Answer 1:
It could be very dangerous to live on Mars. One
of the major dangers of sending humans into space
is damage caused by radiation. Radiation is
basically sub-atomic particles that transport
energy, and when these particles hit
human bodies it can be very harmful to our cells
and our DNA. Earth’s magnetic field protects us
from radiation, but scientists are currently
working to develop ways to protect humans and
spacecrafts from radiation in deep space. Of
course, there are always dangers involved in
something as extreme as sending people into space,
but there are a lot of competent scientists who
dedicate their careers keeping astronauts safe.
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Answer 2:
Mars is further away from the sun than earth,
so it's much colder there. If you just arrived
on the surface of Mars, you would die. The
temperature can change a lot more than on earth,
with July being the hottest month at 36F (2
Celsius) on average, and getting to an average
cold of -126F (-88C) in the winter! Just the
temperature alone would make Mars deadly! |
Answer 3:
Mars isn't as deadly as Venus, which is too hot
for us. People would need space suits on
Mars, and they would need to build a place to
live that would make air for them to breathe and
would purify the air before it got too much carbon
dioxide, and the place would need to recycle its
water and grow food and make the things that the
people needed, to live for a long time.
There's a place called Biosphere 2 in Arizona
where people have been trying to live completely
isolated from the rest of earth. In 1988, one
person lived for 3 days in Biosphere 2, with all
his air and water recycled. He ate food grown in
Biosphere 2, but of course the food would need to
have been grown before he went there. That's a
problem with Mars, where there wouldn't be any
food when people arrived, and they would need to
stay a long time, or forever. In 1989, a woman
lived in Biosphere 2 for 21 days; and then 8
people moved there in 1991, but there was a big
storm on earth and the skies were gray, so there
wasn't as much sunlight for photosynthesis, and
the carbon dioxide levels in Biosphere 2 increased
too much. You can read more about Biosphere 2 in
Wikipedia and here:
biosphere
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Answer 4:
Some life could exist on Mars, and there may
even be life on Mars. Most Earth life simply could
not live there. If you were to travel to Mars,
you would need a space suit, much as if you were
walking on the moon. We don't know yet if
Martian gravity is strong enough to keep a
(space-suited) human healthy.
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