If the prospect of mankind setting foot on the Martian surface has rekindled your interest in space travel and world conquering, bear in mind that life on Mars will be no walk in the park. And as a new infographic from TED shows, existence on our closest neighbour will actually be pretty grim.
Created by Stephen Petranek, who knows a thing or two about eking out an existence on the red planet having written the book How We’ll Live on Mars, the infographic explains just why it’ll be so hard to survive on Mars.
Given that a Martian year is almost twice as long as our own solar circuit, seasons are twice as long as they are here, meaning double the winter. Which is even more grim given that Mars only gets about 60% of the sunlight that we get anyway. Factor in the lack of oxygen, the wildly fluctuating temperatures, and that all the planet’s water is made up of ice, mankind’s next great adventure will not be for the fainthearted.
Check out the infographic below, and tune in to the TED Radio Hour every Sunday on Newstalk at 6pm:
Recently on Newstalk's Futureproof, host Jonathan McCrea spoke to Stephen Petranek about the various ways the world could end. Listen back to the podcast below:
