Humans on Mars: possible, or pipe dream? A live debate.
On February 18, the American rover Perseverance landed on Mars. But getting humans there will be a different matter altogether. Keystone
Is human exploration of Mars worth the cost and the risk? Will we ever see the first man or woman on the surface of the Red Planet?
This content was published on April 7, 2021 - 12:03
April 7, 2021 - 12:03
Marc-André Miserez
After some years in the regional print and broadcast media in French Switzerland, in 2000 I joined Radio Swiss International, which then became swissinfo.ch. Since then I have been writing (and producing short videos) on a variety of subjects, from politics to business, and including culture and science.
Humans on Mars: possible, or a pipe dream?
Space missions with drones, discovery of extraterrestrial life, people on Mars. It s not science fiction, but scenarios that are becoming more and more realistic.
This content was published on April 9, 2021 - 09:00
April 9, 2021 - 09:00
Mars the Red Planet, the intriguing. Mars the mysterious, the inhospitable. Mars the living and the dead. With its vermillion arc across the skies, the dry planet has fascinated humans since ancient times. Its reddish colour, caused by the iron oxide in which its rocky surface is rich, had already amazed the ancient Egyptians, who associated it with the God Horus. In Greek and Latin mythology, Mars is the God of war, but he is also regarded as the planet that embodies the life force of nature, paired with Venus, the goddess of beauty, in a constant opposition between love (i.e. life) and death that still characterises him today.
Humans on Mars: possible, or pipe dream? A live debate.
On February 18, the American rover Perseverance landed on Mars. But getting humans there will be a different matter altogether. Keystone
Is human exploration of Mars worth the cost and the risk? Will we ever see the first man or woman on the surface of the Red Planet?
This content was published on April 7, 2021 - 12:03
April 7, 2021 - 12:03
Marc-André Miserez
After some years in the regional print and broadcast media in French Switzerland, in 2000 I joined Radio Swiss International, which then became swissinfo.ch. Since then I have been writing (and producing short videos) on a variety of subjects, from politics to business, and including culture and science.
The humans of tomorrow will live on Mars
The level of difficulty should not be a barrier to meeting the challenge of putting humans on Mars, because our technological advances are very close to making it possible, argues Pierre Brisson of the Mars Society Switzerland.
This content was published on April 7, 2021 - 15:11
April 7, 2021 - 15:11
Pierre Brisson, Mars Society Switzerland
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Can humans handle a trip to Mars?
Trips to Mars are certainly not routine, but to say that a very high percentage are failures is meaningless. You cannot put the first flights and the most recent ones into the same calculation, nor can you compare the tests of those who obviously have not mastered the technology to those who have, such as the United States. Since 2001, their Mars missions have seen 11 successes and no failures. This is the basis on which the future must be considered.
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