Tech - News
Why Humans Will Never Go To Mars, According To Neil deGrasse Tyson
By SANJIV SATHIAH
Space travel has been quite deadly in the past, and experts believe that sending astronauts on Mars missions will result in further deaths. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, noted, "I think the first journeys to Mars are going to be really very dangerous. The risk of fatality will be high; there's just no way around it.”
Both SpaceX and NASA are working toward sending astronauts to investigate and eventually colonize Mars, but of the 47 unmanned missions to Mars to date, 28 have failed. Additionally, a human-piloted mission to Mars will take around six months and could expose astronauts to levels of radiation that could lead to sickness, DNA damage, cancer, and potential death.
With Mars being inhospitable to any life that we know of, Neil deGrasse Tyson says, "I'm skeptical that you'll find legions of people that will go there and want to stay." Tyson leans strongly towards the view that sending astronauts to live on Mars and potentially colonize it is not only foolhardy but probably impossible.
Tyson has stated that instead of colonizing Mars, we should aim for "just an outpost," as humanity might not be able to develop an "entire infrastructure [...] that mimics Earth." "We'd rather stay where it is warm and comfortable," says Tyson, and it is only a matter of time before we learn if Musk or Tyson is correct.