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Going to Mars might sound like the greatest adventure anyone can sign up for, at least during our lifetimes. And why wouldn’t it be? The first people to go there will be revered pretty much like Neil Armstrong was when he stepped on the moon. With only a couple of days to register for the mission to the red planet, NASA warns against dangers of going to Mars.
Technical difficulties
There are a plentitude of reasons for which you could die on Mars, or even the way there. So many things can go wrong, and unlike like in “The Martian”, few things can be done if anything happens. If anything fails on the ship or when you get there, you’re pretty much toast, as NASA won’t be mounting a multi-billion dollar operation to save you. You are not Matt Damon.
First of all, pretty much anything could kill you on the way there. During the 6 months you spend hurdling through space in a tin can high above the world. But ships are generally built to last, so you will most likely make it there in one piece. If you manage to survive the landing, that is.
Yeah, even though SpaceX has been having a moderate amount of success with their space landings, any single miscalculation or factor unaccounted for can lead to you finally reaching the red planet only to crash down on its surface to your certain and un-Matt Damon-like death (unless we’re talking Interstellar, because in that case an explosion is still an explosion).
Natural causes
If you manage to survive the Maximum Overdrive, you still have plenty of chances to get six feet under while on Mars. Or rather 9 feet under, as that is the estimated depth where you’ll be able to live and be safe from the radiation caused by Mars’ missing atmosphere.
Oh, and remember the dust storm that got Damon stuck there in the first place? Apparently, it’s not the storms you have to worry about, but the dust itself. Apparently, the dust and sand on Mars are so rough, and coarse, and irritating, that it gets everywhere, including down every single exposed orifice, allowing you to stop complaining about the sand by having you choke on it.
And if those weren’t enough things trying to kill you, how about literally everything else? The air, the temperature, and the atmospheric pressure are all so different from what we have on Earth, that a single misstep can lead to ending up as dead as Matt Damon in Dogma.
I’m not even going to start going on about the water, but you’ve watched Doctor Who, you know what I’m talking about (SPOILER – article photo).
Image source: Wikimedia
