[GEO.TV] Elon Musk's vision of establishing human colonies on Mars in the next 20 years is likely to face substantial challenges as the planet's harsh conditions pose the risk of turning humans green.
Not only that, experts have revealed that the Red Planet's harsh conditons could lead to other significant health risks for humans settling there, despite the SpaceX founder's amibitious timeline to send the first Starship to Mars within the next two years.
In light of the potential risks that Musk's plan may ensue, experts emphasised the formidable obstacles that must be overcome for human survival and prosperity on Mars.
Biologist Dr Scott Solomon, from Rice University in Texas, said that the children born to human settlers on Mars could undergo significant mutations and evolutionary changes, Indy100 reported.
According to Solomon, these changes include weakened muscles, compromised eyesight, greenish pigmentation, and brittle bones, as a result of high radiation and low gravitation forces.
Mars is smaller than Earth in size with 30% less gravity than humans have evolved to live with.
Additionally, the Red Planet lacks a magnetic field and protective ozone layer, leaving the planet open to space radiation, UV and charged particles from the sun and cosmic rays.
Solomon revealed that the impact could see humans mutate at extreme rates just to survive in the new conditions, resulting in a change in skin colour to help cope with radiation.
"Perhaps in the face of this high radiation, we might evolve some new type of skin pigment to help us deal with that radiation," Solomon explained in his book, 'Future Humans'. "Maybe we get our own green men."
| We already have a skin pigment to cope with radiation: melanin. We reduced it to deal with lower UV levels in latitudes far north of our native Africa — those naturally paler people develop suntans when exposed to higher levels of sunlight. On the other hand, having chlorophyl as well as melanin would be pretty cool — like having solar panels as well as a natural gas furnace. |
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