The Reality of Martian Exploration

Many across this planet dream of walking on other worlds. However, the experience many imagine of bouncing around on low-gravity surfaces, staring across alien vistas, or seeing natural wonders never witnessed by anyone before does not reflect the reality of what that exploration will look like. Instead, listen closely if you want to know what this exploration will be like. The experience is one of the most arduous and stressful undertakings one can take on.

A journey to Mars would take five to seven months, NASA reports. At first, astronauts may enjoy regular, if laggy, calls with family and friends, and may have direct communication with ground control. However, over time they will lose this ability as the distance between them and Earth becomes too great for regular, live communication. This leaves their only communication with the outside world being emails. Astronauts will watch out of one of their solitary windows as the Earth grows smaller and smaller until it is nothing but a pale blue dot. Days will quickly blend into each other as the crew does little more than their required two hours of exercise and invent new ways to kill time. 

When the astronauts finally reach Mars, one of the few times they might see the surface for any extended period will be when they arrive. They will see their new home as they disembark from the landing craft, although, home might be too strong a term — anyone else might recognise it as something else: a crypt. This tomb is where they shall live for the next year as they wait for Mars and Earth to reach a position in their orbits where a return journey is possible. Until then, they will fill their days with piloting robots on the surface from their subterranean lair and collecting data.

Illustration: Aimee Robbins

Unlike the spacecraft that brought them to Mars, this base has no windows. Instead, the astronauts will be shrouded in artificial lights and hidden underground to protect them from the radiation exposure of the sun. While this may keep them safe, one can only guess at the psychological toll of being trapped in an underground tin can with no sunlight, all while a constant electrical buzzing noise fills the space. Perhaps with never a moment of peace. 

The return journey will be much the same as the journey there, but after being away from home for so long, it may feel like a much longer and arduous journey. At this point, the astronauts will have spent almost two years in space, the longest any human has to date.

While NASA plans to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, what has just been described will still largely be an accurate description of the mission that will take place. Accordingly, NASA has begun preparing for multiple rigours its astronauts will face by launching several simulated Mars missions to see how people respond to the conditions mentioned above and what can be done to alleviate some of the reactions. NASA knows there is no room for error; if anything goes wrong while the crew is on their journey to or from Mars, any slip-up could mean death.

Unlike Apollo, where NASA could directly oversee the mission from the ground, it would have to rely on the astronauts to directly take charge of the situation at hand and solve things without their assistance. Without a doubt, the people selected will be some of the most disciplined people this planet has to offer, and I, for one, cannot wait to see who is up to the challenge.