Life on Mars and Jupiter's Moon Europa

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Life on Mars and Jupiter's Moon Europa

As the future proceeds and life begins getting more technical, Earth may not be the only place where the human race resides. There is already talk that some day Mars will be inhabited by humans. Jupiters moon Europa may be the next after that. Two space missions have already studied Mars. The Pathfinder, which landed on the surface of Mars was one of the missions, and the Global Surveyor, which is a satellite, is the other mission. Although Europa has no set missions yet, The Galileo Spacecraft has passed within 364 miles of the moon Europa and has taken images that have given scientist a good look at the surface ("Oceans on Europa" Internet).

The next proposed mission is a vehicle placed in orbit around Europa that would have a radar sounding system designed to look through ice. A further step may be taken by landing a vehicle on the surface. One thing scientist are looking at very hard are ways to get humans to these places. That though will not be a problem because there are already ideas being worked on. One way is Nuclear, it is not liked by a lot of the scientist, but is a way to get humans into space ("The Technologies that will get us to Mars" Internet). Another way is Solar Electric (Ion) propulsion, which uses gases that are electronically charged ("The Technologies that will get us to Mars" Internet). Fusion propulsion is also a good way. It is a very fast method of travel. It works by outputting more power than can be consumed ("The Technologies that will get us to Mars" Internet). The fastest way would be Anti-matter propulsion, which produces a great deal of energy because matter and anti-matter annihilate each other to produce an one hundred percent (100%) mass-for-energy reaction ("The technologies that will get us to Mars" Internet). All of these are ways, one day, humans may be getting to far off places.

Mars, the big red ugly planet, could be the first place humans colonize. First, it would be good to know a little about the martian atmosphere. The atmosphere is 95.3% CO2 with 2.7% nitrogen and 1.6% argon. ("Mars Atmosphere and the Search for Life" Internet). This is similar to Venus's atmosphere.

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