Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to send its Spaceships to Mars within two years. Mr. Musk said his company will take advantage of the next “Earth-Mars transfer window” to send an uncrewed mission to the Red Planet. If that goes well, he will consider sending people there within the next four years.
Experts say an Earth-Mars transfer window occurs roughly every 26 months when the two planets are orbited around the sun in a position that opens up the shortest distance between them, making it more cost-effective to send a vessel there. The next window is in October 2024, but Musk hopes to take advantage of the following one in 2026.
The primary purpose of the first SpaceX launch to Mars is to determine whether a craft can safely land there. The eccentric billionaire wants to see frequent travel from Earth to the Red Planet in the coming decades and even the construction of cities that can sustain human life. Mr. Musk believes humanity must become multi-planetary in order to survive long term.
According to NASA, humans would be forced to live in artificial human-constructed environments to survive conditions on the Red Planet, partly because it lacks the oxygen we require in an atmosphere that is much thinner than Earth’s. Additionally, Mars is further from the sun than our home planet and, therefore, significantly colder.
Some scientists suggest that frequent dust storms are the biggest obstacles people would face on Mars, and may prove prohibitive. Mars’s famous red soil is swept up during the events that NASA calls “dust storms that grow to awesome proportions.” These storms cloud the atmosphere, but can also warm it by as much as 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
Overall, scientists tend to avoid a definitive response on whether humans can inhabit Mars, but most agree it is conceivable if we can create an artificial environment that sustains us. That environment is possible, but life there may not be entirely pleasant. Little would grow without significant intervention, there would be only minimal protection from radiation, less gravity than on Earth, and the atmosphere could reach deathly low temperatures of minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
