Mars, a planet over 200 million kilometres away from Earth, has been the object of much fascination for years. Mars has earned its nickname as the Red Planet from the dust that covers its surface. Mars is a planet of thin air and cold temperatures. Days on Mars are a little over 24 hours, but years take twice as long on Earth. Mars has no breathable atmosphere, no surface water, and no defence from radiation, making it as dangerous as it is fascinating.
Still, scientists and engineers continue to ask: Could humans ever really live there?
That question brought hope, laughter, and skepticism to the students at Fanshawe College.
“I think human civilization could possibly live on Mars,” said Emily, a Fanshawe student. “Technology has come so far. With NASA partnering with billionaires and private companies, I think it’s possible to build structures and even a lifestyle similar to Earth.”
Another student, Phillip, said it could happen, but not anytime soon. “We’ve already been there with rovers, so I think it’s possible eventually,” he said. “But actually colonizing Mars is still a long way away. We’d need farms, food and better shelter before we could sustain ourselves.”
Others were more skeptical.
“In my opinion, humans will not be living on Mars anytime soon,” said Finlee. “Earth is built for life. Mars just isn’t. It doesn’t have the oxygen or the environment we need.”
For Connor, the question itself elicited a laugh. “They say they want to terraform Mars. How about we try that in Cleveland first?” he joked. “We’ve got a lot of work to do here on Earth.”
Dr. Catherine Neish/Photo Taken By/Western University
While Fanshawe students are divided, Western University professor and NASA researcher Dr. Catherine Neish feels the idea of a long-term civilization on Mars remains more science fiction than science fact.
Neish is an associate professor of earth sciences and a planetary geologist who specializes in the surfaces of other worlds, including Venus, Titan and Mercury. She said the most significant barrier to a permanent settlement on Mars isn’t about surviving, it’s about reproducing.
“To sustain a long-term civilization, you have to have children,” she explained. “And it’s not clear that we can safely have children on a planet with one-third of Earth’s gravity. That’s not something I’d want to experiment with.”
Even if humanity could overcome the physical hurdles, Neish said there are ethical ones too.
“Do we have the right to totally change a planet’s surface?” she asked. “In a way, Mars is like a giant national park. Whatever life forms might exist there, they have their own rights too. And we don’t exactly have a great history with colonization on Earth.”
Still, scientists have made progress in understanding where humans could go, if only temporarily. Neish worked on a radar concept for the International Mars Ice Mapper mission, designed to locate underground ice that astronauts could use for water.
“If you want to live on Mars, you need water,” she said. “Radar can penetrate the dust and identify bright signatures from ice buried a few metres underground, ideally near the mid-latitudes where sunlight is still available.”
Such findings could one day aid the selection of safer landing zones by explorers. But for Neish, the idea of building a civilization on Mars remains a distant vision.
“If people are really committed, it’ll be small groups for short periods, more like an Antarctic base than a civilization,” she said. “The atmosphere is trying to kill you, the soil is toxic, and you have to bring everything with you. Frankly, robots can do most of the work we’d send humans to do.”
Even with growing private investment in space exploration, Neish doubts that will change soon. “I just don’t think that long-term habitation on Mars is realistic, not for at least the next hundred years,” she said. “It’s expensive, incredibly difficult and honestly, we have enough problems to solve on Earth before we start worrying about building a city on another planet.”
But for now, Mars represents a world of wonder and challenge. Whether it will be our next destination or forever out of reach, the dream of living on Mars orbits somewhere between hope and reality.
