This article aims to present the scientific and technological advances related to the exploration of the planet Mars and its colonization by humanity in the future as an alternative place for the escape of human beings aiming at their survival as a species against internal and external threats to planet Earth.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF THE EXPLORATION OF THE PLANET MARS FOR
HUMANITY'S SURVIVAL
Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to present the scientific and technological advances related to the
exploration of the planet Mars and its colonization by humanity in the future as an
alternative place for the escape of human beings aiming at their survival as a species
against internal and external threats to planet Earth. NASA recently sent the Perseverance
rover to Mars, a vehicle built to drive over rough extraterrestrial terrain and driven by
remote control from Earth. Perseverance is almost the same size as a small sport utility
vehicle, weighs a ton, has some proven technologies that should ensure that it reaches a
safe point on the surface of Mars with the main objective of determining the potential of
ancient life on this planet. For this, the robot will look for signs of habitable conditions
on Mars, in addition to looking for microbial life that may have existed when there was
water there. The Perseverance rover landed successfully in February 2021 in a large
formation crater called Jezero, which has characteristics typical of a lake and the delta of
a river that existed on Mars billions of years ago. Scientists have reason to think that if
there was ever life on the planet Mars, this is one of the places where it could have been
abundant. To look for these signs, the Perseverance rover will use a drill capable of taking
samples of the most promising rocks and soils.
NASA plans to carry out a future mission to bring these samples to Earth, but even before
that, the Perseverance rover will be able to send scientific data on what to find there,
allowing scientists to make their preliminary analysis. The Perseverance rover mission
will also try to demonstrate technologies that can be used in future human missions on
Mars, including testing a method for producing oxygen in the Martian atmosphere. There
will also be tests to identify resources such as groundwater. One of the main objectives
of the Perseverance mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of
ancient microbial life. The Perseverance rover will characterize the planet's geology and
previous climate, paving the way for human exploration of Planet Mars and will be the
first mission to collect and store Martian rocks and regoliths (broken rocks and dust).
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), will
send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed surface samples and return them to Earth
for further analysis. Despite the promises, we will only discover the true scope of
Perseverance's discoveries when the samples collected on the red planet return to Earth.
This will happen after the mission is over, two years from now.
In addition to the Perseverance rover, the Ingenuity Helicopter was sent to Mars for an
unprecedented demonstration of autonomous flight technology on another planet. On
April 19, 2021, NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to fly a
motorized and controlled flight on another planet. Ingenuity Helicopter achieved a feat of
space exploration that was once considered impossible, which was to make a flight on the
planet Mars. The 1.8 kg Ingenuity Helicopter powered by solar energy started to take off
and rose to its prescribed maximum altitude of 3 meters and remained in the air for 30
seconds. Then it descended, touching the surface of Mars after recording a total of 39.1
seconds of flight. Ingenuity's initial flight demonstration was autonomous, piloted by on-
board guidance, navigation and control systems, executing algorithms developed by the
NASA team. Ingenuity is an experimental engineering test to check the possibility of
flying on Mars. The Ingenuity is a helicopter that looks like a drone with six engines and
a rotor that was made extremely light and was given the power to rotate the blades

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extremely fast, at more than 2,500 revolutions per minute for this particular flight due to
the rarefied air from Mars.
For comparison, the main rotor of a helicopter on Earth generally has a rotation speed
that varies from equipment to equipment ranging from 250 to 400 revolutions per minute
and the tail rotor can vary between 700 and 900 revolutions per minute. The job of a
helicopter engine is to maintain exactly the same rotation in revolutions per minute as the
main rotor in all flight regimes: landing, takeoff, hover. The rotation in rotations per
minute of the rotors cannot be changed. NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter managed to
perform an incredible feat in another world because this first flight was surrounded by
many doubts because Mars has a significantly lower gravity force - one third of Earth's
gravity - and an extremely rarefied atmosphere with only 1% of the pressure on the
surface compared to planet Earth. This means that there are relatively few air molecules
with which the two rotor blades of the Ingenuity 1.2 meter wide helicopter can interact to
take flight. Parked about 64.3 meters away from the Ingenuity, the Perseverance rover
not only acted as a communication relay between the helicopter and Earth, but also
recorded flight operations with its cameras.
