3. Clothes make the man . . . or break the man.
Currently, there are no specifications for the spacesuits. How will they be pressurised? And cooled? What happens if they tear? How reliable will they be, day in, day out, all that distance across the solar system? Mars is a long way away from the nearest tailor.
4. Basic human needs are not so basic.
There’ll be no readily available oxygen, water, or food. Sure, the crew can take supplies, and with the right technology and enough money, they can try to deal with these issues. They can probably find a way to create oxygen from the carbon dioxide that’s already abundant on Mars. They can attempt to extract water from ice deposits or hydrated minerals. And hopefully, with research into the Martian environment, they can grow crops to feed astronauts in future years. However, each of these is a delicate process. It takes only one small setback, and the results could be catastrophic. Leaks can occur. Crops can fail. Let’s face it: currently, the Mars Project doesn’t even know how basic sanitation will work. How will the crew dispose of their own waste? This could get messy.
5. Radiation, radiation, radiation.
Space is full of particles released by the sun and stars. On Earth, we are protected from them by the geomagnetic field and the ozone layer. Space has neither of these things, and Mars’s magnetic field is low. To travel to Mars, stay for five hundred days, and then return would likely expose astronauts to around 1 sievert of radiation. This presumes that the astronauts wouldn’t get hit by a solar flare along the way, which could be fatal. The European Space Agency limits its astronauts to 1 sievert of radiation over an entire career. People exposed to this level of radiation have a 5 percent increased risk of dying from cancer. But the astronauts will not be living on Mars for only five hundred days. They will be living there forever.
6. Low gravity is, er, a grave subject.
The longest a human has spent in space is 437 days. The change in gravity during a long space mission has been seen to affect the body in the following ways: loss of bone and muscle mass, depleted calcium supplies, optical deterioration. It’s possible that by the time humans reach Mars, their bodies will be so negatively affected by the gravitational changes that they won’t be able to stand or see. The gravity on Mars is a third of what it is here on Earth. So even if the astronauts make it there intact, what next?
7. Life on Mars?Not for much longer.
The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 forbids the “harmful contamination” of alien environments. Yet if the crew don’t have the correct procedures in place to protect any living matter that might already be on the planet, chances are they’ll infect and/or kill it. And it’s entirely possible that if there is something there, it could do the same to them.
8. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Mars is dirty. Sandstorms last for weeks at a time. Dust can rip a spacesuit, clog a door seal, break machinery, or stop a solar panel from working. It’s also high in perchlorates: toxic salts that damage the thyroid gland, weaken the immune system, and disrupt the menstrual cycle. The astronauts had better cross their fingers that these toxins don’t find a way into their food or water.
9. What’s the long game?
How is the civilisation on Mars meant to sustain itself? We can’t keep replenishing the stock of humans on Mars from Earth. Isn’t the ultimate goal that they’re able to replenish themselves? Unless artificial gravity works effectively, intercourse is a massive hurdle (possibly the recent invention of the 2suit, an intimate spacesuit that accommodates two, could help with this), and besides, it’s still not known whether humans are capable of conceiving in space. Even if it is possible, there’s no scientific data on whether their foetuses can develop normally during the gestation period. And, if a human can be born in space, what will it look like? Will it make it to puberty, or die young and in agony?
10. Mad for it.
Astronauts find it hard to doze off in zero gravity, so sleep deprivation is a problem. Plus, there are the very real risks of living in confined spaces for extended periods of time. The MARS-500 project in Moscow, simulating a round trip to Mars, ended with four of the six test subjects suffering psychologically. And that was in the space of seventeen months. Even with the most stringent testing beforehand, it’s impossible to predict how people will react once they embark on a mission like this. How will astronauts cope with the idea of never returning to Earth? Leaving their families behind? Never seeing another tree, bird, or coffee shop? And if just one crew member can’t handle the mission, what happens to the rest?
28
First Response: two pink lines. Lloyds Pharmacy own brand: a blue cross. Clearblue Digital: “Pregnant.”
I always thought that when I eventually saw a positive test, I’d look back upon the act that had created the new life inside me with wonder. An erotic memory to savour forever.
Here’s what I recall. It was the first full day back from my dive. I was nauseous and exhausted. I didn’t realise that it was my fertile window because I’d switched off my app alerts, but perhaps James knew and that’s why he initiated it.
“It’s good to have you back,” he said in my ear a little too loudly, moments after I woke. “My sourdough starter has become sluggish, but I’ll nip out for some Danish pastries.” After we finished having sex, I said, “Actually, could I have a sausage roll please?”
It took me a while to put two and two together after I fainted at the Eden Project. I thought I’d started my period that day, but it must have
