Calvin University's official student newspaper since 1907

Calvin University Chimes

Since 1907
Calvin University's official student newspaper since 1907

Calvin University Chimes

Calvin University's official student newspaper since 1907

Calvin University Chimes

Colonization of Mars projected within a decade

Colonization of Mars is projected to occur within our lifetime, according to National Geographic and Mars One.

Not only has National Geographic made a visit to the Red Planet possible through a virtual reality experience, their website also offers a quiz that assesses one’s level of qualification to take a trip to Mars.

National Geographic’s original TV series MARS, which premieres November 14, follows the fictional story of a crew sent to the Mars for colonization in the year 2033. This series entertains humanity’s drive to the stars, “that kind of primal need to move,” said MARS producer Ron Howard.

“The science community and entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and others are pushing the space program like never before and rediscovering that drive,” said Howard.

We have seen the classic epic of setting up life on other planets through countless novels such as “Ender’s Game” and “The Martian,” or depictions of interplanetary travel in “Interstellar” and “Star Trek.” Yet all of these stories beg the question: could Mars actually be habitable for humanity someday?

Mars’s nature presents some challenges to colonization. Mars’s atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, while Earth’s atmosphere consists of mostly oxygen. The gravity on Mars is roughly a third of Earth’s gravity.

Landing on Mars surface has proven difficult because of the atmosphere. The air is too thin for parachutes to catch, but at the same time, the air is thick enough to incinerate objects falling into the atmosphere.

In 2015, NASA confirmed the presence of water on Mars, but there are no confirmed life forms to date.

Mars One, an initiative started in 2011, “aims to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars” and expects to send men and women to Mars in the next decade, according to the Mars One website.

The Mars One executive team consists of experts in physics, computer programming, marketing, communications, and medicine, and overcomes the apparent obstacles to support human life on Mars through the employment of certain advanced technologies. Life support systems will evaporate water from the soil, then re-condense the vapor into liquid form. This process will also provide oxygen to be combined with argon, nitrogen, and water vapor to produce breathable air.

In 2013, Mars One began preparations for sending the first cohort of colonizers to the “Red Planet” with online applications for astronauts. Over 200,000 people applied for the twenty-four available positions on the “carefully selected and trained crews,” according to the Mars One website.

“We want the groups to be as diverse as possible, and to utilize the uniqueness and special contribution from, for example, different backgrounds in order to solve complex problems, as a continuation of the work in JAXA and NASA”, said Dr. Norbert Kraft, Mars One’s chief medical officer.

Six teams of four individuals each will train for eleven years, from 2017 until the first launch, which is slated for 2026. A second launch is projected to follow in 2028.

Communication with the settlers on Mars will be established via a satellite in the same orbital path as Earth, but following behind Earth. In this way, even when the Sun is between the two planets, this satellite will provide continuous contact between Mars and Earth.

While real-life contact would not be possible because of the time lag, communication can be done through recorded videos, emails, texts messages, social media, even WhatsApp, according to the website. Even across nearly 250 million miles, the settlers on Mars would not be disconnected from friends and family here on Earth.

“From start to finish, from Earth to Mars, Mars One is dedicated to an international, intergenerational effort to take the human species to its next home planet,” says the Mars One website.

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