It is worth noting that Mars has been explored for about 60 years. The United States and
the Soviet Union tried repeatedly during the Cold War to orbit the Red Planet with a
satellite and land with a probe. Later, it was the turn of the rovers to walk there, but a long
road of many mistakes and successes was necessary until we reached the current level. In
the article by Danielle Cavalcante under the title Exploração de Marte: que sondas,
rovers e landers já foram enviados para lá? (Exploration of Mars: what probes, rovers
and landers have been sent there?), published on the website
<https://canaltech.com.br/espaco/exploracao-de-marte-que-sondas-rovers-e-landers-ja-
foram-enviados-para-la-180134/>, informs about the work of the various probes, rovers
and landers sent to Mars in the last 60 years. The article Mars Exploration Rovers
published on the website <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars-exploration/missions/mars-
exploration-rovers/> informs that NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers or Mars Exploration
Vehicles mission consists of sending to Mars of geological vehicles (rovers) equipped
with several modern instruments capable of moving around to explore the Martian
environment. Each vehicle must be transported in its own rocket and land on Mars.
In January 2004, two robots or rovers called Spirit and Opportunity landed on opposite
sides of the red planet. These robotic explorers traveled for miles across the Martian
surface, surveyed field geology and made atmospheric observations. Carrying identical
and sophisticated sets of scientific instruments, the two rovers found evidence of ancient
Martian environments where moisture and habitable conditions intermittently existed.
The first among the mission's scientific objectives was to research and characterize a wide
range of rocks and soils in search of clues about previous water activity on Mars. The
rovers were directed to locations on opposite sides of Mars that appeared to have been
affected by liquid water in the past. Spirit landed in the Gusev crater, a possible old lake
in a giant impact crater. Opportunity landed at Meridiani Planum, a place where mineral
deposits suggested that Mars had a wet history.
More recently, NASA sent the Curiosity rover in 2011, which was the first landing on
Mars with the help of a parachute and, just before contact with the ground, rockets were
fired to slow the descent. The Curiosity rover landed on the wheels, the rope was cut and
the landing module flew to fall a safe distance, just as the Perseverance mission did.
Curiosity remains operational today with the aim of studying the habitability of the planet
Mars and its areology - a science similar to terrestrial geology. Early in their mission,

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Curiosity's scientific tools found chemical and mineral evidence from habitable
environments in the Martian past in the Gale crater.
In 2013, NASA sent the MAVEN (Mars Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN) probe,
which is still collecting measurements of the Martian atmosphere to help understand the
complex climate changes on Planet Mars. The mission may help to finally understand
how Mars has lost its atmosphere in the past. A long time ago, Mars possessed an
atmosphere capable of maintaining liquid water on its surface, which is necessary for the
development of life as we know it. However, some phenomenon occurred so that the
planet lost a good part of the atmosphere and, consequently, its capacity to have stable
water on the surface. MAVEN provides information on how and at what speed
atmospheric gases are currently leaking into space - this makes MAVEN the first
spacecraft to take direct measurements of the Martian atmosphere.
In 2016, the ExoMars Mission, the result of a partnership between ESA (European Space
Agency) and Roscosmos, had as main objective to search for signs of ancient life on Mars
having been designed to map the Martian atmosphere and analyze methane and other
traces of gases present there, as they may be evidence of geological life or activity. In
2018, NASA sent the Insight probe to study the interior of the Red Planet using very
sophisticated geophysical instruments. The probe is able to detect the formation processes
of Mars, in addition to measuring the planet's "vital signs" - specifically through
seismology, heat flow measurements and precision tracking. This mission also includes
cameras on board the probe. The Insight probe is capable of using a mechanism that
allows it to dig deeper and deeper into the ground to measure how heat flows under the
Martian surface. In this way, scientists will seek to learn more about the composition of
the planet Mars and how it has evolved over time.
