• Question: What would you need to survive on Mars? By the way is it even possible to live on Mars?

    Asked by xXmadscientistibrahimXx to Stu, Euan, Deborah, Maheen, Rob on 13 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by madest-scientists, katiekatie.
    • Photo: Euan Allen

      Euan Allen answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      Hi xXmadscientistibrahimXx!

      That’s a very interesting question.

      If I was to plonk you on Mars right now you wouldn’t survive very long at all. In fact you would die pretty quickly because there is actually no atmosphere on Mars, meaning that there is no oxygen in the air and you would suffocate (oh no!).

      However, there are many people that believe we could eventually inhabit Mars, once we had managed to take enough equipment up there. The three main things that you would need would be:
      1) Some kind of atmosphere (preferably very similar to the one on earth, with lots of nitrogen, some oxygen, and a little carbon dioxide)
      2) Some way of growing food, as you shouldn’t really rely on taking food with you as it will always eventually run out
      3) Water. Not only for you to drink but for you to use to grow plants and crops with.

      If we managed to find someway of getting these three things to Mars (which is really hard), then we might one day be able to live there!

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