Is Mars exploration really to immigrate to Mars?

A few days ago, an American architectural design studio announced the design scheme of the first Mars city, and planned to name the new city "Nuwa". As soon as the news came out, it triggered many reverie of netizens on "emigrating to Mars". American entrepreneur Musk once advocated the plan to immigrate 6.5438+0 million people to Mars. Recently, an American Mars research engineer also said that before 2030, humans will live permanently on Mars, and 2 100 years ago, there will be a big city with a population of one million on Mars. In July 2020, when China launched the Mars probe "Tian Wen No.1", there were also domestic TV stations with such subtitles-"Tian Wen No.1" was launched. Will Martian immigrants be far away from us?

Deep space exploration at home and abroad has never intended to emigrate to extraterrestrial bodies.

He introduced that from an international perspective, in the last 20 years, the scientific goals set by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (hereinafter referred to as NASA) for Mars exploration have the following four aspects: determining whether there is life on Mars; Understand the process and history of Mars climate; Understand the origin and evolution of Mars as a geological system; Prepare for manned exploration.

From the perspective of a wider range of deep space exploration, NASA organized authoritative experts to discuss and write two important documents: Solar System Exploration Roadmap and Astrobiology Strategy 20 15. These two documents comprehensively discuss the purpose and methods of exploring the solar system and exploring extraterrestrial life. Five scientific goals are clearly put forward in the road map of solar system exploration: how did the planets and small celestial bodies in the solar system originate? How did the solar system evolve into such a different state Born in the solar system, why are the states of the Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury so different now? What are the characteristics of the solar system that led to the origin of life? How did life on earth originate and evolve? Is there life in other parts of the solar system? What are the disasters and sources that will affect human survival in space in the solar system environment?

In the process of drafting the document "Astrobiology Strategy 20 15", nearly 200 members of Astrobiology Association worked together to determine the goals and objectives of astrobiology research in the future 10. The six main research topics identified by the Association for the Exploration of Celestial Bodies are: identifying the abiotic sources of organic compounds; Synthesis and function of macromolecules in the origin of life; Early life and increasing complexity; * * * Coevolution of life and physical environment; Identify, explore and describe the environment suitable for life and biological characteristics; Building a livable world.

"As can be seen from the above-mentioned series of detection targets, the official documents of the domestic and foreign deep space exploration authorities have never mentioned the intention of moving to extraterrestrial objects." Jiao Weixin said.

Then, does article 6 of Astrobiology Strategy 20 15 "Building a livable world" mean that human beings are planning to find other livable celestial bodies? Jiao Weixin denied this. He pointed out that at present, human beings often only look for habitable areas outside the solar system based on our limited habitable experience on earth, which may distort our understanding of the basic requirements of habitable areas. Therefore, it is necessary to give a new definition of livable area according to the latest scientific discoveries and achievements, and look for a world that may contain life according to new standards. And all this is too far away from moving to Mars or other extraterrestrial objects.

The more scientific value of Mars is the main reason why countries are scrambling to explore.

Since the rise of modern astronomy, human beings have been marching on the road of Mars. From the launch of Mariner 4 in 1964 to the sending back of the first photo of the surface of Mars in 1965, human beings have conducted more than 50 Mars explorations in more than 50 years. Last July, Tianwen-1 Mars probe was launched from Wenchang Space Launch Site, which became the starting point for more planetary exploration in China.

Since exploring Mars is not to find a second home for mankind, why does Mars attract countries to explore? Some people even think that this is whether countries are competing for resources on celestial bodies such as Mars. In this regard, Jiao Weixin said that this is by no means the case.

He pointed out that even though humans have spent more than half a century exploring Mars and studying the universe, the current level of exploration is far from clear, let alone the competition for resources on Mars. Countries are scrambling to explore Mars because Mars has more scientific exploration value and conditions than other planets in the solar system. "Mars is relatively close to the earth, and our detectors can reach it. In addition, the conditions of other planets such as Venus are so bad that it is almost impossible for life to exist. It is technically difficult to find some important scientific problems through detection, and it is impossible to achieve our desired scientific goals for the time being. After comprehensive consideration, we should explore Mars first, not because we want to' move to Mars'. "

Jiao Weixin introduced that from the scientific value point of view, Mars can reflect many problems, which will help human beings understand the earth. For example, why are the results of the evolution of various planets different in the same solar system? If we can find out what caused the different evolution results of the planets, then we can better understand the evolution of the earth in the past. "By exploring other celestial bodies, we can find more answers related to the earth." He said.

Judging from the current results of human exploration of Mars, the atmosphere of Mars is very thin, with an average surface pressure of about 0.75% of that of the earth, 95% of carbon dioxide, little oxygen and full of dust. The surface temperature can reach 28 during the day and as low as-132 at night, with an average of -57. Therefore, Jiao Weixin believes that compared with the earth, Mars does not have the conditions for human survival at all: "Even if the earth's environment is bad or the population explodes, it is much easier to transform the desert on the earth than to transform Mars. What about' immigration to Mars'? " As for the competition for Mars, he believes that in the future, humans will not go to Mars on a large scale as in science fiction movies, so it is impossible to really compete for Mars in the future.