Is It Safe to Fly to Mars?
Spaceflight is fraught with danger, yet we are moving closer to getting people to Mars. How (un)safe is it?
Space is not a nice place
As far as we know, life has only evolved on a planet with an atmosphere.
That means gravity + shielding. Our atmosphere protects us from the constant radiation blasts that travel through space. Without the atmospheric shield, our DNA would look like alphabet soup.
That being said, some creatures are hardy enough to cope with at least a brief trip into space, but enduring is not the same as thriving.
Carbon-based, DNA-encoded life simply isn’t (yet?) fit for space. This means that to sail the sea of stars, we need protection. Even with all the physical barriers, drugs, and exercise regimes, long retreats into space — even low earth orbit, which isn’t exactly deep space — are not good for our health.
And yet, putting boots on extraterrestrial ground allures us. From SpaceX to NASA to China, Mars is the next frontier in manned space flight, it seems.
(Although some people make the argument that robotics and not manned flight is the future of space exploration. AI might be our best chance to meet ET…)
