Humans on Mars One mission would start dying in 68 days, study

THE first death would come 68 days into the mission to live on Mars. This is how scientists believe death would creep up on people colonising the Red Planet.

SPACE enthusiasts planning a move to Mars may have to wait to relocate: conditions on the Red Planet are such that humans would likely begin dying within 68 days, a new study says.

Oxygen levels would be unstable after about two months and scientists said new technologies were needed before humans could permanently settle on Mars, according to the study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The students found that the level of oxygen in the atmosphere would become a fire hazard as the colony’s first wheat crop reached maturity, and venting the oxygen would not solve the issue. Death by suffocation would invariably follow.

The five-person team used data from Mars One, a Dutch-based non-profit group behind an audacious project to permanently colonise the Red Planet starting in 2024.

A shortlist of more than 1000 people from an initial pool of 200,000 applicants will be whittled down to 24 for the mission — an irreversible move to Mars, which is to be partially funded by a reality television show about the endeavour.

But conditions on Mars — and the limits of human technology — could make the mission impossible, for now at least.

“The first crew fatality would occur approximately 68 days into the mission,” according to the 35-page report, which analysed mathematical formulas on oxygen, food and technology required for the project.

We published a Mars One Simulation Outpost webpage with lots of exciting information! http://t.co/UzHXJrypLl pic.twitter.com/vSwm8sKXuB

— Mars One (@MarsOneProject) October 10, 2014

Plants required to feed the space colony would produce “unsafe” amounts of oxygen, the authors said.

“Some form of oxygen removal system is required, a technology that has not yet been developed for space flight,” the study concluded.

Shipping in replacement parts is an additional challenge and will likely boost the cost of the mission, which the researchers estimated to be at least $4.5 billion.

Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp agreed that sending spare parts to Mars could pose a problem.

Beautiful images of the Endeavour Crater captured by Mars Opportunity Rover. Wow. @NASAJPL http://t.co/xW3XlgJZKl pic.twitter.com/MdGXLU0KHB

— Mars One (@MarsOneProject) September 11, 2014

“The major challenge of Mars One is keeping everything up and running,” he told Popular Science magazine.

But he claimed the researchers used incomplete data, adding that technology for Mars colonisation was nearly ready.

“While oxygen removal has never been done in space, I disagree that the technology is not mostly ready to go to Mars,” Lansdorp told AFP. “Of course, the actual apparatus that we will take to Mars still needs to be designed and tested extensively, but the technology is already there.”

Two Mars One candidates share their thoughts about the possible journey to the Red Planet. http://t.co/8au8Ly60T4 pic.twitter.com/2W1thBEs5Y

— Mars One (@MarsOneProject) October 13, 2014

Many people have voiced doubts about the mission, though the project has won support from Gerard ‘t Hooft, the Dutch 1999 Nobel Physics prize winner.

The Red Planet lies at least 55 million kilometres from Earth and it would take a minimum of seven months to get there.

Last June, the entertainment company Endemol, a major reality television producer, agreed to film the participants as they prepared for the move to Mars.