After watching this show, I was even more convinced that the idea of a mission to Mars is many years ahead and the idea of colonizing it is questionable.
As a young child who grew up during the popularity of the science fiction classics such as Star Trek, Doctor Who and Lost in Space which all coincided with the very real science events of the Apollo moon landings in the early 1970's, the concept of Space travel or Space exploration was intriguing. This was all backed up by the earlier Hollywood classics that came out in the 1950's i.e. "Forbidden Planet" and "This Island Earth".
After the Apollo program was wrapped up, the next NASA project of major significance were the landings on Mars in 1976 by the Viking probes and the following year the launching of the Voyager deep space satellite's 1 and 2 which are still sending back data almost 50 years later.
The Viking missions were significant because for the first time we were able to see photos of another world and unlike the grey monochrome surface of the moon and the earie blackness above, the photos of Mars showed an rocky orange/red surface and the sky above was bright and had a pink tint to it. It was all very exciting and in 1980 Ray Bradbury's book the "Martian Chronicles" which was originally written in the 1950's was adapted as a tv mini series. In 1981 the long awaited space shuttle program finally got off the ground and was a major leap forward because unlike the Apollo missions the shuttle itself would land back on earth to be used again. Although there were some great images of it taking off and wonderful photos of it around the earth it was a bit of a disappointment as that program was mostly about traveling in the earth's orbit rather than space exploration but nevertheless was a huge part of NASA's budget which eventually wound up in 2011. The Voyager missions during the 1980'sand 1990's sent back amazing images of the planets in our solar system and both have moved out into deep space many years ago.
By the 1990's the Hubble space telescope came into operation and managed to send back stunning images of outer space light years away from the earth and this was followed by the James Webb telescope which could see even further with greater detail too. One of the fascinating results of these was the ability to not only see new solar systems and galaxies but also other planets that revolved around their suns. With the aid of computer modelling these discovered planets are at the right distance from their sun that could have the right environment not only to have life on it but possibly to support Human life.
It's nearly 60 years since the first landing on the moon and although we know a lot more about our solar system and the universe as a whole, there are even more questions than answers. Also, unless humanity is able to invent a much faster form of propulsion in space it seems that we'll all be grounded in our solar system for the foreseeable future. For the space shuttle to reach Alpha Centuria which is our nearest star and planetary system under the current available speed would take about 150,000 years. In addition the planet Keppler 452b discovered by the Hubble telescope would take us at current speeds 30 million years to get to. So it's only our solar system which we can as humans explore.
That in itself poses problems too, i.e. To get to Jupiter's moons which has been talked about would be 6 years and to get to Saturn's moons would take about 3 years. Venus on the other hand would take about 150 days to get there but because its too close to the sun it would be a dangerous almost suicidal mission because of the volcanic activity and hostile environment. The only other Planet which we could explore in our solar system would be Mars which is only six to nine months away.
It would explain why over the last 25 - 30 years Hollywood and the tech billionaires have been focused on Mars as the next destination for humanity as everything else in our solar system is currently out of reach or just too far away to be thoroughly explored. Yet although Mars is relatively close to us and an obvious opportunity to explore there certainly hasn't been any rush to get there. There are obvious reasons for that - the logistical difficulties for a Mars mission are just simply too complicated and the costs involved would be astronomical.
However, one gets the feeling that there are other more critical reasons there has never been an attempt to land humans on the red planet. To turn this around, if it had been discovered decades ago that Mars had an atmosphere we could breath in, running water that was drinkable, soil that could be used to grow food and we didn't require a space suit we would already be there by now.
In 2021 the rover Perseverance with its miniature helicopter Endurance transmitted back some stunning and amazing images from Mars. The 3D photos had a great definition and you felt like you were there, one could almost touch the surface of Mars. The panoramic views with the sun in the distance and the endless mountains and rocky terrain that goes on for miles is very impressive . However the problem is after a while the images eventually look identical which just reinforces the fact that there are no signs of life. Add to it the silence and the inability to see any remains of a past civilization just underscores the fact that it is a dead planet. What if it was always a dead planet and doesn't have any water that is drinkable or that the building blocks of life that we have on earth just don't exist?? Of course, NASA would say that's what we want to find out - therefore more missions and eventually a human expedition will have to be mounted. My observation is that I think we already know, and no number of trips would satisfy the scientific community who would want missions to Mars to continue indefinitely.
Despite talk of travelling to Mars and colonizing the planet - the reality is there is no way that Mars could be colonized as it's totally incompatible for humans to live on. You simply couldn't survive on Mars without a space suit or shelter that could stand up to the high winds and sandstorms. There is no breathable air, it's constantly being bombarded with radiation; put it this way there probably 5 or 6 ways that you would die very quicky without the appropriate protection, the only question is which one would be the first. One wonders why this is all taken seriously, if it is at all. It seems that there is a conflation between science fiction and current science reality which has distorted our ability to think rationally about what humanity is capable of.
Its more likely that the Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos dream of flying out to the cosmos is exactly that - a dream. It's more likely that their space missions will center around space tourism for the rich play boys and play girls, firstly in the earths orbit and then eventually trips to the moon. That's certainly all feasible in the next few years but a trip to Mars is much further away. Although there would be plenty of volunteers to take such a mission - even with the possibility of it being a one-way expedition. The reason for a mission to Mars is just simply bragging rights, it's there, so we must go there just say we have been there, because by nature we are explorers.
