Space & Astronomy

Humans living on Mars could potentially turn green, biologist warns

By T.K. Randall
September 28, 2024 ·  11 comments

Will real-life Martians end up looking like this ? Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 Tomas Del Coro For some time now, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been talking about sending shiploads of over one-hundred passengers at a time to Mars in an effort to found a thriving colony there, but it seems that he has given little thought to just how difficult it would be to actually survive on the surface of another world.

Even if we ignore the technological hurdles of building a sustainable base on the Red Planet, living permanently on Mars is likely to have a considerable negative impact on the human body.

According to biologist Dr Scott Solomon of Rice University in Texas, any babies born on Mars are likely to experience significant mutations and evolutionary changes due to a combination of exposure to radiation and the planet's lower gravity.

Such changes could range from poor eyesight, weak muscles and brittle bones to the possibility of the skin literally turning green.Such conditions are also likely to increase the risk of various cancers and other illnesses.

So does this mean that settling on Mars is a non-starter ?

Not necessarily, but anyone living on Mars would need, at the very least, appropriate protection from radiation as well as various medical interventions to address other negative health effects.

One thing's for sure, it certainly won't be as easy as Elon Musk seems to think it will be.

Source: WIO news | Comments (11)

Tags: Mars