As Elon Musk sets his sights on Mars, there are questions about how we could realistically head there.
Despite discussions about sending humans to Mars having started way back in the 1940s, we’re yet to get further than concept art and Hollywood movies like The Martian.
Still, NASA is planning on sending a manned mission there in the 2030s, with astronauts already living in simulations to try and replicate what life could be like on Mars.
If all of that wasn’t enough to worry about, scientists have their thoughts on what living on the surface of Mars could do to the human body.
Humans could evolve to look like how you might expect Martians to look (KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Getty)
In his 2016 book, Future Humans: Inside the Science of Our Continuing Evolution, biologist Dr. Scott Solomon suggests that we’ll undergo evolutionary changes if we settle down on Mars.
Sounding like what you might expect your typical movie representation of a Martian to look like, Solomon theorizes that the descendants of the planet’s settlers could be mutated with green skin, weak vision, brittle bones, and reduced muscle strength.
Due to Mars being smaller than Earth, it has 38% less gravity, lacks a magnetic field, and an ozone layer. After being bombarded with cosmic rays and space radiation, Solomon claims our skin will be forced to adapt and potentially even turn into a brand-new tone we haven’t seen before: “Perhaps in the face of this high radiation, we might evolve some new type of skin pigment to help us deal with that radiation…Maybe we get our own green men.”
We’re still a long way from building cities on Mars (janiecbros / Getty)
Using the example of cavefish (who unsurprisingly live in caves), he speculates that we’ll become near-sighted due to living in small enclaves.
As for weaker muscles, the lower level of gravity will likely affect our bones. It’s a similar issue that NASA is trying to tackle when it comes to the long-term effects of space travel on astronauts and the potential of developing Osteoporosis.
With the trip to Mars estimated to take up to 500 days, there are general fears that our bones will be jello before we even get there.
As the record for the longest consecutive time in space is held by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov for 437 days and 18 hours, flying to Mars already goes beyond that.
Solomon’s musings likely won’t matter for now, as Elon Musk has already warned first settlers might not even make it long enough to have kids.
Speaking during 2020’s Humans to Mars, the SpaceX CEO said that it’s not getting to Mars that’s the problem, but building a self-sustaining city: “I want to emphasize that this is a very hard and dangerous, difficult thing, not for the faint of heart. Good chance you’ll die, it’s going to be tough going, but it will be pretty glorious if it works out.”
It’s been said that this supposedly happened when we first landed on the Red Planet back in the 1970s.
According to Dirk Schulze-Makuch, who is an astrobiologist for the Technische Universität Berlin in Germany, it’s possible that humans killed any life existing on Mars.
The scientist believes humans killed life on Mars (NEMES LASZLO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images)
The search for extraterrestrial life is one that space scientists are constantly searching for.
The idea that alien life could be out there in our universe is one that has captivated people, often featuring in our films and TV.
However, one scientist believes that we might also be the reason we haven’t found any evidence of life outside of Earth yet.
Schulze-Makuch is convinced that humans unintentionally destroyed life on our neighboring planet.
The first landing on the Red Planet took place in 1976, when NASA’s Viking 1 mission arrived on the surface.
The mission was to conduct an experiment which involved mixing water and nutrients with soil samples collected on Mars.
At the time it was thought that life on that planet would act the same as it does on Earth, where it relies on liquid water to survive.
However, the scientist believes that these experiments killed life on Mars, theorizing that it might have relied on salt deposits instead of water.
Scientists are still searching for alien life ( NiseriN/Getty Images)
In his commentary for the journal Nature, Schulze-Makuch said: “In hyperarid environments, life can obtain water through salts that draw moisture from the atmosphere.
“These salts, then, should be a focus of searches for life on Mars.”
He went on to add: “The experiments performed by NASA’s Viking landers may have accidentally killed Martian life by applying too much water.”
He continued: “If these inferences about organisms surviving in hyperarid Martian conditions are correct, then rather than ‘follow the water,’ which has long been NASA’s strategy in searching for life on the Red Planet, we should in addition follow hydrated and hygroscopic compounds — salts — as a way to locate microbial life.”
Schulze-Makuch hopes that more experiments will shed some light on the true nature of possible life on Mars.
He added: “Nearly 50 years after the Viking biology experiments, it is time for another life detection mission — now that we have a much better understanding of the Martian environment.”
The scientist also spoke to Space.com, where he said: “To make a long story short, we would want to have several different kinds of life-detection methods that are independent of each other, and from there, we could come up with more convincing data.”
