For centuries, people have not abandoned the dream of flying to the stars, for decades science fiction writers have not stopped exploring near and deep space in their works, millionaire tourists have been flying into orbit since the beginning of the century, but for an ordinary person, space has not yet become closer.
But what if the evacuation of the Earth becomes a necessity? There are a number of theoretical scenarios in which the continuation of life on the planet will become impossible: a meteorite fall, a super-powerful solar flare, a fatal infection that destroys all life, or the consequences of a nuclear war. If any of the above happened, it would be great to keep at least some of the healthy human gene pool somewhere on Mars, or at least on a tiny lunar base.
Sooner or later, humanity will be forced to face the issue of resettlement - of course, if it shows enough consciousness and desire to live for millions of years and does not destroy itself in the coming years. The reason for this is the flaring Sun, which will eventually make Mercury out of the Earth. But while there is no real threat from outer space, humanity is calmly preparing for future peaceful colonization, being distracted only by “nonsense” like wars that annually claim millions of lives.
Messenger from the fields of Mars
Instead of endlessly discussing the need for the earliest possible development of the interior of space, the Mars One project from the Netherlands is working tirelessly to prepare a manned mission, which, according to plan, will deliver four daredevils to the Red Planet by 2023.
Recently, however, a few more complications have stood in the way of the mission. Having available biochemical analyzes of the lunar and Martian soils, NASA scientists created their absolute analogues and tried to grow ordinary terrestrial vegetables - tomatoes and cucumbers - on the resulting alien soil.
The experiment is not very encouraging. On the one hand, there was information for thought: so, it turned out that the lunar soil is of little use for growing all kinds of terrestrial crops - the Martian one turned out to be much better. But, on the other hand, vegetables grown on Martian land are unsuitable for human consumption due to an overabundance of heavy metals that are fatal to humans in such a concentration.
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Of course, there was no question of growing on Mars popular in the Volgograd region apple trees "Akaevskaya krasavitsa". But, apparently, even genetic modification of vegetables and root crops will not reduce their susceptibility to the destructive biochemical composition of the Martian soil.
In addition, scientists have warned of the dangers of radiation exposure to future colonists on Mars. The dose that astronauts will receive is enough to cause the most extensive cancers that affect the entire body.
Fortunately, Mars One has 10 more years to solve these problems, and mankind can only sincerely hope for the success of these adventurers, since even attempts at a serious breakthrough deep into the solar system are not expected from the governments mired in wars.
The moon will join the Customs Union
Meanwhile, the moon is not all calm either. The only satellite of the Earth is not only a delight for the eyes of lovers and the engine of the ebb and flow of the World Ocean, but also a tasty morsel for the strongest states in the world.
And while the US grapples financially and holds back NASA's space programs, the Federal Space Agency has begun work on a plan for a Russian lunar base.
According to the director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician Lev Zeleny, the head of Roscosmos V. A. Popovkin formed the task of creating a controlled lunar base, which would become the starting point for the exploration of the moon. Now this issue will be dealt with by a special group, which will present its plan in the coming years.
The possible activities of Russians on the moon are limited by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, according to which the moon can only be used for peaceful purposes. This implies that the lunar mission will only pursue research purposes, which is an undoubted boon for the potential exploration of outer space.
Therefore, even in our lifetime we will see the Russians on the Moon and the Dutch on Mars - but in fact, nothing is ready yet. Why is there such a rush? It turns out that some scientists consider the task of searching for escape routes from the cradle of mankind in space as justified.
Meet me on Mars … in a billion years
Astrobiologists at the University of East Anglia have determined that our planet will remain habitable for another 1.75 billion years.
Scientists have determined the period of time during which the Earth can support life by analyzing the known data on the distances between other planets and their stars and on the temperatures at which liquid water can form on the surfaces of planets. The research results are published in the journal Astrobiology.
In their work, the members of the research group took other stars as models. They also investigated the potential habitability of exoplanets (newly discovered planets outside the solar system, similar to Earth).
The study was led by Andrew Rushby of the University of East Anglia's School of Environmental Sciences. He says: "To carry out our calculations, we used the concept of the" habitable zone "- this is the gap from a star to a planet revolving around it, on which, at favorable temperatures, liquid water can form on the planet's surface."
Scientists have determined the evolutionary cycle of a star in order to understand when the period of "fitness" to support life on its planet ends. The period under study ends when the planet ceases to be in the habitable zone of a given star - a zone favorable for the origin and existence of life. They concluded that the Earth will cease to be inhabited somewhere in 1.75-3.25 billion years. After that, our planet will enter the "hot zone" of the Sun, where the temperature will be so high that the seas will evaporate and all life will die.
Of course, the Earth will cease to be habitable for humans and other complex life forms much earlier, and this process is currently accelerating due to anthropogenic climate change. Humanity will be on the verge of extinction even with a slight increase in temperature, and towards the end only microbes will remain that can withstand the unbearable heat.
Looking back into the past for the same period of time, we will see the origin of cellular life on Earth. Insects appeared on our planet 400 million years ago, dinosaurs - 300 million years ago and flowering plants - about 240 million years ago. Anatomically modern humans are only about 200,000 years old. That is, the development of intelligent life on the planet covers a very long time period.
Information about the duration of the planet's habitable period is very important, since it allows one to judge the possibility of the evolution of complex life forms, for which, most likely, a very long time will be required.
The habitability metric allows one to investigate the potential of other planets for the existence of life on them and to determine the stage of development of living beings in any place in the Galaxy.
Of course, much in the process of evolution depends on the will of chance, so there can be no question of a certain clear structure of evolution. However, we know that complex intelligent species, such as humans, cannot appear within a few million years after the origin of life, because our species took 75% of the entire “habitable period” of the planet for this. Scientists believe that on other planets, most likely, a similar situation is observed.
Astronomers have identified nearly 1,000 planets outside our solar system. The research group studied some of them as an example, analyzing the nature of the development of planetary habitability in astronomical and geological time.
Andrei Rushby says: “We compared the Earth with eight other planets that are currently in their“phase of life”, including Mars. We found that planets with lower mass tend to have longer life cycles. If we ever need to move to another planet, Mars is best. It is located closest to our planet and will remain in the habitable zone until the end of our Sun's life - another 6 billion years.”