Going to Mars and making the red planet habitable is one of the great projects of scientists. Here is their main clue for man to live there one day.
The planet Mars is the new goal of astronauts around the world. By returning to the Moon, they hope to then make their way to the Red Planet. Mars is a terrestrial planet, ten times less massive than Earth. It is characterized by the iron oxide found on its surface. It also contains the highest known volcano in the solar system to date: it rises to almost 22 km. For the moment, it is impossible to live there: extreme cold, deadly radiation, but above all air incompatible with human lungs.
Scientists from NASA and the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) are nevertheless considering making Mars habitable. These plans would involve several processes. It would first be necessary to release the water trapped on the planet’s surface. The Mars Express space probe has, in fact, revealed that a three-kilometer formation of frozen water was locked in the red planet. If it melted, it could cover the planet with a large sheet of water, necessary for life.
Unfortunately, this released water would evaporate far too quickly on Mars: the planet is not surrounded by a magnetosphere. This electromagnetic field protects against most radiation from the sun. Without it, the radiation would cause all the humidity on the planet to evaporate. Scientists are therefore considering creating this protection artificially. “Yeah, it’s doable. Stop the stripping and the pressure will increase. Mars will start to terraform,” retired NASA chief scientist Jim Green said somewhat nonchalantly at New York Times, who proposed creating a giant magnetic shield to enable human life on the planet. Simulations showed that blocking the sun’s rays would trigger a chain reaction: the planet would warm up, melting its ice cap, releasing water into the atmosphere and on its surface.
We should finally make the air breathable. To solve this problem, one strategy would be to use organisms that use chemosynthesis to survive, in other words extract chemicals from their environment to produce molecules necessary for life. On Mars, such organisms, which could be bacteria, would consume the carbon dioxide and methane present in the atmosphere in order to produce oxygen in particular.
The installation on Mars is therefore not just a science fiction scenario. According to several scientists, it is even entirely possible to make the planet habitable… In theory anyway! But don’t pack your bags just yet: all of these steps could take generations to come to fruition.