Humanity has long dreamed of colonizing Mars but harsh conditions make building affordable housing there extremely difficult. Reports Wylsa.com.
The Red Planet's average temperature hovers around minus 60 degrees Celsius while its atmospheric pressure is 100 times lower than Earth's. Stepping onto the surface without a spacesuit would cause instant death.
A scientist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Vyacheslav Turyshev calculated the enormous effort needed to terraform Mars. The results are discouraging as making the atmosphere similar to Earth's would require importing over one quadrillion kilograms of carbon dioxide.
After that layers of atmosphere would need to be created to protect from radiation and the planet would somehow have to be heated up. Oxygen could be extracted from water reserves found deep underground and in polar ice caps.
The entire process would demand at least 380 terawatts of energy. For comparison the whole population of Earth consumes just under 3.5 terawatts per year.
Even if successful there is no guarantee that the newly created atmosphere would stay in place instead of escaping into space. Until technology advances people may have to rely on remotely controlled robots that can withstand the cold or live in tiny modules with controlled environments.
In the meantime experts remind us to take better care of Earth as it remains our only home.
Read “Zamin” on Telegram!
