Blue Sunset

Standing on Mars, as the sunset radiates its final blue hues, one might wonder if humans will ever live there. Of course, it isn’t us that is standing there watching the strange-looking sunset, but one of the rovers placed there by NASA to explore the red planet. I find it odd to think that the red planet has a blue sunset, but that is definitely the case. The rovers have clearly shown that fact. Interesting as it is to see pictures of a blue sunset, our mind tells us that it could just as easily be Sci-Fi or AI. Still, the prospect of seeing it in person is infinitely remote. And living there is even more remote.

The air is not breathable. It is only about 1% of Earth’s atmospheric pressure and mostly toxic carbon dioxide. The water is frozen solid, buried beneath the soil or locked away in polar ice caps. The gravity is weaker than Earth’s, causing concern for its effect on human life. The fact is that nothing’s alive there anymore. There is no farmland, no trees, and no shield against dangerous cosmic rays, meaning a single day on Mars is like getting a constant chest X-ray. Even if these obstacles could be overcome, there is no equipment that would work to do the job. And ultimately, the cost to get to Mars is completely prohibitive. Every trip into space costs millions and setting up and running a colony on Mars would take an enormous amount of money too…likely more than the world currently has. We just don’t have the extra resources to overcome all the technical challenges and risks involved in building a settlement beyond Earth. Not to mention the cost of transporting those people back and forth from Mars to Earth as the need arises…meaning ongoing astronomical costs.

Still, if Mars is ever colonized, the people who move there will find some things in life to be very different than on Earth. The planet is covered in red dirt, and any plant life that grows there would be in a greenhouse, because plants could not grow outside. People can’t live outside either, so there would never be the opportunity to go outside for a walk…or for any other reason for that matter. And while a blue sunset might seem like a novel idea, I think the tradeoff for that blue sunset would be more than I would want to pay. I guess I’m not that much of an adventurer.