Even if there was a crisis, you think you could keep a level head and grow potatoes?

Well, hold on their major Tom.

There's many dangers to overcome even before you land on the Red Planet.

On average, the distance from Mars to Earth is 140 million miles.

However, this distance is always fluctuating.

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun to Earth's third and has a different and slower orbit path around the sun.

Even when Earth and Mars come close together, when Mars is at perihelion and Earth is at a purely in the planet's air, still around 35 million miles apart.

And that's a long way to travel.

Assuming that humanity can get past political turmoil and funding issues.

Tow launch a mission to Mars.

The best case scenario is about a 14 month round trip.

Rather than firing a spacecraft at Mars, engineers air likely Thio aim it in a wide orbit around the sun, and the sun's gravity would give the spacecraft a boost known as a gravity assist, thereby saving time and fuel the spacecrafts orbit within intersect with Mars.

It would take an estimated seven months to reach Mars, a few days for research experiments, sample collection and maybe a minor construction of some sort of permanent dwelling.

Then seven months to get back to Earth.

So do you think you could handle upwards of 14 months nonstop in space?

The trip would be both physiologically and psychologically challenging.

In fact, NASA recognizes five classes of stressor that can significantly affect human health and performance on deep space missions.

Their radiation altered gravity fields, isolation slash confinement, distance from Earth and hostile closed environments.

Space radiation is one of the biggest hazards astronauts will have to contend with during a mission to Mars.

Thankfully, the Earth has a protective magnetosphere generated by electric currents in our core, which shields our planet and diverse much of the radiation back into space.

Also, stray radiation particles are absorbed by our planet's thick atmosphere.

However, beyond low orbit, astronauts would be exposed to space radiation.

A report by the European Space Agency estimated that on a mission to Mars, astronauts could receive radiation doses up to 700 times higher than on Earth.

Therefore the astronauts would have a significant risk for radiation sickness and increased lifetime risk for cancer and degenerative diseases.

Cumulative doses of radiation, such as received during a long space mission, can also damage astronauts central nervous systems as a result of the astronauts.

Moods, memory and learning ability might be affected.

Of course, the last thing you'd want during interplanetary travel is cognitive impairment.

The international space station, or ISS, s, orbits within the magnetosphere, and its hull also has radiation shielding properties.

NASA is continuing to explore a variety of materials to create a long haul spacecraft that could provide radiation shielding for its crew without adding significant weight.

Currently, study of how radiation affects humans is limited to scientists studying lab animals on Earth.

It's hard to generate deep space radiation data without purposefully poisoning some astronauts, but that's just the start of the dangers awaiting you on a trip to Mars.

In addition to radiation, there are other physical obstacles that make traveling to Mars dangerous, including microgravity living in zero gravity convene, a temporary loss of a sense of up and down and disruption of appropriate septic system, which tells a human where appendages in other parts of the body are oriented relative to each other.

Astronauts generally adjust within in a few days, however, the long term effects of zero gravity are much more strenuous.

Muscle atrophy and bone mineral density loss.

Studies of cosmonauts and astronauts who had long stays on the Mir space station revealed on average 1 to 2% of bone mass lost each month on a 14 month or longer round trip to Mars.

When astronauts arrived home, they may face bone fragility and possible osteoporosis.

But what if the trip made you blind to?

While diet and exercise aboard a spacecraft can help mitigate the effects of bone density loss, scientists have not yet found a way to combat visual acuity impairments, which occurred due to microgravity.

Currently, it's thought that spaceflight associated Nero Ocular Syndrome, or sands, is caused by pressure in the skull.

On Earth, gravity pulls cerebral spinal fluid down toward the lower body.

In space, more cerebral spinal fluid flows into the head and surrounds the brain.

The increased pressure of the fluid works its way down the sheath of the optic nerve and pushes on the back of the eyeball in the U s National Academy of Sciences study, where post flight examinations were performed on about 300 American astronauts since 1989 showed that 29% of space shuttle crew members who flew missions lasting two weeks or less and 60% of International Space Station, or ISS astronauts who generally spent between 5 to 6 months in orbit experienced a degradation of visual acuity.

The changes in sight may but do not necessarily correct themselves after a return to Earth, resulting in permanent damage to vision.

At this point, there are only theories as to why San seems to affect some astronauts and not others.

The last thing needed would be an astronaut piloting a spacecraft to land on Mars.

With degraded vision affecting the task at hand.

Scientists are working on ways to provide spacecraft with frequent regular periods of artificial gravity toe limit the effects of zero G in space, though your brain itself becomes an enemy while sometimes causing physical symptoms.

The other main stressors of long term spaceflight, like isolation and confinement, distance from Earth and hostile closed environments can definitely take a toll.

Astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko spent 340 days aboard the USS to help researchers gauge the impact of very long space missions.

While they were able to successfully complete the study, they were relatively close to Earth and in theory, could easily return.

If there was an emergency.

Travelers on a trip to Mars wouldn't be so lucky.

Since the days of the Apollo missions, NASA has studied social isolation to better understand how long spaceflight affects humans.

In 2019, NASA put on the seriousness 19 analog mission Ah, four months study where six people were isolated in a metal habitat that acted as their spacecraft, lunar lander and home so researchers could study their physiological, psychological and behavioral responses.

In May of 2020 NASA put out a call for participants in the serious 20 study, which is set to go in eight months.

In 2022 NASA will host a 12 month isolation study mission.

These studies are being done in preparation of the NASA lead Artemus Mission, which seeks to send humans back to the moon specifically to the Lunar South Pole by 2024.

This is the first mission in a plan to have humans visit Mars by 2030 from previous studies, NASA has noted that the power of togetherness can combat the symptoms of isolation.

Crew members that develop a strong, positive team dynamic handle problems like stress, insomnia and circadian de synchronization easier.

They also work better and feel more confident and positive.

So if you're good at cooperation and working in a team, that might be a mark in your favor.

Complicating matters is a phenomenon called the third quarter effect, which is when astronauts coping skills might deteriorate in the second half of a long or stressful mission.

This could result in increased stress and lower performance skills.

Limited communication with Earth is likely to exacerbate this issue.

Near Mars, astronauts can expect a 3 to 22 minute delay, depending on the position of the planets and receiving communication signals, which travel at the speed of light.

That could mean 40 minutes toe, have a simple question asked and answered.

That also assumes that the communication comes through clearly in an emergency.

It would be impossible to depend on the information from Earth to help.

The greatest danger may be the one we haven't even discovered yet, though there's another psychological issue.

NASA or any other government study can't yet account.

For while humans have viewed the Earth from the moon and orbit, we haven't yet view the Earth.

From far away from Mars.

The Earth appears as a tiny blip on the horizon.

We don't know yet what the visual realization of the earth being so far away and therefore no one being able to help in a crisis will spark in a human.

One last concern of scientists is that the cumulative effect of various spaceflight stressors might be synergistic.

Ultimately, it would be nearly impossible to experiment and attempt to test all the stressors on a potential astronaut all at once.

So could you survive a mission to Mars?

The simple answer is no one knows.

But do you think you're tough enough to try?

Now that you reach the end of our video?

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