The human conquest of Mars is one of the most ambitious missions that scientists and engineers from all over the world are trying to implement. Of course, this is one of the most difficult missions that requires solving many problems, ranging from protecting the crew from radiation, ending with growing food in the Martian soil. When the landing on the Red Planet takes place, it will be a grand achievement of all mankind. Even for Elon Musk, colonizing Mars is his lifelong dream. But not everyone is thrilled with such an idea.
For NASA astronaut Stanley Love, the idea of conquering Mars sounds like a real horror. “Do I think it’s possible? Sure. But will it be pleasant? No. I think it would be terrible,” the astronaut commented to The Sun.
How to share three apples into eight persons
In an interview with the publication, Love explained that his feelings are connected with the experience gained in Antarctica for several months. According to the astronaut, he and several other people lived in the open air, having only small tents for housing.
“It was very cold in Antarctica. Food had to be saved very much. We were once brought three worm-eaten apples the size of a ping-pong ball. We had to divide them among eight members of the expedition, so that each received exactly three-eighths. And imagine how colonists will survive on Mars, having a limited amount of provisions?” – says the astronaut.
For his reasons, the colonization of our neighboring planet will be very difficult for people who dare to do it.
Colonization is not a walk in the park
Elon Musk himself has big plans for a human colony on Mars until about 2050. However, it is worth noting that Musk himself understands that colonization is not a walk in the park. He even admitted that some settlers would probably die in the process of conquering the Red Planet.
Taking into account Love’s comments, reliable food production is not the only problem the colonists will face. People have yet to get to the planet, and this is also very difficult. Therefore, it is difficult to understand how difficult it will be to survive in an alien world, not to mention building a habitable colony there — while all this is purely theoretical. But despite this, Love believes that colonization is quite possible. It’s just not going to be too much fun.
“Mars is not a picnic. I don’t think people will like it,” the astronaut sums up.
Earlier we reported on how the experiment proved the possibility of generating oxygen on Mars.
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