Mars Madness

By Carl Austin

Image courtesy flickr

For centuries it was said that the Moon made men crazy.  In fact, the word lunacy is defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as being of unsound mind or around the bend.  The term also has at its core the word Luna, Latin for the Moon.  So, why is it that the current crop of billionaires along with millions of adoring fans and astronaut wannabes are crazy about going to the red planet?  It beats me, so I thought I’d better point out a few flies in the ointment.

First of all, there’s the staggering distance involved.  Has anyone explained that Mars is anywhere from 140 to 225 million miles away from the Earth?  The Moon by comparison is less than 250,000 miles from planet Earth.  The red planet is an all but airless rust-colored dusty rock less than half the size of Earth.  The climate there makes Siberia seem like the garden of Eden by comparison.  The gravity is less than half that of Earth and the average temperature of the red planet is minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit, with winter temperatures in more northerly latitudes reaching lows approaching minus 125 degrees. Brrr!  I hate to tell you, but chestnuts roasting on an open fire isn’t going to cut it there.  In fact, with an air pressure of less than one percent of that on Earth and no oxygen to speak of, you wouldn’t be able to light a fire there if you wanted to.

Image courtesy flickr

Speaking of getting there, let me point out a few facts.  While a trip to the Moon takes about three days, getting to Mars will take no less than 6-months using current rocket technology.  Think about it, 6-months cooped up in a tin can about the size of a Winnebago isn’t going to exactly be a pleasure cruise.  Not only do you have to cram enough food, water, air, supplies and people into the craft, but the ship has to perform flawlessly for at least 2 years, since that’s the minimum required for a round trip mission.  If anything goes wrong with the spacecraft, the crew can’t exactly call AAA for a tow, or Mission Control for that matter.  In fact, they can’t call anybody at all once they get a couple million miles away, since it takes radio signals anywhere from 10 to 20-minutes to travel one-way to Mars.  That means two-way communication will quickly be lost. Due to orbital mechanics, the rocket can’t simply turn around and head back to Earth it something goes wrong either, nor can Earth send a rescue mission.  The bottom line is once beyond Earth orbit, the crew is virtually on its own.  (No Apollo 13 reenactment here, folks.)

There are a few other nagging details that make a trip to Mars seem almost like a suicide mission using current technology.  First and foremost, the crew needs to be shielded from solar radiation if they aren’t going to be cooked when a solar flare or coronal mass ejection erupts.  Should either occur while enroute to Mars or once on the planet’s surface, the crew will receive a lethal dose since the red planet doesn’t have a magnetic shield to protect it from the solar wind like Earth does.  Aside from this lethal hazard, there’s the debilitating effects of zero gravity which will slowly but surely eat away at the crew’s bones.  To date, no astronaut or cosmonaut has stayed in orbit for two years and the two who have returned after a one-year stay have had numerous physical problems since they returned to Earth.  (I hate to tell you folks, but nobody has even simulated a 2-year Mars mission on the ground to work out some of the potentially lethal hazards of a long-term, deep space mission.)

Image courtesy picryl

If you’re wondering about the long-term effects of weightlessness on the human body, here’s a link to an article about Scott Kelly’s return from a one-year stint on the ISS entitled, The Devastating Effects of a Year in Space.” 

Another problem is logistics.  Think about this; How do you provide enough food, water and air to last a crew 6-months?  You can’t exactly order a pizza in deep space.  The only reason we’re able to keep the International Space Station humming along is because we send regular resupply missions to it.  If NASA, SpaceX or any other space agency wishes to send a crew to Mars today, they;d be hard-pressed to cram enough comestibles aboard the spacecraft to feed a crew of four astronauts long enough to get them there.  

A prime example of this problem is dealt with by the crews of nuclear submarines.  When they set sail on a 3-month cruise, sub crews literally crams the vessel with as much food as it can hold.  While a nuclear-powered sub makes its own air and water and would seem to be able to stay at sea for years if necessary, the problem is after 3-months or so the crew runs out of food.  So, how will a crew headed for a 2-year Mars mission be able to tote along enough supplies?

While resupply missions are one potential solution, even those heading to the ISS don’t always make it to orbit successfully.  What do you think the odds of supply ships making the long haul to Mars will be?  One in two?  One in four?  Because that’s the odds of a successful unmanned mission to the Red planet.  NASA’s record is about 50%, while Russia’s record is less than 20%.  NASA engineers have even coined a phrase for the phenomenon.  They call it the Great Galactic Ghoul.  If you ask me, 50% or less aren’t exactly betting odds.  Like it or not, gambling is what it will come down to when you’re talking about landing a large spacecraft on the surface of the red planet.  To date, the largest unmanned vehicle to successfully land on Mars is the Curiosity rover which is roughly the size of an SUV.  To land a manned mission will take a significantly larger spacecraft whose crew will have to brave what NASA engineers call the 7-minutes of terror that it takes to go from orbit to the surface of Mars.  I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t be eager to be strapped in for the ride down from orbit using untested technology that will either work or kill you.

