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Could you live on Mars? Would you want to? Would anybody want to? Why?
Forget about the political issues that always get raised when somebody brings up Mars exploration for now; they're a subject of another discussion. I want to focus people's thoughts on what it would be like if one could get to Mars and visit or live there. Would you want to?
It's not, as I've written in one of my planetarium shows, a quick jaunt. Anybody going to Mars has to be prepared for a lengthy Earth-Mars trajectory. You'd spend about 18 months getting there; that's a year and a half of low gravity conditions, living in close quarters with a bunch of other people and no chance to get outside for a stroll along the way. There's no way to stretch your legs, visit a waystation, check out some interesting side-trails. It's a straight shot.
And, when you get there, it's a whole new ecology to get used to. Probably you'd live underground or in heavily shielded quarters. You, along with everybody else, will have had extensive training in order to survive Mars; that training would include learning how to live in surface suits that feed you breathable air and protect you from the extreme ultraviolet radiation that cuts through Mars's thin atmosphere. You'd have a job to do; what it is will depend on what your skills are. Mars colonies (if that's what we intended to build) will need everything that any frontier "town" would need: people to build things, people to study things, people to suss out the dangerous conditions and help everybody else avoid them (or learn to live with them).
Even if you were part of a solely scientific expedition, everybody would have multiple jobs that span the science studies and survival goals. You can't send an infinite number of people to Mars, so the ones who DO go will have to be cross-trained.
I just spent about an hour analyzing craters on Mars. You can, too. Don't believe me? Check out the Clickworkers Site and learn how to recognize craters and their shapes and ages. While the work for this site was originally done in 2000-2001, and the study for which it was created is over, the pages are a great way to learn how to analyze Martian surface features in much the same way planetary scientists (and their grad students) do. It's a lesson in terrain recognition that anybody can do—and in my ever-lasting chase to convince folks that science is for everybody, this is one of those tasks that really brings it home! So, go give it a try, you future Martians, you!
Mark and I just announced the fulldome incarnation of our long-popular show MarsQuest—something that's been a long time coming. The show itself has had several incarnations, beginning in 1988 when we created a show about Mars called "The Mars Show" and it was basically a slide show with a soundtrack. (Why that title? We could never think of a better one, so it kept that name for quite a while.)
In 1996, we got together with a group of people at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, to talk with them about a traveling exhibition they were creating called MarsQuest. They wanted a planetarium show, and by golly, here we were with a planetarium show that we wanted to update. After a few meetings, we had a deal, and the rest, as they say, is history. The MarsQuest exhibition has finished its run around the country and is retired to a museum in Florida. But, MarsQuest the planetarium fulldome show is still very much alive and kicking, bringing info about the Red Planet to all and sundry.
It seems that I write about Mars every few years, and people often ask why. It's simple: I've always been taken with the Red Planet. It all goes back to a game we used to play when I was a kid, about exploring Mars. And that's part of it. As I got older, I read more about the planet, especially when in 1976 we actually landed a spacecraft there.
So, it was only natural that I'd eventually end up writing a documentary script about it. And revisiting it as more spacecraft send back more images and data about this planet. Not only did the game from my childhood spurred MarsQuest, and a scene in SkyQuest, a show we did for the National Air and Space Museum's planetarium. So the game I played keeps coming back in one form or another.
And it continues. As more Mars images and data come in, I continue to work on other Mars-related presentations. For me, this dry and dusty desert planet is also one of the most tantalizing places in the solar system, and if I were of the right generation, a place I could have once considered exploring in first person.
The holidays (all kinds of them) are upon us. Whatever you celebrate at this time of year, take a few moments to step outside and look up at the night sky. Orion should be prominent, and not far away, one horn of the Hyades (in Taurus) seem to point at the planet Mars. If you have binoculars or a small telescope, check out the Orion Nebula not far from the three stars that make up Orion's belt. And, don't forget to include the Pleiades in your stellar and planetary travels!
Ever hear of 2007 WD5? It's all over the news right now, so I'm probably not telling you anything new about it, but just in case you've been out holiday shopping or traveling or hiding under a rock, here's the scoop. 2007 WD5 is a 164-foot-wide asteroid that is moving in an orbit that will cross Mars's orbital path in late January. It comes close enough to Mars that it will pass within 30,000 miles (48,000 kilometers) of the planet. It's possible, although not likely, that this thing could actually smack into Mars's surface. The chances are about 1 in 75. If it did, this rock (traveling at 30,000 miles per hour) would dig out a crater about the same size as the one that the Opportunity rover is exploring right now.
Victoria Crater on Mars
Over the next few weeks astronomers will get a better idea of the asteroid's orbit and whether it will actually hit Mars or sail on by. You can follow the action by visiting NASA's Near Earth Object Program web page for updates.
As images go, it's not very exciting. But, it's what it means that makes a difference to the scientists commanding the Phoenix Mars lander. The image above is a picture taken by the lander's robotic arm camera looking into the robotic arm's scoop. The spacecraft is still on its way to Mars, so this picture is equivalent of taking a picture of yourself onboard a jet while you're traveling and sending it back home via email to let your loved ones know you're still alive.
