Jakarta – Elon Musk has long been vocal about his plan to establish a permanent colony on Mars. However, this plan is predicted to end in disaster.
The CEO of SpaceX aims to build a permanent settlement on Mars that will house one million people by 2050, in order to continue humanity’s civilization in case conditions on Earth worsen. Currently, SpaceX is testing its Starship rockets, which will eventually transport humans to the Red Planet.
According to Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, authors of the book “A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?”, Mars is not a viable planet for long-term human habitation.
“It is unlikely that we could house one million people on Mars without something very bad happening, such as the inability to have babies there, or mothers and babies dying, or developing cancer,” Kelly said in an interview with CNN, as quoted by Futurism on Monday (Dec 2, 2024).
“If you want to do this, it has to be a long-term effort to build gradually from generation to generation until we can become self-sustaining on Mars,” Kelly added.
Kelly, a biology expert and assistant professor at Rice University in Houston, USA, stated that reproduction could become the biggest challenge on Mars due to the extremely high levels of radiation.
The surface of Mars also has extremely low gravity—only 38% of Earth’s gravity—which would have a significant impact on the bone density of humans living there for extended periods.
“Just imagine how difficult it would be, for example, when labor begins, and you have to hope that your hips are strong enough to handle it,” Kelly said.
“We were surprised by the number of problems we thought we could handle. But it turns out we have very little relevant data on how adults would cope, let alone how to have babies (in space),” she added.
Despite this, Kelly remains positive about SpaceX and NASA’s efforts to land the first humans on Mars. According to her, the neighboring planet would be a great place for conducting scientific research.
“Maybe in our lifetime, we will see people land on Mars, explore it, and return to Earth. That could happen, but I don’t think we’ll have babies on Mars,” she concluded.
