[서울신문] [씨줄날줄] Mars Invasion / Editorial Writer Lim Byung-seon

Mars, the fourth planet from the sun, has an inclined axis of rotation like Earth and has an atmosphere, so seasons exist. The average diameter is about half the Earth. It is full of carbon dioxide and oxygen is only 0.1% of the atmosphere, so humans cannot live for 5 minutes when exposed naked. The temperature is only near the equator, and the temperature is 20 degrees during the day, and it drops to -85 degrees at night. Unlike Earth, there is no magnetic field, so it is exposed to cosmic radiation emitted by the sun.

Since the US Mariner 4 photographed near Mars in November 1964, the number of probes from each country has flown to Mars 50 times. The nations that launched the Mars probe were the United States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the former Soviet Union, China, India, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Of these, all of them successfully entered Mars orbit except for Japan. On the morning of the 19th (Korean time), NASA’s exploration rover,’Perseverance’ (persistence), settled in the crater of Jeero, north of Mars’ equator, and began exploration activities for two years.

Perseverance is by no means a lone explorer. Another NASA rover, Curiosity, is active on the Iolis Plains inside the Gale Crater, south of the equator, and Insight, a stationary rover, is active in the north. Humanity’s first Rover Sojourner landed on Mars in July 1997, and the first twin Rover Spirit and Opportunity, arriving in January 2004, are asleep in red dust near the equator. Around Mars, in addition to the US orbiter, the European probe, Indian Mangalian, China’s Tianyuan 1 and UAE Amal (Hope), which entered respectively on the 9th and the following day, were orbiting Mars at an altitude of tens of thousands of kilometers. Mars feels even more cramped if you combine the’dead’ probe.

The reason why countries are keen to explore Mars is that water in the form of ice has an answer as to the origin of life. It is because of the hopeful expectation that it is a planet close to the Earth that humanity can colonize. Dr. Stephen Hawking, who passed away in 2018, warned seriously. “If humans cannot colonize another planet within 100 years, they will become extinct on Earth. We have to build a lunar base by 2030 and send people to Mars by 2025.” There are also China and the UAE, who are anxious to show off their national power in the development of Mars.

In 1962, in the United States, 55 kinds of bubble gum picture cards were released, claiming that aliens of bizarre appearances invade and melt the Earth’s human bones, and Tim Burton made it into a 1997 movie. On the contrary, humanity is reaching out to space such as Mars. As in the novel-based movie’Martian,’ you may live by growing potatoes in Mars. Elon Musk has ambitions to move one million people to Mars by 2050.

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