The hunt for life on Mars has largely been confined to looking for hints of extraterrestrial life in space, but now NASA has officially announced their intention to terraform the red planet by injecting breathable atmosphere. Meanwhile, the future Mars One crew members have already been busy making plans for how they will live on Mars.
In a related report by the Inquisitr , the 100 finalists for the Mars One program have already been chosen, but skeptics point out that the “failure rate would be about 90 to 95 percent for a mission of this magnitude. In other words, it’s a tragedy waiting to happen.”
British woman Maggie Lieu knows she will die on Mars if the Mars One plan is successful, but already she is making plans to create new life on Mars.
“I’m very open to having a baby on Mars,” she said, according to Metro .
“I think it would be really exciting to be the mother of the first ever baby born there. No one has done research on giving birth in low gravity so it is a risk. In order to establish a colony on Mars, reproduction is inevitable and essential. I’m curious to know the impact it will have on our knowledge of pregnancy in space.”
Of course, in order to live on Mars, then you have to be capable of breathing freely. NASA’s Mars 2020 mission is not directly connected to the Mars One reality TV show, but they are planning to introduce a device that help make the red planet livable over the long term.
MIT has created a device called MOXIE , which will be used to generate oxygen into Mars’ atmosphere. The goal is to produce breathable air for the first astronauts to create a Mars settlement, whether it be Mars One or another group. The MOXIE device is also capable of producing liquid oxygen, which, along with liquid hydrogen, could be used for a return journey to Earth.
“Human exploration of Mars will be a seminal event for the next generation, the same way the moon landing mission was for my generation,” Michael Hecht of MIT said. “I welcome this opportunity to move us closer to that vision.”
Lieu knows she will never leave Mars based upon the current Mars One plan, but perhaps she and the 99 other astronauts will be the first to begin terraforming the red planet for future generations.