If you were magically able to take a road trip to Mars for the day, you would stumble upon rocks, walk through valleys, maybe even take a look at the second largest mountain in our solar system; Olympus Mons. However, due to today’s low atmospheric pressure on Mars, there is no water, no life, and the hypothetical road trip wouldn’t work because you would not be able to breathe. The water-less Mars we know today, hasn’t always been just a red planet. Previous studies beginning in the late 70’s and again in the 90’s detected evidence of water once occurring on Mars. However, a new scientific study led by Sharon Wilson of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Virginia, shows water on Mars may have existed earlier than previously thought. …show more content…
Prior to this discovery, scientist and researchers believed Mars atmosphere was depleted making it too cold for water to emerge. During the most recent observations of Mars, NASA sent out the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Global Surveyor Probe and the European Space Agency sent out the Mars Express Spacecraft. Wilson and her colleagues observed photographs and data they retained from the space crafts. Wilson detected various valleys and lake basins that were at one point larger than two of the Great Lakes. Author of the article “Huge Mars Lakes Formed Much More Recently Than Thought,” Mike Wall, says “this Martian lake overflowed into an enormous basin, dubbed Heart Lake, that held about 670 cubic miles (2,790 cubic km) of water — quite a bit more than Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.” Wilson also discovered evidence of water emplaced by snow not rain. Which would be further evidence for her newest discovery because of previous findings of Mars’s freezing cold atmosphere. Wilson stated “the rate at which water flowed through these valleys is consistent with runoff from melting snow. These weren't rushing rivers. They have simple drainage patterns and did not form deep or complex systems like the ancient valley networks from early Mars.” However, Wilson was unable to conclude how the snow was heated enough to melt. A possible solution to this obscure question could be Mars axis had shifted enough to allow radiance to ice
Imagine very little water source, never returning to Earth. Imagine standing in the middle of a sand storm, one of the many dangers on Mars. With no return to Earth, barely any water, hard conditions and dangers for anyone who goes, regular sand storms... This all proves that NASA should not send people to Mars. There’s a lot more research about space and Mars that needs to be done so we can know what other precautions to take before humans go and settle on Mars.
Would you want to live on Mars? Some would say yes, others no, I am against going to Mars and think that we should stick to Earth and put our time, money, and energy into fixing this planet. I will show you all the reason why we can not go to that red planet.
Why We Should go to Mars “It was obvious to me that we could never colonize Mars without reusability, any more than America would have been colonized if they had to burn the ships after every trip,”(Dave, 2017). This is what Elon Musk said in an interview in Fortune Magazine on December 9th 2013. The fourth planet in our solar system, Mars, is the closest “Earth-like” planet, Which is why SpaceX, NASA, and many other organizations are trying to make a human trip to Mars possible, as well as learning many things about Mars and Earth at the same time. Mars has a lot of potential to be a habitable planet to continue the human race.
I believe that it is possible for Mars to have the ability to support life because of the possibility of there being water increases the probability of organisms being able to exist on Mars’ ecosystem, therefore the chance of Mars being able to sustain life. Furthermore, even if water never did or will, as a matter of fact, exist on Mars there is a chance that an organism is able to survive without it.
Did you ever think we should go to Mars? Well, we should colonize to Mars! My reasons are it’s a good back-up plan, it has many minerals and land, and we might even find something there, maybe even life! Let me explain my reasons.
“I think humans will reach Mars, and I would like to see it happen in my lifetime” was said by Buzz Aldrin, a NASA astronaut. The former American aeronaut from Montclair, New Jersey believes that since Mars does exist, it is waiting to be reached by humans. When this would happen, he says that the human race would “evolve into a two-planet species.” Present day Mars has a lot of canyons, mountains and volcanoes. Even though the surface is Mars is very old, scientists learned about different younger rift valleys, plains, hills and ridges. According to recent reports, there were lakes and rivers, along with an ocean billions of years ago. The low temperatures on the planet cause there to be polar ice caps and frozen water present. Scientists continue to notice several discoveries on the planet that lead them to think there was once life on the planet. Different clues have scientists wanting to find out about even more. Many scientists in the past few centuries have been curious if life on Mars is possible or if it has ever been before.
There is, however, rising speculation that Mars currently holds ice and possibly flowing water in certain areas on and under the surface. Because of the surface conditions, the water would evaporate very quickly and not be directly visible from space, along with the possible exception of the polar caps, which will be discussed later. Almost all researchers and scientists believe that there is ice on Mars, but the trick is to find it and use it to our benefit.
