ago, Earth has lost an estimated 50% of its terrestrial plants and roughly 20% of its animal biodiversity.” They go on to warn about how these continued trends could lead to nearly one million of the Earth’s near ten million plant and animal species becoming extinct.

The increased carbon dioxide into the atmosphere has increased the temperature of the world with the average temperature rising to about 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NASA. These harsh increases on the atmosphere is what has caused the water levels to rise and nature to become less and less of a saving grace. Natural disasters are said to become stronger without nature to protect us. It’s these horrible progressions that have brought on the idea of whether or not humans should look to migrate towards Mars.

Now, the question arises if humans can actually survive on Mars. Despite what billionaires may think, humans aren’t able to live on Mars, yet. The biggest issue as to why we cannot live on Mars just yet is the lack of oxygen to provide for us. According to theconversation, because of Mars’ thin atmosphere, Mars has a surface pressure that is less than a hundredth of Earth’s. Also, Mars has 96% carbon dioxide compared to just 0.1% oxygen.

Scientists have looked at ways to improve the quality of life on Mars with one of the ways having to do with a rover. An experiment was carried out called MOXIE, which is supposed to show how scientists can turn carbon dioxide on Mars into oxygen for humans. Another way scientists are trying to get oxygen onto Mars is through what is called a Martian brine. The Martian brine can produce oxygen similar to how MOXIE would produce it but use 25 times less power.

Multiple presidents and billionaires have stated their desire for astronauts to make their way to Mars by the mid 2020s with former President Donald Trump being the latest. Before his term had come to an end, Trump had tasked NASA with sending the next men and women to the moon by 2024, according to USAToday. After that, the hope was that astronauts could make their way to Mars soon after.

Moving humans to Mars is something that is going to take much research, money, and trial and error. For well-known scientists to speak about the hardships of us going to Mars and expressing their doubts can put doubts in us regular humans as well. It is going to take many technological advances for this project to work and in a few years, we should know more about this discussion and its likeliness to happen.