The article talks about the possible colonization of Mars, its goals, dangers, technical aspects, and why it is a “one-way ticket”.
The beginning of the space age
From the very beginning of space exploration, people dreamed of settling on other planets. Someone may object - why are extraterrestrial colonies needed, if not everything is perfect on ours too? But the meaning of such reasoning is erroneous, because science does not pursue momentary benefits, and the research aspect is most important in this matter.
The first such planet in line is Mars. Its colonization from the beginning of the 60s of the last century was considered along with the moon. The conditions on it are most suitable compared to other planets, this is gravity (albeit not terrestrial, but similar), and an acceptable difference in day and night temperature, and most importantly - polar glaciers. But about them a little later.
Also important is distance. Along with Venus, it is closest to Earth, but, unlike its “sister,” it does not rain from sulfuric acid and does not boil lakes of liquid tin.
The minimum distance is 54.6 million kilometers, the maximum is 401 million kilometers. This is due to the difference in orbits, and every two years the closest planet to us is Mars. Colonization from this factor is only simplified.
At first glance, it would seem, what is the difficulty? Build ships, load everything you need and send with the first settlers. Alas, this is possible only in science fiction books of the middle of the last century, where in the future everyone has their own interstellar yacht on a summer cottage ...
Mars. Colonization or terraforming?
Increasingly, there is debate about how to turn the red planet into a habitable one. There are a lot of theories and proposals, and all of them have the right to success, but so far none of them have been tested in practice. Why? Because, despite the space station and regular flights to it, mankind has still very little progress in flights in airless space.
So, terraforming projects without human participation are impossible, and just the first settlers can lay their foundation. Their meaning revolves around the atmosphere of Mars. It consists mainly of carbon dioxide, and is too discharged for liquid water or normal clouds to exist on the surface. And there are proposals to colonize it with bacteria that will produce even more carbon dioxide, as a result of which the gas shell of the planet will become denser, the temperature will rise and the polar caps will begin to melt, and warm rains will follow.
Colonization of Mars. Selection of candidates
In 2011, the launch of the Mars One project was announced. Its meaning was that a wide selection of all those wishing to leave the Earth, and not only the already operating astronauts, for the establishment of a settlement on Mars would be carried out. A little later, indeed, any person could propose his candidacy via the Internet, and if he passed the test successfully, he would be included in the ranks of applicants, receive a specialty, and wait for an opportunity.
This project is private, and all the management planned to transfer all the complex technical work to contractors, and to make a profit by making reality show out of the training of the colonialists.
By the way, there were a lot of people who wanted to, and they were not even afraid of the fact that this was a one-way flight to Mars. Since in which case it will be impossible to pick up the settlers.
At the moment, the selection is completed, but it is planned to conduct several more in the near future. In general, a lot of people criticize Mars One, and not without reason. Since very little has been done over the 5 years of existence, and the dates of various events and plans are constantly being postponed. Criteria for selecting participants are also questionable.
Challenges and Dangers
The first difficulty is the direct flight to Mars itself. Colonization is complicated by the fact that even with the closest proximity to us of the red planet, with current technologies, the flight will take about 7 months. And all this time, the astronauts need to eat something, and there will be a ton of equipment on board. Another danger is cosmic radiation. To protect against it, you need to develop special tools.
Also an urgent issue is nutrition on Mars. Absolutely closed life support systems are not yet available, and the colonists will have to rely only on themselves and greenhouses on hydroponics. And the plus for all this is the need for housing, at least some housing modules that also need to be delivered, lowered, assembled without damage ... After all, if something happens, the astronauts will have to wait at least 7 months for the ship with the package.
Communication
Despite the fact that the speed of radio emission is comparable to the speed of light, at the moments of maximum distance from the earth, the “ping” will be about 22 two Earth minutes.
Gravity
Also, another danger factor for such a thing as a project of flight to Mars is its low gravity in comparison with the Earth’s gravity, and it is not clear how this will affect children born in such conditions. Yes, and the settlers themselves, too.