 Looking for a truly exotic vacation spot? Then Mars may be worth considering, especially since it has been in such close proximity to Earth in the past year. As many people witnessed in the night sky last August, the orbits of the Earth and Mars aligned to bring the planets within 55.7 million kilometres of each other – the closest these two planets have been to each other in five thousand years. And Mars offers some interesting attractions, including two moons, the largest mountain in the solar system (Olympus Mons, 25km high and nearly 600km across – three times the height of Everest!), and a gravitational pull that's just 40 percent of Earth's, so you can leap and skip about just like a kid again. But what does one need to pack for that Martian vacation? What are the essentials for travel to the Red Planet? We're glad you asked.
Take a good book: Even at their closest approach in five millennia, Earth and Mars are still quite some distance apart. If you could take a 747 to Mars at a typical cruising speed of 900kph, for example, the trip would take just over seven years. This is assuming you could travel the shortest possible distance in a straight line, which you can't actually do – a real journey would have to take an arcing path that takes into consideration the fact that both the Earth and Mars are travelling around the sun in their orbits: the distance the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft travelled on its way to Mars was just under 500 million kilometres, although at 97,000kph, it went faster than a 747. But no matter how you slice it, it's a long haul. Perfect time to catch up on your Proust.
Pack a sweater: Mars gets cold – really cold. Its average temperature is a brisk -65°C (-149°F). In the summer, it warms up to about -20°C. The only place on Earth that experiences these sorts of temperatures is Antarctica.
Pack an oxygen tank: Mountain climbers know the higher you go in the mountains, the thinner the air gets. Well, the air at the top of Mount Everest would seem positively 'thick' compared to the air at ground level on Mars: Martian atmospheric pressure is just 1 percent of Earth's at sea level. For the purposes of breathing, that's effectively a vacuum. And what atmosphere is there isn't very good for humans: Mars' atmosphere is over 95 percent carbon dioxide, 2.7 percent nitrogen and just 0.13 percent oxygen. Earth's atmosphere, on the other hand, is more than 20 percent oxygen. Like an experienced mountain climber, you'll be packing your own supplemental air supply.
Pack some bottled water: Mars is bone-dry, with absolutely no liquid water of any sort on the surface and only a small amount of water ice locked in the polar ice caps (most of the ice on Mars is dry ice – frozen carbon dioxide). In 2002, scientists did find a 'whopping large' hydrogen signal under Mars' South Pole, suggesting that water in the form of ice can be found in the planet's soil. But how much time do you want to spend distilling water from the Martian earth?
Take a packed lunch: Don't plan to enjoy the local delicacies on Mars, since there aren't any. Despite decades of stories and speculation, there is no hard evidence of life on Mars – certainly not in the present, when Mars is too cold and its atmosphere far too thin to support life as we know it. It's possible that billions of years ago Mars was warmer, wetter, and had a thicker atmosphere, making for the possibility of life. But notwithstanding the controversial Martian meteor found in Antarctica, with microscopic shapes that may or may not be fossilized Martian bacteria, there's nothing that definitely points to life ever existing there.
Mars may not be an ideal vacation spot for the unprepared, or for those wanting to be pampered: the nearest concierge will be 55 million kilometres away, and there aren't any good local take-out joints. But if you're willing to rough it, Mars could be the perfect getaway. Hurry, though: the planets have started inching away from each other again – and you don't want to wait another 5000 years. See you there!
John Scalzi is the author of The Rough Guide to the Universe, published in April 2003. |