In 2020, China launched the Tianwen-1 mission, and in February 2021 it became part of
the group of nations that managed to place a probe in the orbit of Mars. The mission
includes an orbiter, a stationary landing module and a rover, which aim to study the
geology of the Planet Mars, in addition to learning more about what would be beneath the
Martian surface. The rover, which has not yet landed, is designed to last 90 days, but its
mission can be extended if it works longer. Once on the ground, it will begin to study the
current and ancient presence of water, the internal structure of the planet, the
identification of minerals and different types of rocks on the surface and the analysis of
the environment in the atmosphere of Mars. The mission will try to land its rover on Mars
in May this year. Also in 2020, the United Arab Emirates' Hope Mars probe was launched
with the aim of studying the Martian atmosphere, including the climate system of Mars
throughout the year. The Hope Mars probe has a camera sensitive to optical and
ultraviolet wavelengths, and a spectrometer adjusted to infrared and ultraviolet light,
developed to make simultaneous measurements. Thus, scientists will be able to join these
data, crossing them, since they will correspond to the same moments in which they were
collected.
From what is known of Mars, this planet has no evidence of having a global structured
magnetic field similar to that of Earth that protects us from cosmic rays and solar winds
and this absence may have been largely responsible for the loss of the Martian
atmosphere. Mars lost its magnetosphere 4 billion years ago, but it has locally induced
magnetism points. Mars does not have a global magnetic field that guides the charged
particles that enter the atmosphere, but it does have multiple umbrella-shaped magnetic
fields, mainly in the southern hemisphere, that are remnants of a global field that declined
billions of years ago. Compared to Earth, the atmosphere on Mars is very thin. Martian

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soil is slightly alkaline and contains elements such as magnesium, sodium, potassium and
chlorine which are nutrients found on Earth and are necessary for plant growth. The
surface temperatures of Mars range from −143 °C (in the winter in the polar caps) to
maximum temperatures of 35 °C (in the equatorial summer). Mars has the biggest dust
storms in the Solar System. These can range from a storm over a small area to gigantic
storms that cover the entire planet. They tend to occur when Mars is closest to the Sun
when its global temperature increases.
It is also known that liquid water could not exist on the surface of Mars due to the low
atmospheric pressure, which is about 100 times weaker than that of Earth. The two polar
Martian ice caps appear to be made of a large part of water. The volume of water frozen
in the ice sheet of the south pole, if melted, would be enough to cover the entire surface
of the planet at a depth of 11 meters. There was the detection of the Jarosite mineral,
which is formed only in the presence of acidic water, demonstrating that the water already
existed on Mars. The loss of water from Mars to space results from the transport of water
to the upper atmosphere, where it is dissociated from hydrogen and flees from the planet
due to its weak gravity. Mars has the seasons of the year similar to those of Earth, due to
the similar inclinations of the axis of rotation of the two planets. The durations of the
Martian seasons are about twice that of Earth, since Mars is at a greater distance from the
Sun, which leads the Martian year to have a duration equivalent to about two terrestrial
years.
All this effort that is being carried out to explore the planet Mars aims at its colonization
in the future. NASA plans to send humans on missions to Mars by 2030, but faces
numerous challenges. Article under the title 7 Human Life Challenges on Mars, published
by National Geographic on the website <https://www.natgeo.pt/espaco/2018/11/7-
desafios-da-vida-humana-em-marte>, informs that there are some facts that may delay or
hinder the mission of putting humans to live on Mars until 2030. The first challenge would
be the difficulty for humans to stay on the surface of Mars due to the almost non-existent
atmosphere on Mars that, as a result of cosmic radiation and the solar winds, would be
unprotected and could develop cancers. An alternative would be for humans to stay
underground on Mars. The second challenge is that the geology of Mars makes it difficult
to plant plant species.
