Life on Mars? Think Again: NASA

NASA has found out that a human colony on Mars could be wiped out in minutes!
www.ibtimes.co.in...

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has found that the odds of a human colony on Mars being wiped out are quite high! MRO's analyses of Mars has proved that are many more impact craters on the Martian surface than previously thought.

The reason why the Red Planet is hit by space debris with such frequency is that objects heading towards the planet's surface are not burnt-up due to the thin atmosphere, unlike Earth which is blanketed by a thick atmosphere that safeguards it from most meteorites and other space debris.

Mars' atmosphere is said to be 100 times thinner than Earth's. Due to this, Mars is more prone to being hit by space rocks. Though there are times when the atmosphere is dense enough to break up an incoming object, it merely causes the object to splinter into smaller pieces which hit the planet over a wider area.

So pretty much if the next step of colonizing is the red planet, I am sure all humans going there are part of an experiment and probably gonna meet their maker when impact happens.

So will this new evidence diverge the plan to send humans to live on Mars? Who knows...but private companies will try anything out I am sure. So Mars will still be a go.

I would call that Karma

Sure NASA, whatever you say.

How do we know they aren't just telling us this, because there is stuff on Mars, they don't want us to know about?


But, I wouldn't go. You know, just in case.
How bad would it suck, to travel that far, step on Mars and BAM! Smashed like a bug!

I have seen concept drawings of underground Martian bases..
That would protect the colonists

a reply to: Skywatcher2011

I don't know...The rover Opportunity seems to have survived pretty long (13 years so far and counting) without an impact wiping it out.


I suppose a large impact might be relatively probable over the course of 100 or 1000 years, but what type of colony could such an impact wipe out? Granted, an large impact on Earth would be devastating because of its effect on the climate of the Earth (i.e., turning Earth's climate so cold that the ecosystem is majorly affected). However, Mars colonists in the near future would be living in artificial climate, anyway.

It would seem that the most devastating effect an impact would have on those colonies would be due to direct damage and destruction from the impact itself; I'm talking about an impact close enough that pieces of the impactor or pieces of ejecta and the energy of the impact physically damaging or destroying the colony -- which is far less probable. Any climate change due to an impact probably would not be that meaningful to a colony with an artificial climate.

So it seems to me that the effects of an impact on Earth to life on Earth would be quite different than the effect of an impact on Mars to potential future human colonists on Mars.


In the far far future, maybe after a terraforming project on mars, the effect of an impact to Mars's climate could be similar to the effects of an impact on Earth -- but then again, a terraformed Mars would have a thicker atmosphere that would protect it from some impacts.

a reply to: Skywatcher2011

Its all about going underground, when the weather is tough, we all go to the safe houses.

a reply to: Skywatcher2011

this just reaffirms the importance of subteranean dwellings... nothing more.

originally posted by: Skywatcher2011
NASA has found out that a human colony on Mars could be wiped out in minutes!
www.ibtimes.co.in...

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has found that the odds of a human colony on Mars being wiped out are quite high! MRO's analyses of Mars has proved that are many more impact craters on the Martian surface than previously thought.

The reason why the Red Planet is hit by space debris with such frequency is that objects heading towards the planet's surface are not burnt-up due to the thin atmosphere, unlike Earth which is blanketed by a thick atmosphere that safeguards it from most meteorites and other space debris.

Mars' atmosphere is said to be 100 times thinner than Earth's. Due to this, Mars is more prone to being hit by space rocks. Though there are times when the atmosphere is dense enough to break up an incoming object, it merely causes the object to splinter into smaller pieces which hit the planet over a wider area.

So pretty much if the next step of colonizing is the red planet, I am sure all humans going there are part of an experiment and probably gonna meet their maker when impact happens.

So will this new evidence diverge the plan to send humans to live on Mars? Who knows...but private companies will try anything out I am sure. So Mars will still be a go.

There are hundreds of thousands of impact craters on Mars, and they have been logging them since the early 1970's, surely only an egit wouldn't know that craters by the definition, impact craters, are caused by just that, and not a frigger with a digger. who's the press officer at NASA, Sean Spicer moonlighting?

