How technology will support life on Mars

Technology will play a crucial role in supporting life on the planet Mars.

That was the word of Dr. Adriana Marais, theoretical physicist, aspiring alien and innovation leader at SAP Africa, during a keynote address at the Micro Focus Experience Experience event. which was held yesterday in Johannesburg.

Qualified theoretical scientist and quantum biologist, Marais is one of the 100 best candidates for the Mars One project and aspires to be one of the astronauts involved in the development of a human colony on the planet. The number of candidates should be reduced to 24 later this year.

Mars One is a non-profit foundation and a global initiative to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. Several unmanned missions will be completed, establishing a habitable habitat, before carefully selected and trained teams depart to Mars. The Mars One team, along with its advisors and established aerospace companies, will assess and mitigate risks, identify and overcome challenges, step by step.

Marais was named SAP Africa Innovation Manager last April.

According to Marais, technologies such as solar energy, 3D printing and machine learning can be deployed to make Mars livable.

A human settlement on Mars, 54.6 million kilometers from Earth, is the next giant step for humanity, she said, adding that exploring the solar system as a united humanity would bring us closer together. all.

Mars One says that the red planet is the stepping stone of the human race during its journey into the universe. He emphasizes that the human settlement on Mars will facilitate our understanding of the origins of the solar system, the origins of life and our place in the universe.

"As with the Apollo Moon landings, a human mission on Mars will inspire generations to believe that anything is possible, anything can be done," he notes.

According to Marais, in the era of so much information, it is more important than ever to ask big questions. "You have to take a step back and take into account where we are and where we are going because, contrary to the idea that we are taking this massive wave of technological change, it is crucial that we recognize and participate in this. time."

In SA, she said, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope will create a lot of data and help humans understand the universe.

"These will be images of the sky.The images will have a resolution 50 times greater than the one that has ever been possible.One of the main goals of SKA is to examine the building blocks of life."

During the early trip to Mars, she said that living systems require water. "Did you know that much of the Earth's water is older than the sun? Any life on Earth requires liquid water to survive." It's interesting to note that our water is actually older than the sun.

"Did you know that all life on Earth contains DNA? It's probably the most important step we've done up to here to understand what's the All living things on Earth contain this DNA molecule, a perspective of unity: we are all a living system. "

From a scientific point of view, she noted that this gives us a single point of data to try to understand what are the basic principles.

"As humans, we have explored much of the Earth's surface and we have begun to explore other planets.The Mars Curiosity rover is one of our most innovative innovations. proud, about 200 million kilometers from us. "

Curiosity is a vehicle the size of a car designed to explore the crater Gale on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission.

As established by the Mars Exploration Program, the main scientific objectives of the mission are to help determine if Mars could have supported life, determine the role of water and study the climate and geology of Mars. The mission will also help prepare for human exploration.

In 2013, announcements were made to have Mars One Mission volunteers contribute to the establishment of the first human settlements on Mars in the 2020s.

"You may be wondering how we will get there." Currently, SpaceX's South African-born Elon Musk is the main candidate to develop the hardware that will be launched on Mars, if SpaceX develops the technology to land on Mars. begin to test this architecture and the first humans on the planet Once we are there, how will we survive?

"We will have to rely on technology.Energy is the most important, where will we get energy? Find something like coal means that there was some kind of life before. We will certainly not look for charcoal but evidence of life, we will have to rely on a completely solar colony on the surface. "

After Marais, according to the readings of curiosity, they know how much solar energy they will need. "We will have to pressurize our living units with oxygen in order to survive on Mars, oxygen will have to come from the water, stones or rock structures on Mars are synonymous with water. think there was once water on Mars Curiosity Information: this is no longer the case, but there are remnants of water on the planet. We will have to condense water into tanks and purify it and use electrolysis to recover oxygen from the water. "

The next step will be to get food, she said. "Here on Earth, some companies have already started farming at home, these farming systems will become more and more important and we will use machine learning to optimize the inputs we will need. term will become self-sustaining through precision farming. "

Once they have energy, water and food, the next step will be manufacturing, said Marais. "We will have to replace technologies that will not work well once we are there.

"3D printing will be important for printing the machines and technologies we will need. We can already print bones, organs arrive, electronic cards can be printed. Over the next 10 years, we will be able to print almost anything using 3D. "