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John Close

English III Honors

Ms. Dott

6 December, 2017

Mars, Earth Jr.?

Earth. Home planet of Homo Sapiens. Located in the Solar System of the Milky

Way Galaxy. While it seems fine for now, our continued pollution and destruction of the

ozone layer could lead to the planet’s death. Some scientists even think that Earth is too

far gone, too polluted to be saved. Thusly, we need to leave Earth, and find a new

home, and use the lessons we’ve learned here to treat other planets better. Elon Musk,

CEO of SpaceX, sees humans doing this in a little more than 20 years. But Mars is not

an easy place to live on. It will take a lot of work to make it habitable, and I want to

present a possible solution.

First, let’s talk about why we should go to Mars. It’s close, not a death trap, like

Venus, and it has some sort of atmosphere already, albeit thin and mostly made of

carbon dioxide. We have all our eggs in one basket here on Earth. That is, to say that if

Earth were to die, the human race would along with it. Branching out to other planets

will only serve to extend the existence of the human race.

My idea is that we send preliminary colonies to Mars, ones that have bubble

shaped dwellings with their own oxygen, and use a small portion of the planet’s surface

for factories. As we know, factories produce greenhouse gases, which will thicken Mars’
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atmosphere and warm up the planet. This warming will also likely cause some of the

water ice on Mars’ poles to melt, and even create rivers and oceans, which can help

human colonization.

As we do this, we need to have a substantial amount of plant life adapted to live

on Mars’ surface. This way we can begin to clean pollution as we produce it, and this

will also eventually lead to a breathable atmosphere. Admittedly, this will take many

years, which is why we need to get started as soon as we can.

Once there is enough oxygen in Mars’ atmosphere to breathe, about 20% of the

atmosphere, we can begin to set up more permanent colonies. This way we can have

humans work without the cumbersome and clunky spacesuits we would otherwise need.

There is less gravity on Mars, only about 38% of Earth’s, so working would still be

troublesome, which is why getting rid of a bulky spacesuit is best. We would already be

working in conditions that aren’t very welcoming to humans, so we need every

advantage we can get.

Earth is a planet likely to be on its way out. Even if it isn’t, disasters can still

strike, so the human race needs to be prepared. The best way to do this is to branch out

to other planets, so that the loss of one doesn’t kill the human race off entirely. Mars’

thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide can be overcome by thickening it with greenhouse

gases from factories, and using those gases to feed plants so they can produce oxygen,

and, eventually, a viable atmosphere for humans without a spacesuit. After that is

done, we can create permanent human settlements, so the human race can expand

and begin to conquer the galaxy, although I mean that more so as creating settlements

and expanding to hopefully share our knowledge and culture with other civilizations.