IS TRAVELLING TO A CELESTIAL BODY THE RIGHT DECISION?

Our planet is undergoing major changes since its birth. The changes at first were not destructive and weren’t affecting mankind in any way. However, not only mankind, but our beloved plant is suffering from inadequate human activities. Global warming is affecting the world unbelievably. Our planet is heating up extensively and changes in weather are taking place in most parts of the globe.  We are losing our planet and if we don’t find a new home, humanity would perish or mankind would have to see the era of extinction. Global warming has brought mankind to such an extent, that we would eventually, have to leave our planet and travel through space in search of a new planet.  A new planet means a new life.

 

I know. The idea of a new planet sounds crazy yet mind-blowing and exciting. You may be wondering, “why leave our comfortably green and sunny orb and settle on another exotic, naive, and languid planet when we can take action and save our own heavenly body?” Right?  Well, you see, it’s easy to say things but when putting them in action, it gets difficult. Different, non-profit organizations, like Citizen Climate Lobby, Earth Justice, etc. are taking steps towards building an eco-friendly environment but it’s going to take years until every bit of planet Earth returns to normal.

Going to our friendly-neighborhood planet, Mars will help us explore things we never could have explored before…

 

CEO of Tesla Motors and Chief Engineer at SpaceX, Elon Musk, is already thinking of taking millions of people to Mars and making history. Musk thinks that it is possible to begin shuttling thousands of people between Earth and our smaller, redder neighbor sometime within the next decade or so. Perhaps, a hundred years later, Mars could be home to a self-sustaining colony of a million people! The timeline may look fuzzy, but Elon Musk has high hopes and believes in the fact that humans should be a “multi-planet species”. Despite the fact that mankind has evolved into the most intelligent beings present in the universe today, it would still take years to fully establish ourselves on a Martian planet.

 

The journey to Mars could take seven months and remember it’s a one-way trip because once you are standing on the red soil, and admiring the landscape, you won’t be able to come back to Earth. The idea of inhabiting another planet makes questions swim in one’s head. How are we going to plant trees on Mars because the infertile soil of the planet does not support the growth of a tree as the weather is too cold and the soil lacks basic nutrients for a tree to grow. But what about the most important necessity of life? Is water available on Mars? A 2018 study showed that scientists had discovered a subglacial lake on Mars below the southern polar icecap. Today, water on Mars exists in small quantities, though in small amounts, as vapor in the air, due to the atmospheric conditions. 3.8 million years ago, Mars may be abundant in water and may have had a large ocean but as time passed by, the condition of Mars may have caused the water to evaporate. So, if water is present in small amounts, we would not be able to supply it to a million people…! But, in order to get something to drink, astronauts would need to utilize the water from Mar’s ice-capped poles. That could work… Right?

 

Moreover, the atmosphere of Mars is mostly carbon dioxide, the surface of the planet is too cold to sustain human life, and the planet’s gravity is a mere 38% of Earth’s. Keeping the food and medicine supplies stocked on Mars is the best way to make a habitat self-sustaining however once the stock is finished, again, the thin air and reduced sunlight would not support the growth of crops… Terraforming Mars won’t be quite easy, as this laborious process could take a hundred years to complete. Terraforming Mars would mean making it identical to Earth and setting colonies or dome-shaped houses where humans could live. Nevertheless, NASA can’t say for certain what threats await humans on Mars without any further research on the planet.

 

What about the delicious, sweet, and juicy fruits? If we can’t plant a tree on the infertile soil, then don’t dream of eating those plumpy mangoes or mouth-watering strawberries on Mars! Going and staying on Mars may sound like a piece of cake but it’s not easy to leave your planet and family behind. Just think about it… Would you find crystal clear oceans on Mars? Would you find lofty and precipitous mountains with a green blanket of cheerfully shaggy trees? Would you find fishes with bulging eyes and red gills on Mars? Or those innocent and fiery animals? Why travel and undergo a perilous journey when we have a highly civilized and sophisticated planet?  

 

The human race has survived many calamities over thousands of years and has come out triumphal from them however, the collective consciousness of humanity today is worried about the future generations and its comparability with the future of our planet. The projects underway today may bear fruit in the next 100 years or so. The best quality of humans is that they don’t lose hope and this keeps their survival instincts working for their betterment.