With the help of science and technology, human beings finally realized their dream of flying more than 50 years ago, stepping out of the earth and beginning to explore the mysterious universe. In the face of the vast universe, the earth is as small as dust, and it is an inevitable process for mankind to achieve rapid development and go to the starry sky to explore the mysteries of the universe.
Of course, the road has to be taken step by step. The first step in exploring the universe is to explore the secrets of the solar system. In a broad sense, the solar system is still very broad. Counting the Oort Cloud, it is at least one light-year in diameter. The range of one light-year has not yet been truly explored with the strength of human beings who have just stepped into science and technology, and the range that can be explored is very limited.
Scientists focused their attention on several planets in the habitable zone. Counting the earth, there are three planets in the habitable zone of the solar system. They are Venus, Earth and Mars. Venus was the most chosen for humans to detect after they walked out of the earth, because it is closer to us, but when the probe arrived at Venus, it was discovered that it is a terrifying world of purgatory, not only has a very thick atmosphere, but also the surface temperature is as high as 460 degrees Celsius.
Such a terrifying environment of Venus is naturally not detectable by human beings with existing scientific and technological capabilities. In the end, we can only temporarily give up Venus and focus on Mars. Compared with Venus, the environment of Mars is naturally much superior. The atmosphere is thinner and the surface environment is not particularly harsh. What’s more important is that when humans explore Mars, they can land the probe on the surface for mobile exploration, so that we can observe the surface of Mars at close range, which helps us understand more about Mars.
Through decades of hard work, we have learned more and more about Mars. It is the most explored planet after human beings walked out of the earth. In particular, the United States has been far ahead in the exploration of Mars. It is believed that there is no country in understanding the secrets of Mars. Can be compared to the United States.
The reason why the United States knows so much about Mars is mainly with the help of the rover that moves on the surface of Mars, of which the Curiosity rover is the most famous. The Curiosity Mars rover is a Mars rover developed by NASA for a mission to explore Mars. It was launched in November 2011 and successfully landed on the surface of Mars in August 2012. It is the seventh Mars landing probe in the United States, the fourth Mars rover, and the world’s first nuclear-powered Mars rover. Its mission is to explore the elements of life on Mars.
After the Curiosity landed on Mars, it began long-term mobile exploration. Up to now, it has been working on Mars for 10 years. In the past 10 years, Curiosity has sent back a large number of photos of the surface of Mars to Earth, allowing us to get a clear understanding of some of the conditions of Mars at close range.
Some of these photos have aroused heated discussions among many people. The reason is that there are some “abnormal points” in the photos. After reading them, people often associate with extraterrestrial life. Of course, for these photos with “abnormalities”, NASA will come out to provide some explanations. The basic explanation is that they are all natural phenomena or objects and have nothing to do with extraterrestrial life.
Of course, some people believe this explanation, and some people don’t, and some objects appearing in the photos really make us think of extraterrestrial life and even extraterrestrial civilization. For example, in 2014, the Curiosity rover took another strange photo, which once again caused heated discussions among Mars enthusiasts.
In these photos, we see a “ball of fire” far away on the surface of Mars, and it is clearly visible. What exactly is this “ball of fire”? There was a lively discussion about this. Some people think that this is a natural phenomenon of Mars. After all, sky fires sometimes occur in the natural environment of the earth. Others think that Mars is equivalent to a desolate desert without the natural conditions to form fire. Then this fire may be The Martian burned.
So what is the truth? After causing heated discussion, NASA quickly came out to explain this. NASA scientist Doug Ellison said that this “ball of fire” photo was indeed taken by the Curiosity rover, but this “ball of fire” is not an abnormal thing. The analysis shows that this “ball of fire” “Fire” may be caused by the impact of cosmic rays caused by high-energy particles flying in space.
Scientists explain that this “ball of fire” is caused by the impact of cosmic rays, but this explanation has not been supported by many people. If it is really a fire, then the origin of the fire may not be as simple as we thought. Perhaps NASA can’t determine what it is. After all, from the photos, Curiosity is still far away from it, and it’s impossible. Go for field exploration.
Through this fire and other peculiar things taken on the surface of Mars, we can see the inadequacy of unmanned probes. Although Curiosity was moving and shooting on the surface of Mars, a lot of clear photos were taken at close range, but the photos were dead. Objects, it is difficult for us to really determine what weird things we found through photos?
If humans are exploring on the surface of Mars, then we can use the naked eye to determine whether the discovery is a stone or a civilized creation. This is not difficult for us, such as the fire. If there is a human on Mars, then If you can go to the site to understand the situation, you can determine its origin, whether it is a natural factor or a man-made factor?
Although we really want to go to the surface of Mars for real exploration, it is still impossible to achieve with the current scientific and technological strength of mankind. There may be many friends who will say that the exploration can be on Mars dozens of times, why can’t human beings? In fact, just sending astronauts to Mars is also possible for current aerospace technology.
However, in addition to exploring Mars, we must also ensure the safety of astronauts. Fifty years ago, we were able to land on the moon. One reason is that the moon is very close to us, and it takes about a week for a spacecraft to arrive. The second reason is that Mars has no atmosphere. Whether it is landing or launching after detection, Security is very high.
But Mars is still a little far away from us, and it takes about half a year to arrive at the Mars launch window. Moreover, it is not always possible for astronauts to return to Earth after arriving on Mars. They also need to wait for the launch window, which will take two years and two months. That is to say, it will take at least the time required for an astronaut to travel back and forth to Mars. More than 5 years.
In the past five years or so, astronauts cannot survive without food and water. Where do these come from? It is estimated that all need to be carried from the earth, which means that the spacecraft must carry enough various living supplies for more than five years. This will undoubtedly increase the weight of the spacecraft and require more fuel, which is not conducive to our journey to Mars.
What’s more, Mars is a planet. It also has an atmosphere. The spacecraft reaches the orbit of Mars. After Mars has landed, it needs more fuel to return to Earth. Where does this fuel come from? With the current technology of mankind still being unable to carry so much fuel, it is only by taking materials and using the resources of Mars to produce fuel.
It can be seen that it is not an easy task for us to really go to Mars, and there are still many difficulties to overcome. Of course, with the continuous development of human technology, it is possible to establish a base on Mars and transform Mars to make it a habitable planet suitable for human survival. Moreover, transforming Mars is very important for human beings. After all, the earth is constantly deteriorating. The ecological environment makes us have to make preparations in advance to migrate to other planets. In the solar system, Mars may be the only planet that has the potential to become the second home of mankind.