Image courtesy VideoBlocks.com

Now let’s talk about setting up housekeeping on Mars.  Even if the crew manages to somehow survive the trip there and the harrowing landing, they still need to survive at least a year on the surface.  Unlike the Hollywood movie The Martian, you can’t simply set up a greenhouse to start growing crops to feed the crew.  Being twice the distance as Earth from the Sun, it’s uncertain whether any terrestrial plant will germinate on Mars.  And if it did, you can be darned sure those plants won’t grow in Martian soil which is laced with perchlorate.  That means you’d have to take soil, seeds, fertilizer and water with you.  Then you have to provide suitable illumination since Mars is twice the distance from the sun as Earth and you have to pray that something will grow.  Did I mention the average temperature of the red planet is 80 below zero?  To date, all they’ve grown on the ISS has been a little bit of lettuce and you can’t keep a hungry crew alive for a year on lettuce alone.

But let’s say that the food issue is overcome such that the crew won’t starve to death up there.  Let’s talk about the environment.  More specifically, let’s talk about what it will take to keep the crew alive.  First you need to set up a habitat big enough to house the crew and keep them safe from solar radiation.  While NASA has been toying with using 3D printed shelters made from the materials found on the Martian surface, this is simply wishful thinking at this point.  If you can’t build it, that means you have to ship a habitat there. Even if a space agency managed to send a habitat successfully from Earth to Mars ahead of time, don’t think it will offer the amenities of the Hilton or even the ISS.  Like it or not, it costs a lot of money to send stuff into space.  Just to send one pound of material into low earth orbit costs anywhere from $9,000 to $43,000.  To take the same amount of material to Mars will be at least ten times as costly. 

Image courtesy VideoBlocks.com

But again, let’s say we somehow manage to overcome the housing problem.  How big of a habitat can we send to Mars?  That’s a good question.  Not only do you have to ship and de-orbit the habitat, you need to include enough food, water, air and sundry supplies to give the crew a fighting chance to survive for at least a year on the surface.  Even if you manage to overcome the staggering logistics involved, what kind of experience can the crew expect? 

To keep them protected from the hostile environment and radiation, you have to more or less bury the habitat.  No picture windows here.  We’re talking spacefaring cavemen and women.  Being sealed in an enclosed environment is known to have a debilitating effect on morale.  While the crew can venture outdoors once on the surface, even then they’ll need to stay sealed in a spacesuit at all times.  That means their surface time will be limited by the amount of air they can carry on their backs, as well as by environmental conditions.  If a solar flare is detected, they’ll have as little as an hour to scamper back inside if they don’t want to get cooked.  That means they can’t venture far from home.  And when planet-wide dust storms crop up come Spring, the entire crew can expect to be cooped up for a month or more.  Ready to sign up yet?

You’ll notice that I’ve more or less assumed that everything will work up there.  Murphy’s Law being what it is, what do you think the odds of that are?  When something goes wrong, the crew is going to have to deal with the problem on their own.  No ET phone home, since a phone call is out of the question.  If a member of the crew gets sick or is injured, who’s going to be the doctor?  If you send a doctor as part of the crew, what happens if he or she is injured or killed? What if some other vital system goes on the fritz?  If any technology involved in supplying air, water or food has a hiccup, it’s either fix the problem or die trying.  They didn’t name the red planet for the god of war for nothing.  It’s going to be a battle just to stay alive there. 

Image courtesy VideoBlocks.com

And for what, so we can have the bragging rights to say mankind has taken another giant leap?  There’s literally nothing of value on Mars.  While the moon has a wealth of resources that could someday be mined, Mars is just a dusty ball floating in space.  Sure, people have talked about terraforming the red planet.  But that’s all it is...talk.  While Mars has an icecap, the water is buried under a layer of frozen carbon dioxide.  Good luck getting at it.  Unlike the Moon, where you can pretty much come and go as you please, when it comes to getting to and from Mars you need to factor in orbital mechanics.  That means once you land there, you have to stay there until the Earth and Mars are in proper alignment to head for home.  Miss the window and you’re stranded for another year or so.

I’m not saying we won’t ever be able to go to Mars.  It’s just that current technology being what it is, it’s seems like utter madness to think we can send a mission to the red planet anytime soon with a reasonable expectation of success.  And another thing, the damned planet isn’t even red.  It’s as orange as a pumpkin, for crying out loud!  Take a good, hard look up in the night sky the next time Mars is visible and tell me the thing’s red.  It’s as orange as Florida’s favorite fruit, for crying out loud.  Will Mars madness ever end?  Let me know with your comments.

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