Mars

Mars is a planet from our solar system. Because of his possibility to shelter life, it is called as
the next humans destination. It has some similarities with the Earth. Some people even
imagine journeys in rockets, like bus or train ones, to mars like Elon Musk. « When in the
future the Earth will be fully occupied, the populations will be on Mars » this is the tought of
all the astronauts but is it really possible ?

As to what we know, Mars is a rocky planet, like our Earth. It is the fourth planet in our solar
system, ranked by distance to the Sun. It has been named « Mars » because of its bloody red
color, indeed Mars is the god of war in the roman mythology. Its orange color is due to the
iron metals on its surface that oxidize. Mars is a little planet, it is smaller than the Earth. Also,
Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. We also know that there was water on Mars in the
past. That’s what encourage the scientits to do researches on Mars because the presence of
water means the presence of different forms of life, microbs. Mars has been awashed there are
4 billions of years.1 Concerning the weather on it, most of the people think that Mars is an hot
planet because of its red color, but Mars is a really cold planet. On its surface, there is an
average of -60°C of temperature because of its distance away from the Sun2. There are many
dust storms on its surface and its atmosphere is composed by 95% of CO2 and only 0.13% of
oxygen. Also, a day on Mars is 40 minutes longer than a day on the Earth.3 Like the Earth,
Mars has polar ice caps, volcanoes even if they are inactive, and also a core of lava.
Concerning the life on Mars, because a day on Mars is 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth,
the year on Mars equals 687 days.4 It means that to get one year older, people will wait until
687 days pass. And people will not be able to breathe because of the small amount of oxygen.
Also, the gravity is lighter there, so a something falling on Mars is falling slower than on the
Earth. Knowing all these things, is the life on Mars really possible ? First, to go on mars, we
will do a 260 days wich equals more than an 8 months journey because Mars is in average at
225 millions kilometers from the Earth5. So to get there, will be needed a huge quantity of

1
Mayer, Nathalie. “Des Inondations Catastrophiques Ont Façonné Le Visage De Mars
En Quelques Semaines !” Futura,
https://www.futura-sciences.com/sciences/actualites/mars-inondations-catastrophiques-
ont-faconne-visage-mars-quelques-semaines-93877/.
2
Bécherel, Sophie. “Quel Temps Fait-Il Sur Mars ?” France Inter, France Inter, 11 Mar.
2019, https://www.franceinter.fr/sciences/quel-temps-fait-il-sur-mars.
3
Choi, Charles Q. “Mars : What We Know about the Red Planet.” Space.com, Space, 1
Oct. 2021, https://www.space.com/47-mars-the-red-planet-fourth-planet-from-the-
sun.html.
4
Choi, Charles Q. “Mars : What We Know about the Red Planet.” Space.com, Space, 1
Oct. 2021, https://www.space.com/47-mars-the-red-planet-fourth-planet-from-the-
sun.html.
5
Lesage, Nelly. “Mars : Tout Savoir Sur La Planète Rouge En 16 Questions.”
Numerama, 2 Oct. 2021, https://www.numerama.com/sciences/742887-mars-tout-
food for the passengers and fuel for the rocket which is imposssible to stock because it will
desintegrate the rocket. But it could be possible if the rocket is enough fast to get on Mars.
Scientist say that to get on Mars in a less of time, the rocket should go at the same velocity as
the light and that’s simply impossible to create and people won’t resist this velocity. Second,
people simply can’t resist to a -60°C temperature and the dust storms on Mars. So, people will
need adapted suits so that they can to resist to the cold and to the particles of dust which an
pierce the suit in the long term. Third, people will need an oxygen source but this is not really
an issue because the rovers on mars succeeded in producing oxygen with the carbon dioxyde.
Fourth, the production of the material will be extremely expensive. Not everyone will afford
it. And the Nasa, SpaceX will need volunteers to go risk their lives on the planet to collecte
information to help the researches. Who will accept ?

We can imagine that in the future, with the new technologies, the life on Mars will be
possible, who knows. But the project to be on Mars in 2024, the project of Elon Musk, seems
impossible to realise. So let’s imagine we get on Mars one day, at which cost ?

savoir-sur-la-planete-rouge.html.