Did you ever wonder what happens to an astronaut or cosmonaut after they have spent time in space? We have been going into space long enough to find out what are some of the effects of staying in space on a human body and I have to say space is not a friendly environment. It has been said when an astronaut or cosmonaut returns to earth after a stint in the International Space Station their body is never the same as it was before they went there. They suffer from weakened muscles, a higher risk of cancer from space radiation and their body stretches and some astronauts have returned to earth 2 inches taller. You have to remember there is no gravity holding you down. When there is no gravity your bones lose minerals and the density of your bones can drop as much as 1% per month. On earth the density decreases from 1 to 1.5% each year. Here is the real scary part, when an astronaut or cosmonaut returns to the earth it doesn’t always mean the density drop from space in one’s bones will revert back to normal. Astronauts and cosmonauts are aware of this risk, so when they do go into space they are consciously risking a life of misery when they get back.

Scientists want to alleviate as much of these risks as they can and this is one of the reasons they are trying to develop faster engines. They want to cut down the time it takes to travel in space, for example without a faster engine a one way trip to Mars might take over a year which will certainly hurt the passengers in that spaceship. Until we can develop some sort of light shielding and artificial gravity these problems will persist and even with faster ships we are not eliminating the problem, just cutting down on the exposure. On Mars the gravity is only 38% of what it is on earth. Scientists think this lower gravity might have an effect on not only on the bones of colonists, but also on their very cells and muscles. Some believe if a colony is set up on Mars the future inhabitants may never be able to go back to earth, because the conditions here would kill them. This assumes of course we can’t create the same conditions on Mars which exist here.

There are a lot of things about Mars which are a danger to humans. One thing which is similar to earth is the length of a day on Mars. It is close to 24 ½ hours, but a year on Mars is much longer. There are Martian dust devils which travel across the surface of the planet and are columns of reddish-brown sand and dust which are 10 times larger than a tornado on the earth and it is known these will pose a significant threat to those people who settle on Mars. It is not known how a long term dosage of radiation will affect Mars settlers. Mars does not have an ozone layer as does the earth, so this layer is not present to protect colonists. It is believed a lot more investigation will be required before a conclusion about how this radiation will affect humans can be reached. In the meantime a lot of research is going on and scientists are trying to finding ways to protect humans from radiation and this research concerns both mechanical methods and chemical ones.

One of the things necessary for a successful trip to Mars is not only a spaceship capable of reaching the red planet as fast as possible, but a power source which will enable the colonists to be able to power their colony. To this end scientists in the United States are working in a desert facility developing a tiny nuclear reactor about the size of a cereal box. It is well on the way to being ready, and while its output is far less than any other nuclear reactor, it has sufficient energy to power a small Martian colony or a nuclear powered spaceship. It has been said this reactor could be ready in just a couple of years. On top of this another announcement was made a couple of years ago by Lockheed Martin claiming they had developed a compact fusion reactor which could be scaled to any size they wanted. If this is true this reactor could be the answer to a swift trip to Mars. Of course what I am calling a swift trip will certainly not be fast enough for future space travel. Someday trips to Mars will not be measured in years or months, but in hours or minutes. I suppose none of us alive today will see this, but one never knows. Who would’ve believed the computer revolution could have come upon us so quickly and completely changed our lives? It only takes one significant breakthrough to change everything and you never know when that is going to come.

Living on Mars might be a little easier than first thought and the reason for this is the discovery of water. Scientists believe water exists on Mars and it seems to be bubbling up from inside the planet. This puts me in mind of an old movie I saw many years ago called “Robinson Crusoe on Mars”. An astronaut crashes on the planet Mars and discovers that under the surface are huge freshwater oceans. Perhaps this is what we are going to find when we get there. The only thing I wonder about is the quality of the water they find. Will it be drinkable or will there be minerals in it which are not good for human consumption. Another thing I wonder about is will we be able to grow crops on Mars. We might have to import earth soil to do so and figure out a way to protect these plants. Will it be possible to grow plants on the surface of Mars or will the lack of oxygen and the type of soil prevent this along with the radiation? These are all questions which will have to be answered.

Lastly I would like to talk about a shocking claim made by some scientists which if true would mean when we go to Mars, we may be returning to our home. Some scientists are now arguing life originated on Mars and they base this on the fact a certain mineral found in Martian meteorites is thought to be critical to our lives. A book has come out by ecologist Doctor Ellis Silver which highlights the differences between humans and all other life on this planet. It indicates we were brought here from somewhere else and that somewhere else may have been Mars. I personally don’t subscribe to the fact we would have had to been brought here, because perhaps we were much more advanced in the past and if we did come from Mars we may have brought ourselves here to escape the calamity which destroyed the Martian atmosphere. Doctor Silver claims one of the reasons so many humans suffer from bad backs is because we come from a world with less gravity. He also says it is strange babies heads are so large that it makes it difficult for women to give birth and this is untrue for every other species on this planet. Doctor Silver talks about the extra 223 genes we contain and the lack of a fossilized missing link pointing to our development. Maybe we are from Mars after all.