Both rovers found compelling evidence that liquid water was once plentiful on Mars. Rocks at the Opportunity landing site contain tiny spheres-nicknamed “blueberries”, suggesting that they formed in standing water, or possibly by groundwater percolating through rocks. Compositional analysis shows that the “blueberries” contain the iron-rich mineral hematite, and nearby rocks contain sulfur-rich mineral jarosite. Both minerals form in water, and chemical analysis supports the case for formation in a salty environment such as a sea or ocean. Moreover, we find very similar “blueberries” that formed in water on Earth, and a close look at the layering of the sedimentary rocks suggests a changing environment of waves and/or wind. Previous theories suggested they were created by simple chemical reactions without the help of life, but research last year revealed clear evidence that microbes were essential in their formation. This raised the possibility that Martian ‘blueberries’ may not only revealed that water was present on Mars, but also ancient microbial life. Spirit detected magnetite (ferrimagnetic mineral) in the first two rocks ground by it. Uncovering signs of the past presence of water and a more habitable environment are among the rovers' most import...
The water contained under the soil has had some various effects on the Mars terrain. When the robots were on mars collecting samples, they found some rocks that looked like rocks from prehistoric life here on earth. When analyzing these samples, the scientists deemed that the water was very acidic and salty. This is similar to some of the earlier times in the Australian area.
In a recent interview with Bruce Jakosky, Ph.D., Professor of Geologic and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado, Linda Howe asked a series of questions pertaining to Mars and what had exactly happened to the planet. The first question was: Q.) “What might have Caused Mars to lose both its surface water and magnetic field?'; A.) “The CO2 that would have produced a greenhouse atmosphere could have been lost to space. It could have been incorporated into the ground as carbonate minerals, and once that happens, the water could have frozen out in the ground.
If humans are going to live on Mars during the terraforming process, there must be water for consumption and a place to live. In the place where humans are going to live permanent there is has to be a plant growing station, or room. In this room there will be LED lights that only put off the most efficient light used by the plants. The CO2 is already on the planet; all we need now is water. To grow plants and to live, we must have fresh distilled water. Our rovers have discovered water in the soil of mars. Using an extraction technique that involves a repetition of evaporation and condensing to produce stored water. We will have plenty of water to use for consumption and growth of food. Over the 1000-year time process we will have to start changing the atmosphere of mars to make it breathable for humans. Mars’ atmosphere contains 0.15 percent oxygen, which is...
Its atmosphere used to be thick enough for water, but today it cannot. Over time the atmosphere got thinner and there’s little or no water to be found on this planet. Now this planet’s atmosphere is too thin to support life as we know it. When the atmosphere was thick this planet could have supported life in the ancient past. Mars’s chemical makeup is Carbon dioxide: 95.32 percent Nitrogen: 2.7 percent Argon: 1.6 percent Oxygen: 0.13 percent Carbon monoxide: 0.08 percent Also, minor amounts of: water, nitrogen oxide, neon, hydrogen-deuterium-oxygen, krypton and xenon (space.com). Mars does not have gas
The subject of my science fiction story will be the near future colonization of Mars. It will be in the form of a crew log recording the difficulties of their mission, one of which will be life support and habitation on such a long journey and potentially continuing at the surface of another planet as well. My paper will cover supplying resources for an endeavor of this magnitude, the features of Mars itself, and potential terraforming of the Martian surface to support human life. Habitation is an issue humanity currently faces with long term exposure to the environment of space in the International Space Station and as such is a problem NASA has put considerable resources toward solving in the hopes of pushing future long term manned missions to celestial bodies within our solar system into the realm of possibility. A manned mission to Mars – especially one for colonization – would certainly fall into the long term mission category and so habitation will be a central part of my explorers’ journeys.
Mars is a very similar planet to earth in relation to size and atmosphere. Therefore it seemed like the most likely place to search for life. At the end of the 19th century, an American named Percival Lowell built himself an observatory so that it was possible for him to study Mars in intimate detail when its orbit was closest to Earth. At this time it had recently been suggested that the planet had a system of channels on the surface, present from the evaporation of flowing water. Looking through his telescope Lowell became convinced he could see a network of artificial canals. This led him to believe that there were intelligent beings on Mars who had built these canals. However, spacecraft have now visited Mars and found that there is no evidence of water at all. It is now thought that the lines he could see were the combination of Lowell's overactive imagination, and scratches on the lens of his telescope. We are now searching one of Jupiter's moons, Europa, as this seems to be the next likely place to hold life.
...ws radiation from the sun to expose the surface of the planet, adding to environment changes. If life exists on Mars today, it is most likely hiding beneath the surface. Over the past four billion years Earth has had many rocks blown from the surface of Mars, after much research, scientists say that of the thirty-four meteorites, three have the potential to carry evidence of past life on Mars (Carey, 2006). Researches have gathered evidence and continue to explore for life outside of Earth. Earth has provided these scientists with enough knowledge to understand the components needed to sustain life, therefore any research found is compared to the knowledge already understood about life on Earth. Earth is home to billions of plants, animals, bacteria and all types of living things, it is where human beings have evolved and adapted making this planet our home.