What Would It Be Like to Live on Mars?

By Joseph Castro, Space.com Contributor   |   February 17, 2015 04:00pm ET

 

http://www.space.com/28557-how-to-live-on-mars.html

 

I thought this was an interesting article about what living on Mars would be like. I’m taking particular interest because I have a new Sci-Fi series starting in a few weeks called Virus. The main part of the story is an expansion of my other series SIMPOC where a suspicious virus wipes out 99.9997% of the human population. However, I do have some survivors and two of the groups are commercial Moon and Mars Colonies. Getting an expert opinion on what the living conditions could be like will add perspective to my story.

Taking the concept of long-term colonies on Mars brings up the debate of maintaining a pristine environment or biting off the whole enchilada and Terra forming the red planet. I only see limited value in maintaining the pure Mars environment. Once we determine if there is current life or some in the distant past I think we should take the next step and consider changing the atmosphere and making it livable for us. I don’t think anyone can argue the fact that at some point in our future it would be awful nice to have some other place for the human race to call home.

I posted another article, which made the statement that within 50 years we could make a significant impact on the planet. I think we should start in the near future and at least lay out a plan to accomplish that. We should put the plan forward and at least have some debate about its merits. At some point in the future, we could make an informed decision about the future of Mars. I don’t think keeping it pure and leaving it as some, kind of test tube makes sense to us a civilization.

If we are, establishing a Mars colony in 2025 by Mars One and NASA says that it will be going there in the 2030’s then we need to have a plan before those trips happen. I think it is highly likely that some kind of contamination will occur once we’re there and something will start to grow. I think that growth should be part of a longer-term strategy not something that happens by accident. In addition, once it does happen I don’t want a bunch of indignation to occur about how we’ve ‘spoiled’ the planet. We are the only intelligent life in this solar system and we need to use the real estate to our advantage.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that we should destroy life if we do find some perhaps on Europa or even one of the gas giants. But, what real estate there is that supports our species should be used for our betterment. We can deal with the other forms of life when and if we find some.

Just some of my thoughts, what do you think. Keep Mars a laboratory or develop a long-term plan to make it habitable and livable.

The same author is writing an article about living on Europa which will be published on March 3 and I’m looking forward to that for another story that is bubbling around in my head.

 

Ray Jay Perreault

Science Fiction