Harry Coumnas is Always Curious to Know If Mars Can Ever Be Inhabited
Harry Coumnas, a renowned scientist, is curious to know; “If we successfully land on Mars, can we live there?” He always gets fascinated with the possibility that other worlds might contain living organisms. So far, his most fascinating possibility is the red planet, Mars. He states that it takes mere 260 days to reach Mars. However, the challenge becomes landing on the planet’s surface.
Once you land, you need some kind of habitation to survive on the surface of Mars. He opines that you need to be self-sustaining, sealed against the thin atmosphere, and capable of supporting life for extended periods without support from Earth. He quotes, “We need things like power systems, docking ports, and air locks so that crew can safely do space walk if in case things need to be repaired.”
Harry Coumnas performed intensive research and came up with the fact that Mars is on average inhospitably cold. Moreover, the planet’s atmosphere is 95.3% carbon dioxide, and without a magnetic field its surface is bombarded by the Sun’s radiation. Moreover, the low atmospheric pressure combined with cold temperatures means liquid water is not stable at the surface. Thus, in such conditions, life cannot exist.
He dug deeper and found that between 3 and 4 billion years ago, Mars had water on its surface. About 3 billion years ago, Mars lost its protective magnetic field. The liquid water disappeared, and Mars turned into the cold, dry desert.
Harry Coumnas concludes that without direct evidence of past life, it is not possible to determine whether Mars was ever inhabited.
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