What kind of experience is it to be left alone by friends on another planet?

What kind of experience is it to be left alone by friends on another planet? If astronaut mark wotte saw this problem on the Zhihu, he would have a lot to say.

Gregorian Calendar 165438+20351October 7, after a long voyage of four months, the NASA spacecraft Hermes successfully landed on Mars. Five days later, a storm swept through the base, and mark wotte lost contact. The spaceship returned to earth without him.

In the yellow sand and rocks, he called his teammates and no one responded. He lacks food and fresh water, and the civilized world is 380 million kilometers away from him.

The Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster "Mars Rescue" describes a not-too-distant future. How to survive on Mars in the future is a worrying thing.

For science fiction writers, space exploration is always worth human efforts. For Hollywood, it has become a common practice to try to save doomed heroes. It is conservatively estimated that the astronauts in the film will stay in the barren land of Mars for four years before help comes. Ordinary people, I'm afraid they won't last four days.

Fortunately, in the hero's eyes, there are not only yellow sand, but also potatoes and distant places on Mars.

Although a doctor from the University of Chicago shouted from a distance that "growing potatoes is not a botanist's skill", the astronaut who was left behind began his career as a "Martian farmer" regardless.

The average temperature of Mars is MINUS 53 degrees Celsius, and the Martian soil also poses a gesture of not welcoming potatoes from the earth.

None of this stumped Mark. He mixed his excrement with Martian soil and spread it indoors in the base to settle the potatoes. He separated hydrogen from rocket fuel in the Mars lander, mixed it with oxygen, and ignited it to get water. In the end, he opened up a potato field of 1.26 square meters in the habitat of the base and planted rations to help him survive more than 500 Mars days. Mark, who returned to earth, may never look directly at potatoes again.

Potato seedlings growing on Mars tickle NASA, which is also quite fatal to scientists in reality. They studied how humans stayed on Mars for a few more days, more than a year or two.

Physicist Hawking once said: "Unless we emigrate to space, I don't think human beings will live in the next thousand years, because there will be too many accidents coming to life on this planet. However, I am an optimist and believe that human beings will go out and find other livable worlds. "

Scientists look at the stars with their necks upturned. There are not many terrestrial planets, and the nearest one is Mars.

In the last century, various sci-fi ideas about Martian immigrants were very popular. Since the 20th century, NASA has been sending probes to Mars. In 20 13, a non-profit organization named Mars Research Association also organized a simulated life experiment on Mars in Hanksville Desert, Utah, USA.

The agency is committed to encouraging exploration and research on Mars. They selected six "astronauts" from voluntarily registered geologists, biologists and engineers and put them in the huge rocky terrain of the desert. These young scientists are walking in the vast red desert, which is one of the places on earth that look closest to Mars.

Subjects always wear spacesuits and helmets, live in a white simulated "space capsule" with a diameter of 8 meters, eat as planned at each meal, and travel by rover. They hope that through this survival experiment, they can learn some experiences and lessons for the real survival of Mars one day.

Science fiction shines into reality, and the latest plan released by NASA is to send humans to Mars within 20 years. At present, there are still many technical difficulties to overcome.

They need to develop a space launch system that can go deep into the universe, and also need a solar electric propeller that can safely propel large loads in deep space. A space capsule with a small ecosystem is being tested in the desert on earth. The Mars 2020 probe under construction will not only complete routine scientific research tasks, but also test a method of making oxygen from the Martian atmosphere.

In order to adapt to the Martian environment, all space equipment needs to be redesigned, and a NASA spacesuit design challenge has attracted people's attention. The Mars spacesuit Z- 1 developed in 20 12 looks like Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story. The newly released Z-2 is more portable, which can protect astronauts from the impact of tiny space objects and isolate them from high heat and extreme cold.

For those "scientists", "solving all the problems about Mars with science" is absolutely wonderful. The good news is that scientists have just found traces of water on Mars.

When the real Mars manned spacecraft is launched, perhaps, they will really bring potatoes.