I’m sure you must have learnt of the word ‘Colonization’. In history, we all learned how empires were out to colonize each other. If we try using this word in a more recent context- you must have heard “Colonization of planets”, but why do we need to colonize other planets?
We exactly don’t NEED to colonize other planets, but many scientists argue that there can be many situations concerning the safety of our earth, we should be more prepared for. The survival of humanity seems to be the top priority of the people investigating such planets. Earth can be opposed to threats like meteoroids, nuclear explosion, another ice age which make the planet unsuitable for life. The limited resources on earth also play a concerning role in this search. With the population increasing fast, resources like coal and petroleum have already started to deplete. One of the major reasons scientists are looking for them, is to possibly find traces of life on the planets or make life interplanetary.
The planet most sought out nowadays is Mars. you now may ask WHY MARS? Well there are some reasons-
Mars is present near the Goldilock zone of the solar system. Not present exactly in it but close for us to consider it as a possibility. Earth is the only planet present in the Goldilock zone in our solar system. Venus, neighboring earth, is the hottest planet with temperature going up to 867°F (464°C), so that cancels out (unless you fancy evaporating).
A day on Mars is pretty close to an earth day(24.6 hrs)
Water is present on Mars but it is frozen.
Even with these factors siding with us there is a major problem which we need to find a solution to- A thin environment- the atmosphere of mars is extremely thin providing no oxygen in it. Despite having almost no air, the thin atmosphere also means no magnetic field. The atmosphere plays a key role in protecting the earth from asteroids and harmful sun rays, the presence of a suitable atmosphere is vital to the survival of any organism species.
SpaceX, having CEO Elon Musk is one of the biggest contributors to research in this field of astronomy. He believes that colonizing Mars is crucial to the continuity of the human race.
They envision creating rockets which can carry up to a hundred people, and even creating a city with a million humans in about 50–100 years.
Many say that terraforming Mars could take hundreds if not thousands of years, with technology this estimate could potentially decrease, but now the question arises- Should we continue with Mars? Or look for another planet to expand mankind?
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