We still send humans to live in the orbital space station, and the space station is just as likely to be hit with a micrometeor or larger piece of rock, considering it is located above the protection of the atmosphere.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the artificial space junk from satellites and rocket launches could make the odds of an impact on the ISS even MORE likely than would be the case for a colony on Mars. Yet we still move forward with an active manned space station program.

The threat on Mars would be roughly the same as it is with the ISS.

Well, you would think that they would realize that before even thinking about going to the planet. A piece of rock the size of a pea slows down considerably in our atmosphere and most never even hit the ground. Now a thin atmosphere means that the pea would still have mass and go at a higher rate of speed, a piece of gravel at a hundred miles per hour can smash your window out or go through aluminum.

originally posted by: chiefsmom
Sure NASA, whatever you say.

How do we know they aren't just telling us this, because there is stuff on Mars, they don't want us to know about?


But, I wouldn't go. You know, just in case.
How bad would it suck, to travel that far, step on Mars and BAM! Smashed like a bug!

You would be able to run faster and jump higher.

a reply to: Skywatcher2011

Any martian colony will have to be underground.

I hope Venusville will be fun to visit.

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People
a reply to: Skywatcher2011

I don't know...The rover Opportunity seems to have survived pretty long (13 years so far and counting) without an impact wiping it out.

^^^^ THIS

Most people who would want to go on a Mars mission have a death wish anyway, so I guess they'd be happy to be wiped out by a Martian meteorite or fried by a solar flare.

It would make them "heroes," instead of just "dopes."

originally posted by: Skywatcher2011
NASA has found out that a human colony on Mars could be wiped out in minutes!
www.ibtimes.co.in...

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has found that the odds of a human colony on Mars being wiped out are quite high! MRO's analyses of Mars has proved that are many more impact craters on the Martian surface than previously thought.

The reason why the Red Planet is hit by space debris with such frequency is that objects heading towards the planet's surface are not burnt-up due to the thin atmosphere, unlike Earth which is blanketed by a thick atmosphere that safeguards it from most meteorites and other space debris.

Mars' atmosphere is said to be 100 times thinner than Earth's. Due to this, Mars is more prone to being hit by space rocks. Though there are times when the atmosphere is dense enough to break up an incoming object, it merely causes the object to splinter into smaller pieces which hit the planet over a wider area.

So pretty much if the next step of colonizing is the red planet, I am sure all humans going there are part of an experiment and probably gonna meet their maker when impact happens.

So will this new evidence diverge the plan to send humans to live on Mars? Who knows...but private companies will try anything out I am sure. So Mars will still be a go.

So put the colony in a cave system or underground?

originally posted by: chiefsmom
Sure NASA, whatever you say.

How do we know they aren't just telling us this, because there is stuff on Mars, they don't want us to know about?


But, I wouldn't go. You know, just in case.
How bad would it suck, to travel that far, step on Mars and BAM! Smashed like a bug!

We have to trust what they are saying, because it would cost $Billions to get there wouldn't it?

Besides, they can't have people just leaving Earth and travelling around the Solar system, you've got taxes to pay here on Earth.

originally posted by: NobodiesNormal
a reply to: Skywatcher2011

this just reaffirms the importance of subteranean dwellings... nothing more.

Yes I agree, and on that note how much is known about tectonic movement on Mars?

Does the general data captured from spacecraft (orbiters and such) reveal movement?

So, like, I am absolutely exhausted after a long day at work, so my question may be stupid, but.... is there any hypothetical way we could make the atmosphere thicker with time?

originally posted by: Box of Rain
We still send humans to live in the orbital space station, and the space station is just as likely to be hit with a micrometeor or larger piece of rock, considering it is located above the protection of the atmosphere.

An object the size of a baked bean can, would be totally devastating for the ISS, as anything hitting it would be travelling at the speed of a bullet, around 17,000 MPH.

The impact at that speed would rip right through it, damaging all life preservation on board.

Scientists are working around the clock in order to spot any objects that may be a direct threat to it and every launch into space adds to the chances of an impact happening.

I thought that thanks to Mars' general lack of atmosphere and magnetic field people would initially have to spend a lot of time underground to avoid excess radiation exposure anyhow, so the early permanent dwellings would need to be at least partially subterranean.