The third challenge to human life on Mars is that there is a lot of fine dust from frequent
dust storms. Whoever lives underground on Mars, has to go to the surface to clean the
dust on the rovers, from time to time, because sandstorms prevent batteries from
recharging using solar energy. In addition, this powder, due to its extremely thin
thickness, easily infiltrates space clothing. The fourth major challenge results from the
fact that, for every 2 kilograms of objects, 130 kilograms of rocket are needed, which
restricts the amount of material sent on each flight and exponentially increases the cost
of missions. Most rockets carry a payload (payload means people and objects) of 1.5% of
their total size.
The fifth challenge to human life on Mars is represented by the fact that the trip to Mars
still takes about eight months, which implies a large amount of fuel, food and support
material for the mission teams, unlike the Moon, for example, that it only takes 3 days.
The sixth challenge requires astronauts to be tested and meticulously chosen to withstand
the physical and social challenges that this trip entails. Finally, the seventh challenge
results from the fact that Mars always has a negative temperature that would require
thinking about creating a genome capable of making human beings capable of
withstanding extreme conditions and surviving on Mars. There are no organic organisms

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on the surface of Mars, but there may be underground and nothing guarantees that they
will not compete with the organisms that can be sent from Earth there.
The fact that there is no life on Mars shows that the conditions for humans to survive
there are not yet met. Mars 2030 still seems a distant reality and before we think about
living there, we need to know more about this planet. Known for having ambitious plans,
Elon Musk created SpaceX in 2002 and the company was the first to put a rocket into
orbit and bring it back for yet another flight. Musk's dream is to colonize Mars by 2030,
but he acknowledged that building a self-sufficient city on Mars will not be a simple task.
During the virtual conference "Humans to Mars", held recently, Musk stated that
colonization of the red planet will be difficult and dangerous, and should take at least
another thirty years.
NASA is developing 6 technologies to send humans to Mars whose information is
available on the website
<https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/6_Technologies_NASA_is_Advancing_t
o_Send_Humans_to_Mars>. These 6 technologies are as follows: 1) Powerful propulsion
systems to get us to Mars and from there to Earth quicker - Astronauts bound for Mars
will travel about 225.3 million kilometers in deep space. Advances in propulsion
capabilities are the key to getting to our destination as quickly and safely as possible; 2)
Inflatable heat shield to land astronauts on other planets - The largest space vehicle that
landed on Mars is the size of a car, and sending humans to Mars will require a much larger
spacecraft. New technologies will allow heavier spacecraft to enter the Martian
atmosphere, approach the surface and land close to where astronauts wish to explore; 3)
High-tech Martian spacesuits - Space suits are essentially customized spaceships for
astronauts. NASA's latest space suit is so high-tech whose modular design was designed
to be evolved for use anywhere in space; 4) Martian home and lab on wheels - To reduce
the number of items needed to land on the surface of Mars, NASA will combine the first
Martian house and vehicle into a single space vehicle complete with breathable air; 5)
Uninterrupted power - Just as we use electricity to charge our devices on Earth, astronauts
will need a reliable power source to explore Mars. The system will need to be light and
capable of functioning regardless of its location or the climate on the Red Planet; and, 6)
Laser communications to send more information to Earth - Human missions to Mars can
use lasers to stay in contact with Earth. A laser communication system on Mars could
send large amounts of information and data in real time, including high definition images
and video feeds.
The challenges to colonize Mars are immense, but every effort must be made to make this
planet an alternative habitable place for humans in the face of threats to their survival on
planet Earth with the occurrence of catastrophic climate change and the eruption of
volcanoes that may lead to the extinction of human beings as has already occurred in the
past, the collision of orphan planets with the planet Earth, the emission of gamma rays by
supernova stars that can lead to the extinction of life on Earth as it has occurred in the
past and the continuous distancing of the Moon in relation to the Earth and its catastrophic
consequences on the Earth's climate that require an escape to Mars. The challenges to
colonize Mars must be overcome to make this planet an escape route for humanity when
needed.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 81, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System,
member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional
Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of
strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is author of the

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books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem
Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os
condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de
Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora
Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos
na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica,
Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate
ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores
Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no
Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba,
2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua
convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018, em co-autoria) and Como inventar o futuro
para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019).