Could humans colonize Mars?

 

Mars

The video footage we've seen of the planet Mars compiled by NASA is absolutely amazing and is a tremendous technological achievement. I know that Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars with humans but how could human beings possibly live on Mars and who would want to?

Mars is a toxic planet and it takes seven months to get there in a spaceship. It's also difficult to make a landing on the planet's surface and to get off it. The Martian atmosphere contains hardly any oxygen and the soil is toxic. Humans would also be exposed to radiation. It's a very cold planet with average temperatures of minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit and Martian gravity is only a third of what it is on Earth. A human weighs less on Mars but the lower gravitational pull would lead to muscle atrophy. The planet is prone to dust storms that can go on for long periods of time. If a human was exposed to the Martian atmosphere, they would asphyxiate as air would be sucked out of their lungs causing the lungs to implode. The blood would also boil because fluids in the human body would vaporize. It's all because of low pressure and the thin atmosphere of Mars. A human would also freeze to death. They say a dead human body on mars would not decompose as it would on Earth because it would dry out and mummify. It's not surprising that they've found no life on Mars.

We should consider ourselves fortunate to live on the blue planet with its diverse forms of life, abundance of water and oxygen. It's a beautiful planet and we should take better care of it and one another. We inhabit a rotating planet that is suspended in a black void called space, with scarcely a clue, why we're here or what real purpose we serve in the overall scheme of things. We may well be the only form of human life in the entire universe. It's truly amazing and difficult to comprehend.