Martian Ice Home Concept (Ice House)
The founder of SpaceX and Tesla, Ilon Mask, is dreaming of the colonization of Mars, considering nuclear explosions, the development of large missiles and the creation of infrastructure to transport people as options. It was considered ambitious and complex ideas. Musk even took the first step by launching the Tesla car on the first Falcon Heavy rocket into space. In this way, he wanted to demonstrate partnerships between commercial and government institutions.
However, 6 months later, the plans began to resemble a pipe dream. Since then, scientists have learned that life can be on the surface of the Red Planet. So the planet can not be terraformed.
The probability of having a Martian life began to be actively discussed last week, when researchers reported on the discovery of a salt lake under the Martian surface. It is located 1.5 km below the south polar cap and covers at least 20 km in diameter. It was found when analyzing the underground radar data of the Mars Express spacecraft. It is believed that saline water with probable salts of magnesium, calcium and sodium perchlorate, acting as antifreeze for temperatures of -73.15 ° C.
This discovery hints at the possibility of the presence of deep lakes on other planets, and life itself can exist on Mars itself. It is already known that she could be there in the past. There is evidence indicating that the Red Planet was inhabited 3.8-4 billion years ago. Then the water was present on the surface in streams and lakes with a reasonable proportion of acidity, where the correct chemistry of life could evolve, like earthly life.
South polar cap of Mars hiding a lake
However, 3.8 billion years ago, Mars lost a magnetic field that could protect life from the harsh cosmic radiation. It also meant that the atmosphere was released into space, complicating the conditions for survival. But the new discovery supports the hopes of the colonialists that the water in the underground lake is capable of supporting the existence of astronauts.
The situation is complicated. The man’s journey to Mars hints at the risk of infection. Therefore, you cannot send a person there until there is evidence that there is no life. We'll have to get under the surface and analyze the samples.
Terraforming will not take place?
While questions about terraforming remain within the limits of fantasies. More recently, Musk said that he wants to make the Red Planet look more like Earth, where people can freely walk on the surface. This can be done by creating an atmosphere of heat-absorbing greenhouse gases trapped in planetary ice. Musk suggested that thermonuclear bombs could be dropped on polar ice in order to heat them before carbon dioxide was released.
But the latest study suggests that the Red Planet has lost potential greenhouse gases for billions of years and now it’s not possible to recreate the atmospheric layer.
Earth-like Mars?
The study is based on measurements of the last velocity of the emission of gases into space, recorded during 15 years of Mars-express and 4 years from MAVEN. The analysis shows how effective greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and water on Mars are. The findings hint that the greenhouse gases in the glacial caps are not enough to provide the necessary heating. Perhaps large deposits lurk in the depths of the planet, but the extraction so far surpasses the current technology. In addition, the atmosphere still floats into space due to the absence of a magnetic field. Therefore, the loss process should be slowed down using heavy airtight walls, a roof, or a special building to create an atmosphere.
If Musk is disappointed with the findings, many researchers happily exhaled, because they still want to find life on the Red Planet. To do this, use ExoMars 2020, as well as the NASA Mars 2020 mission, which will collect samples for return to Earth in 2030. The results will also show the possibility of living in other places, like the moons of Enceladus (Saturn) and Titan (Jupiter).
