A man in a space suit stands on Mars with a suitcase.

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Should We Send Astronauts to Mars?

One of Earth’s closest neighbors will soon have a new visitor. A robot named Perseverance is scheduled to land on Mars this month. It is the fifth rover, a type of wheeled robot, that NASA has sent to the Red Planet since 1997. Scientists at the U.S. space agency will use Perseverance to explore the rust-colored planet. The rover will collect samples of rocks and dust. NASA hopes that one day the first astronauts to visit Mars will be able to bring those samples back to Earth to be studied.

NASA is developing the technology needed to make such a trip possible in the next decade or two. Most experts agree that we’ll one day be able to send humans to Mars. But not all of them think we should.

Just getting there would be difficult. Astronauts wouldn’t arrive on Mars until at least six months after they blasted off from Earth. And they’d be landing on a desolate planet, where the air is unsafe to breathe and temperatures average an icy cold -81 degrees Fahrenheit.

Should we send astronauts to Mars?

YES

Astronauts have orbited Earth and have walked on the moon. They now live on the International Space Station (ISS). Many people think visiting another planet should be the next big step in human space exploration.

Jim Rice is a scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. He says the rovers have been extremely helpful in studying Mars. But he argues that two astronauts could’ve done the same amount of work in only a month!

“People are much better explorers,” Rice explains. “Robots are just tools. They depend on human beings to tell them what to do.”

Living on Mars wouldn’t be easy, but NASA has spent years testing technologies that would help astronauts survive. For example, the ISS has a system that produces oxygen for astronauts to breathe. Also, NASA plans to set up a base on the moon where astronauts could better prepare for a Martian mission.

NO

NASA/JPL-Caltech

No Mars rover has traveled farther than the length of a football field in one day.

Many people think sending astronauts to Mars is too dangerous. The farthest humans have traveled is to the moon. On average, Mars is more than 100 times farther from Earth. That means astronauts couldn’t rely on deliveries of food and supplies, as they do on the ISS. And there would be no hope of being rescued if anything went wrong.

Plus, astronauts on Mars would have to worry about deadly radiation from the sun and deep space. On Earth, the thick atmosphere protects us from these harmful rays. But the Martian atmosphere is much thinner.

Many people agree that humans are better explorers than robots. But they argue that rovers are better equipped to deal with the harsh environment on Mars.

“A robot doesn’t mind that there is lots of radiation or no oxygen,” says researcher Anders Sandberg. “It works much better under those circumstances.”

Mars Survival Guide

What You'd Eat

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You would grow some of your food, using the space-farming techniques perfected on the ISS. But a big part of your diet might come from insects, which you’d raise in bins by the thousands.

What You'd Drink

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The water on Mars is frozen underground and likely contains toxic, or poisonous, chemicals. So like the astronauts on the ISS, you’d probably drink purified water made from your urine!

What You'd Wear

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You wouldn’t last long without a helmet and spacesuit. The Perseverance rover is carrying samples of different spacesuit materials to test how they’ll withstand the radiation and harsh environment on Mars.