As the prospect of a permanent colony on Mars gets closer with each new press release from the Mars One project, it probably makes sense to remind that any person permanently migrating to Mars is likely to die an untimely and painful death.
And here is what can become the most probable reasons, if all kinds of technical problems are immediately excluded from consideration.
For starters, the Martian colonists will roast themselves in radiation before they step onto the doorstep of their new home. Technically, the level of radiation during the journey from Earth to Mars does not exceed the capabilities of the human body, but the Sun is a huge, unpredictable mass of radioactive destruction.
A single solar flare while traveling to Mars will send out a stream of high-energy particles that will pierce any screening we can create today. In fact, they will fry any creature not protected by planetary magnetic fields. In 2022, just a couple of years before the planned launch of the Mars One expedition, the Sun will be at the peak of its 11-year cycle.
Then, on the surface of Mars, the colonists will have to find a way to deal with the planet's reduced gravitational field. Mars has only a third of Earth's gravity, and in the long run, this factor can become fatal. All aspects of our biological makeup, from our heart rate to the strength of our bones, are related to gravity.
It is worth removing this force - and we begin to lose bone marrow, our heart begins to work incorrectly, and the vestibular apparatus malfunctions. It is for this reason that astronauts do not stay aboard the ISS longer than absolutely necessary. The effects of this so-called "space sickness" on Mars will be diminished compared to microgravity in outer space, but are likely to lead to terminal health problems in the long term.
Finally, there is the problem of self-sustaining life on Mars. Supply missions to the Red Planet will cost billions of dollars, and will be unacceptably late if you suddenly run out of anything important, like air, water or food.
Of course, every colony on Mars is planned as a self-sustaining system. However, one serious crop failure and a lack of oxygen, which should have been produced by the plants that died in it, will be quite enough, as the question of the survival of the colonists will arise at full height.
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We salute those who are willing to take the risk of establishing a remote, isolated colony on an alien planet, but we would like your chances to be as high as possible.