Welcome to the fourth installment of Astronomy Club's exclusive column, A World Outside the Globe! This week, read on for an exploration of why we should explore Mars by Jerry Wu '22.
Mars has captivated humans since we first set eyes on it as a star-like object in the night sky. Early on, its reddish hue set the planet apart from its shimmering siblings, each compelling in its own way, but none other tracing a ruddy arc through Earth’s heavens. Now, we know there are no artificial constructions on Mars. But we’ve also learned that, until 3.5 billion years ago, the dry, toxic planet we see today might have once been as habitable as Earth.
Over the last century, everything we’ve learned about Mars suggests that the planet was once quite capable of hosting ecosystems—and that it might still be an incubator for microbial life today. Mars is the fourth rock from the sun, just after Earth. It is just a smidge more than half of Earth’s size, with gravity only 38 percent that of Earth’s. That’s why one year on Mars lasts for 687 Earth days, while a day on Mars is just 40 minutes longer than on Earth.
Today, when scientists scrutinize the Martian surface, those observations suggest that the planet may have once had a vast ocean covering its northern hemisphere. It was also likely wrapped in a thick atmosphere capable of maintaining liquid water at Martian temperatures and pressures. Exploring Mars helps scientists learn about momentous shifts in climate that can fundamentally alter planets. It also lets us look for biosignatures, signs that might reveal whether life was abundant in the planet’s past—and if it still exists on Mars today. And, the more we learn about Mars, the better equipped we’ll be to try to make a living there, someday in the future.
Future of Mars Exploration
Once every 26 months, Earth and Mars are aligned in a way that minimizes travel times and expense, enabling spacecraft to make the interplanetary journey in roughly half a year. Earth’s space agencies tend to launch probes during these conjunctions, the most recent of which happens in the summer of 2020.
Perseverance is a large, six-wheeled rover equipped with a suite of sophisticated instruments. Its target is Jezero Crater, site of an ancient river delta, and a likely location for ancient life-forms to have thrived. Once on the surface, Perseverance will study Martian climate and weather, test technologies that could help humans survive on Mars, and collect samples from dozens of rocks that will eventually be brought to Earth. Among its goals is helping to determine whether Mars was—or is—inhabited, making it a true life-finding Mars mission.
All of the robotic activity is, of course, laying the groundwork for sending humans to the next world over. NASA is targeting the 2030s as a reasonable timeframe for setting the first boots on Mars, and is developing a space capsule, Orion, that will be able to ferry humans to the moon and beyond. Soon, in one way or another, humanity may finally know whether our neighboring planet ever hosted life—and whether there’s a future for our species on another world.
Mondays 13:15 in CID | saspxastronomy@hotmail.com
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