# Would living on Mars suck? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 20, 2016, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881 "2016-06-20T10:11:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/41 "2016-06-22T05:16:43Z")
Bakersfield. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/42 "2016-06-22T05:19:26Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Mars is the armpit of the Solar System, it’s just a hole. Okay, okay. It’s just like [McKittrick, CA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:McKittrick_California_SR33_at_SR58.JPG). Yes, that pic pretty much shows the entire town! ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/43 "2016-06-22T05:27:30Z")
Would it suck worse than living in North Korea? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/44 "2016-06-22T05:47:33Z")
At least in North Korea you know why things are terrible; there’s is just no reason that Fresno sucks as hard as it does. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/45 "2016-06-22T23:36:17Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > There’s one aspect that pretty much kills the dream of manned Mars exploration. Here on earth we have a nice atmosphere and a nice magnetic field, which keep us safe from both ambient radiation in space on some of the Sun’s radiation. Otherwise these things would be lethal. Mars has a much weaker atmosphere and magnetic field, and thus the lethal radiation reaches the surface. So you’d first have to find a way to reach Mars without dying, and then you’d have to dig deep under the surface in order to survive. > > Briefly the possibilities for reaching Mars alive are: > > 1. Build an extremely thick and heavy shield around the spaceship. > 2. Create an extremely strong magnetic field to repel radiation. > 3. Give the surface of the spaceship an electric charge of about 2 billion volts. > 4. Get to Mars extremely quickly. > 5. Genetically modify human beings to make them immune to radiation. > > 1 is possible but would make the spaceship extremely heavy and slow. 2 and 3 are beyond any imaginable technology. 4 runs into the limit on the acceleration that the human body can endure. 5 is not possible and probably never will be. I see this comment frequently and have never understood it. Radiation in space is certainly significant compared to earth but not an immediate danger. Further, it has rarely if ever, until recently, been measured. Here is one of the recent actual studies of the issue: > **[Radiation on Mars 'Manageable' for Manned Mission, Curiosity Rover Reveals](https://www.space.com/23875-mars-radiation-life-manned-mission.html)** > > The threat of radiation exposure is not a show-stopper for a long-term manned mission to Mars, new results from NASA's Curiosity rover suggest. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/46 "2016-06-23T00:58:21Z")
I can imagine people of a certain extremist libertarian mindset wanting to do it as a way to escape what they see as the oppression of Earth goverments. I’m thinking of the type of person who wants to live on something like the Freedom Ship, or someplace like what the failed Galt’s Gulch in Chile was supposed to be. Of course they’d be disappointed because any startup Mars colony would have to be a repressive environment with many strict rules and rationing in order to simply survive. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/47 "2016-06-23T01:56:57Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > …Of course they’d be disappointed because any startup Mars colony would have to be a repressive environment with many strict rules and rationing in order to simply survive. Good point; North Korea would be a libertarian paradise by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/48 "2016-06-23T20:13:36Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > …he 0.38 g acceleration of Mars natural gravity make have serious long-term detrimental effects on the human body, especially the cardiovasculare and musculoskeletal system, but observation from freefall physiology has also provided significant evidence of effects on the cellular level including degradation of energy storage capability and function of the immune system. … Freefall and .38g are not the same thing, of course. The issues you mention might well be a problem on Mars but I’d imagine they’d be less so than in pure freefall. Your point about a space habitat being a better choice (since “gravity” could be created by a spinning habitat) is certainly well taken and I’m not quibbling with that, though there’s the fact that in space, EVERYTHING has to be imported. On the surface of Mars, there are at least some natural resources - e.g. building walls might be fabricated out of the sand, allowing for easier expansion. I think the biggest problem would be that it’s very, very difficult to have a completely closed environment be sustainable long-term. Witness the [Biosphere experiments.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2) . It all sounds great in science fiction stories but those that go into much detail at all place SIGNIFICANT emphasis on the chores related to the plants / animals that are used to make it habitable. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/49 "2016-06-23T21:57:19Z")
> [@KellyCriterion](#): > > Being able to visit Mars as a tourist is probably something that people who are alive today will get to experience. That would be awesome. Doesn’t it take something like 5 years just to travel there? A decade of travel time probably invalidates any concept of “tourist”. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/50 "2016-06-23T22:16:04Z")
It doesn’t take any particular amount of time to travel there, since there are no existing systems that would allow humans to travel to Mars. But it wouldn’t take years even for a minimum energy Hohmann transfer orbit. Done at the correct launch window such a trip would only take 8.5 months between Earth and Mars. That’s still way to long for Mars tourism. Especially since you’ll have to wait around on Mars for a while until the next minimum energy launch window back to Earth, and the return trip will again take another 8.5 months. So a trip from Earth to Mars and back to Earth is going to take something on the order of 2 years. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/51 "2016-06-23T22:47:52Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Doesn’t it take something like 5 years just to travel there? > > A decade of travel time probably invalidates any concept of “tourist”. 3 months is more like it at least for orbiters/rovers ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/52 "2016-06-23T23:31:49Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > 3 months is more like it at least for orbiters/rovers Maybe I was remembering commentary on the Europa Report film (though it looks like was about 2 years in the film). Apparently, the travel time there is in the 5-6 year range, for NASA’s planned mission. ---
**Author:** ![pieceoftheuniverse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7993a0/32.png) [@pieceoftheuniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pieceoftheuniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2016, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/53 "2016-06-24T22:28:26Z")
I think there are quite a few problems that living on Mars presents. Like others said, never going outside. Returning to Earth would be a (literal) pain. Three months to get there, three months back, and Mars is about one-third g, so that’s half a year of bone loss and muscle atrophy to have to build back up, more so if you actually stick around for a while. Even assuming a magical method of terraforming (so you could go outside), it wouldn’t be comfortable. Mars is too far outside the green zone. The most you could hope for would be high 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Probably cooler. If you like that kind of weather, that’s fine. But Mars doesn’t have an iron core, so it doesn’t have a magnetic field. That ties into two things: an increase in cosmic rays (you already got a heck of a dose on the trip here and back), and the fact that the Martian atmosphere is slowly bleeding away (undoing all your magical terraforming. Damn you, physics!). Then there’s the very high likelihood that the first colonists will die. It’s a new colony in a method that’s never been done before, and the potential for disasters is enormous. Traditionally (just thinking of early American colonies here), that’s not a good recipe for survival. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881.md?page=2)