It is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, being larger than only Mercury.It has two small and irregularly shaped moons: Phobos and Deimos.
Temperatures on Mars average about -81 degrees F.
The atmosphere of Mars is much thinner than Earth's. The Red Planet's atmosphere contains more than 95% carbon dioxide and much less than 1% oxygen. People would not be able to breathe the air on Mars.
But Mars is much more than that.
Cumulative evidence suggests that during the ancient Noachian time period, the surface environment of Mars had liquid water and may have been habitable for microorganisms, but habitable conditions do not necessarily indicate life.Scientific searches for evidence of life began in the 19th century and continue today via telescopic investigations and deployed probes.
In 1996, scientists announced that a Martian meteorite recovered from Antarctica's Allan Hills region appeared to contain microfossils—tiny, worm-shaped, mineralized signs that life had crawled across the planet's surface some 4.1 billion years ago.
From the start, the evidence was both fascinating and controversial, and to this day it remains so.
The meteorite in question had escaped from Mars 16 million years ago when an asteroid or comet collided with the planet and blasted out a crater. The 2-kilogram fragment of Martian rock then moved in an elliptical orbit around the Sun until it was swept up by the Earth about 13,000 years ago. It landed in glacial Antarctica, where it remained until 1984, when a meteorite-hunting party picked it up it in the Allan Hills. The specimen was designated ALH84001. At first, no one suspected that it came from Mars.About ten years later, scientists examined ALH84001 more closely and found that it was not an ordinary meteorite, but one of the so-called SNC meteorites, which come from Mars. Meteorites of this class all contain traces of gas having a composition identical to the Martian atmosphere.
•The globules contained traces of complex organic compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which might be the decay products of microbes.
•The globules contained microscopic grains of magnetite (a magnetic iron oxide) and of iron sulfide, two compounds rarely found together in the presence of carbonates, unless produced by bacterial metabolism.
•The carbonate globules, when examined with an electron microscope, were found to be covered in places with large numbers of worm-like forms that resemble fossilized bacteria.
On 1st Feb 2021, in an interview at clubhouse app, Elon musk clearly said that humans have to be arrived on Mars within 5-6 years and we will make Mars a habitable planet. And on the other hand NASA told that " yes mars can be made a habitable planet but till year 2033".
As planets from Jupiter to Neptune are made of gases, only Mars seems to be habitable. So scientists started investigating Mars.
Mars Pathfinder was launched December 4, 1996 and landed on Mars' Ares Vallis on July 4, 1997. Pathfinder not only accomplished this goal but also returned an unprecedented amount of data and outlived its primary design life.Findings from the investigations carried out by scientific instruments on both the lander and the rover suggest that Mars was at one time in its past warm and wet. But it missed one of the most important information. It failed to find water in Mars.
On 31st July 2008, phoenix Mars lander rover confirmed that water in the form of frozen ice is present in Mars.
Now by that we have found a planet where we can colonize humans. So now what are the things that are stopping us to colonize Mars?
•Mars definately has its own atmosphere but there is very little amount of oxygen present there and has only 0.6% of Earth's atmosphere pressure so if humans will land on the surface without any spacesuit then within one second their body will burst.
•Because of low atmospheric pressure, ice doesn't change to water, else it directly evaporates.
•As it has very thin layer of atmosphere, sun rays directly reflect back to space causing very cold weather on Mars.
•In Mars atmosphere, there is majorly CO2 and only very small amount of O2 that means there will be no ozone layer and sun's ultra violet rays will directly hit the human body causing damage to skin DNA.
•Gravitational force on Mars is 3 times less than that of earth. Magnetic field that protects us from many radiation of space is not present on Mars.
What are the solution to these problems?
Well there are some solutions that are suggested by the scientists.
•To make the atmosphere thick and dense, we have to add many gases like nitrogen and oxygen. It can be done with the help of comets. These comets are heavily loaded with ice, CO2 and nitrogen. We can change the path of comets to colide it with Mars to make atmosphere.
•By making atmosphere thick, sun rays will be trapped by the atmosphere and ice will not directly change into gas. It will transform in liquid form as atmosphere is insulated.
•Now for oxygen we have cyanobacteria also known as blue green algae. It takes co2 and releases o2. It multiplies rapidly in any water source and can release sufficient oxygen.
•Gravity and magnetic field can be generated with help of chains of electromagnets that will revolve around the Mars and the force generated from its energy and movement result in gravitational force and magnetic field produced by electromagnets will protect us from the harmful radiation of outer space.
As these solutions sounds easy but they aren't. As for now we only have these solutions and scientists are looking for more better options. As these tasks are very hard and very expensive, we cannot tell any specific time to when the Mars will completely habitable for humans.