Why do this? The scientists routinely test instruments onboard spacecraft to make sure they'll be working when they arrive at their destinations. Cruise mode is a great time to make such tests and to work on any fixes (if they're needed). In Phoenix's case, these are the only pictures to be taken and returned to Earth while the spacecraft is en route. The next images we see from these instruments won't arrive until the spacecraft gets to Mars in May 2008.
Phoenix's work on Mars will be the sort of geology that humans would love to do when WE get to Mars. It will dig trenches, scoop up soil and water-ice samples, and then test them onboard the lander in a series of chemical and geological analyses. The imagers will give us full-color images of the nearby surface in great detail
Of course, the big questions this mission is designed to answer have to do with life; whether it existed on Mars and what remains would be detectable in the Martian soil. It's one of the main drivers for all our Mars missions as we seek to understand this bleak, cold, alien yet Earth-reminiscent planet. So, it's good that our planetary scout mission has sent us back some pictures. We know the camera works. And sometime next year, we'll use the other instruments to further our understanding of Mars's intricate geological history.
Somewhere out there, the first Mars explorer is getting ready. I often wonder who it will be. A young woman from the U.S.? A man from Africa or Europe? A member of a multi-national team that spent years living and training on Earth and then the Moon?
The state of Mars exploration today is largely dependent on orbiters and landers. This is as it should be. These workhorse robots are doing the advance work for future generations of human explorers. Due to the work that the Mars rovers are doing, for example, future Mars geologists (areologists?) will know what to look for when they study the rugged terrain and now-familiar rocks on the surface of the planet. The mappers will have given us the most detailed surface maps, suitable for charting out the course of human exploration of the Red Planet. Even the Hubble Space Telescope comes in for some Mars exploration, charting long-term changes of the planet as seen from Earth orbit.
Eventually, however, humans will figure out the mechanisms for getting to Mars, exploring it, and living there for long periods of time. That will be, as a friend of mine at NASA once said, "time to quit messing around and actually DOING the heavy work of Mars exploration." (Well, he didn't say "messing around" but you get the idea. He IS a supporter of human exploration of Mars, even as he recognizes the need for precursor robot explorations.)
Science fiction writers have long explored Mars. One of the most realistic depictions of life on Mars comes in the book Mars Crossing by Geoffrey Landis. It's a very scientific look at the very human enterprise of exploring Mars. The attention to detail gave me a few "I didn't know that" moments, such as the fact that due to the heavy hydrogen peroxide content of the Mars surface and atmosphere, visitors who are exposed to it (and it would be inevitable on a long-term exploration) would find their hair bleaching out! Who'd a thought Mars would be the ultimate hair salon!
Blonding hair notwithstanding, human visitors to Mars will be profoundly changed by the experience in many ways. Witness the life-changing experiences that astronauts who have only visited the Moon and low-Earth orbit have described when talking about their work in space. I can only imagine our first Mars explorer standing there on the new frontier, looking around the dusty, desert surface, and then searching out Earth in the night-time Martian sky. It won't be much larger than that famous "pale blue dot" that the late Carl Sagan was so fond of describing. I wonder what they'll say when faced with the enormity of the distance they've traveled? Perhaps, like Neil Armstrong did when HE reached the Moon in 1969, they'll have a prepared speech to share with those of us left back home. I just hope it will be peppered with a few repetitions of "wow!" and "It's so beautiful!"
So, the newest set of Seven Wonders of the World has been voted upon. They're all things that humans built, which is great. But, there are other wonders out there, as Q might say, enough to satiate even the most jaded soul. Im calling mine the Seven Wonders of the Universe, and I'm going to post my list over the next 7 entries.
Mars, as seen by the Mars Global Surveyor on 26 September 2006.
Yes, I know I just talked about Mars a couple of entries ago. So, it's not surprising, is it, that I'd think Mars is one of the seven wonders of the universe. Here's why: water. No, there's not any obvious water there now flowing in rivers, or lying around in ponds or lakes or oceans. But, there IS water in the ice caps and most likely locked underground as permafrost. And, the evidence for past water action is all over the surface of this dry and dusty desert planet.
The Mars Spirit Rover at Husband Hill on Mars.
The Mars rovers are excavating and exploring the surface of the planet, turning over all kinds of rock and mineral evidence for the existence of water (flowing and otherwise) on Mars now and in the past. Just looking at Mars through the eyes of these rovers (and the Pathfinder before it, and the orbiting mappers and imagers we have there now) is a kind of secondary wonder that defines our modern age of technology.
Fine-grained silica churned up by the Mars Spirit rover is some of the best evidence yet for a water-rich environment on Mars.
So, I give you Mars. One of the seven wonders of the universe because it is teaching us a lot about other rocky planets, giving us insight into our own planet, and showing us a possible place for future human exploration.
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by Geoffrey Landis. It's a very scientific look at the very human enterprise of exploring Mars. The attention to detail gave me a few "I didn't know that" moments, such as the fact that due to the heavy 
