Think living on mars would be cool? Think again

Elon Musk predicts there will be one million humans living on mars in 20 years time. But life will be pretty grim for those on the red planet.

Elon Musk has predicted there could be up to one million humans living on Mars in the next 20 years.

But what would it actually be like to live on the red planet? Grim, that’s what.

Earlier this week, Musk appeared on Ted Cruz’s podcast and spoke about his goal of sending humans to Mars.

“What year does man first step foot on Mars?” Cruz asked the SpaceX founder.

“I think the soonest would be 2029 … and I don’t think it’s more than two to four years beyond that,” Musk said.

Elon Musk on Ted Cruz's Verdict podcast.

Once humans are on Mars, the top priority would be to build a self-sustaining city.

“A few people running around the surface in a hostile environment is not going to make it self-sustaining, so you’re going to need in the order of a million people, maybe a million tons of cargo,” Musk told Cruz.

“I think it can be done in 20 years,” he predicted.

On news.com.au’s podcast, From the Newsroom, we spoke to Dr Rebecca Allen from the Space Technology and Industry Institute at Swinburne University of Technology to find out what life would be like for those living on Mars in the early stages of human colonisation.

The journey to get there

Unfortunately, the trip from earth to Mars isn’t exactly a short one.

“The quickest that we’re getting to Mars is (just) under a year,” Dr Allen told news.com.au. “The longest it’s going to take is just over a year … so we’re talking months and months in space.”

The environment on mars

As Musk said, Mars is a “hostile environment”.

Firstly, the air isn’t breathable, meaning you wouldn’t last long if you went outside without a spacesuit on.

“They would die … pretty quickly from hypoxia,” Dr Allen told news.com.au.

Secondly, Dr Allen pointed out that Mars has “a very thin atmosphere” which means you’d be “getting bombarded by radiation” which could cause cancer and immune system issues.

Matt Damon in a scene from The Martian. Picture: Fox films

Thirdly, the temperatures on Mars, which range from minus 63 degrees celsius to 20 degrees celsius, pose a big challenge.

“It’s not necessarily having a correct temperature, it’s how stable those temperatures are,” Dr Allen told news.com.au.

“We know that the stability in temperature is actually very critical for having liquid water on the surface of planets. Does Mars have liquid water on the surface? Not that I’ve seen.”

And then there’s the issue of gravity.

“ Mars does not have the same gravity as Earth. It’s much lower because Mars is a much smaller planet,” Dr Allen said.

“We’ve seen on the space station, which is an extreme version of this because it’s basically zero gravity, how negatively that (low gravity) impacts us as human beings as well as how challenging that makes even the most basic things like growing plants.”

Dr Allen said a solution would be to create an indoor environment on Mars where we have “artificial gravity”, which would be similar to the level of gravity on earth.

Unfortunately though, we don’t yet have the technology to create that.

What’s more likely, Dr Allen said, is that we “adapt to much lower gravity”.

Matt Damon in The Martian. Picture: Fox films

Living spaces

Musk told Cruz that he envisages humans living in “glass domes” on Mars.

That may sound futuristic and fancy, but you might want to lower your expectations.

“ I wouldn’t say it’s like this glimmering sci-fi hotel,” Dr Allen said.

“I would say it’s very industrial, very basic living.”

Dr Allen said those the first humans living on mars will be “just scraping by”.

“(Just think) what it takes to feed a million people. We’re not talking beautiful buffets of fresh vegetables, we’re talking nutrient packs,” she said.

“If we’re thinking of a self-sustaining city in the next quarter of a century, it is going to be the most basic technology to just protect us from the elements … it’s not (going to be) a glamorous life.”