Category: JAMES WEBB
Topic: What problems do we need to solve before people can live on Mars?
Good morning everyone. I'm pretty sure that you all know why I'm here. After all, this is a speech contest so before I start, I'd like to present myself.
My name is Rafael Torres and I come from the American school to talk to you about 1 topic, just 1 but this topic in particular I find it interesting, after all that's why I chose it, but what I'm trying to say is that if I find it interesting i'm hoping (I hope) that the majority of people that attended here also do. And you may ask yourself what makes this topic so interesting and to that question I say what makes this topic so interesting to me is that this topic for me is a representation of what could be the future of the human race and only the beginning of the era of space exploration.
It is well known that Mars, the red planet, is currently uninhabitable, but although it sounds like a science fiction story, the colonization of Mars is not as far away as it seems. Even space research organizations like NASA are already organizing and devising plans for the exploration and colonization of the unreachable red planet.
But to design a plan you must first identify the problems that need to be solved before the plan can be used (applied).
The atmosphere of Mars is almost 100 times less dense than Earth's, its temperatures average -81 degrees Fahrenheit, and it has 63% less gravity. All of those conditions, combined with lack of liquid water and oxygen, create really tough terrain for life to survive in.
NASA confirmed that, after years of speculation, it found the strongest evidence of the presence of liquid water on the surface of Mars.
Long dark lines that are seen in some regions of the planet are due to currents of salt water that slide downhill through craters and slopes during the summer months, experts said.
In theory, NASA could now order Curiosity - the robot that is investigating the terrain - to approach one of the four areas where hydrated salts have been detected in recent days.
But there is an organization, the Cosparwhich establishes a series of rules to prevent humans from contaminating pristine unexplored worlds.
According to this entity, robots that land -in this case, land- on a celestial body that is not Earth with the mission of searching for life, must be exceptionally clean.
These are described as category IVb vehicles.
But for those who enter special zones, as would be the case with the areas now discovered on Mars by NASA, the rules are even stricter.
Such vehicles, like Curiosity, fall into category IVc.
And, as stated by Cospar, you can't get close.
Until the discussion is settled, hope will be placed on future robots destined for Mars. Although for that, we will have to wait.
Scientists from NASA, the US space agency, say that Mars could be habitable if something that the Earth already has is artificially created: a protective magnetic field.
This shield is essential to avoid the impact of radiation and powerful solar flares.
And a similar field could be generated around the red planet, according to researchers from NASA's Planetary Science Division (PSD).
The lack of atmosphere means that the temperature can go from 20 degrees during the day to 80 degrees below zero at night.
But the red planet was very different in the past.
Data from NASA's MAVEN and European Space Agency's Mars Express missions suggest that Mars has a natural magnetic field.
But it disappeared about 4.2 billion years ago and, as a consequence, the Martian atmosphere progressively disappeared over the next 500 years.
What the researchers are proposing, is to recover the Mars of the past, with its atmosphere, higher temperature and part of its ancient oceans.
"In the future it's quite possible that a 1 or 2 Tesla magnetic field (plural) could be generated against the solar flares," said Jim Green of NASA's Planetary Science Division.
Green and his colleagues propose placing a magnetic dipole, as a satellite, to accompany the planet in its orbit, protecting it.
Green says miniature artificial magnetospheres have already been created to protect spacecraft crews.
NASA researchers carried out simulations according to which a magnetic field located at the so-called Lagrange point L1 would be enough to increase the thickness of the atmosphere and the temperature by 4 degrees Celsius.
The artificial magnetosphere could deflect solar flares just like a natural magnetic field.
The rise in temperature could in turn melt carbon dioxide at the planet's north pole.
And this would create a greenhouse effect that would further increase the temperature until reaching conditions compatible with the presence of liquid water.
"A warmer, higher-pressure Martian atmosphere would allow enough liquid water on the surface to enhance human exploration in the 2040s," says Green.
The magnetic shield would facilitate the arrival of missions to the red planet.
For Green, if an artificial magnetic field is created, "the new conditions on Mars would allow researchers and explorers to study the planet in much more detail."
"And if this is achieved... the colonization of Mars will not be far away."
.jpeg)