Mars: Past, Present and Future
July 2018 :
“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter.... No one gave a thought to the other worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most, terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.”
So begins The War of the Worlds, the 1898 classic by H.G. Wells. This book was the first science fiction novel I ever read. I remember reading it nonstop from cover to cover because I was so fascinated with the possibility of life on other worlds. Too bad most literary and movie extraterrestrial life-forms almost always seem determined to exterminate us!
Did Mr. Wells dream up the idea of intelligent beings residing on Mars? I’m afraid the credit is not due him. Wells relied upon astronomical studies of his day for the premise. It all began in 1877 when Italian astronomer Schiaparelli reported observing “canali” on Mars. Canali means channels. However, when the word was translated into English they were simply called canals. Canals implied intelligent construction, and thus began the speculation on the Martian builders.
At the turn of the 20th century, United States astronomer Percival Lowell began a study of Mars. With the guidance of the Harvard College Observatory, an observatory was erected on a hill in Flagstaff, Arizona, where the seeing was quite good. It is still a working observatory today, named Lowell Observatory in his honor.
Lowell also observed these peculiar markings that supposedly criss-crossed the planet. He conjectured that the Martians had an impressive irrigation system to carry water from the frozen polar caps to the arid desert regions near the planet’s equator. Lowell wrote, “Irrigation, and upon as vast a scale as possible, must be the all-engrossing Martian pursuit.” But alas, there are no canals on Mars— or any Martians either as far as we know. A few contemporary astronomers also reported observing lines on the Red Planet. However, many others with better telescopes did not. So what really did these astronomers see?
Speculation arose that under ideal observing conditions craters may have been detected on the Martian surface. It could have also been subtle differences between bright and dark areas. The astronomers’ brains may have simply played connect-the-dots with these features to produce the “canals.” However, after more detailed maps became available there was little correlation to what they reported. Unfortunately it is now believed the old observations were the result of poor quality telescopes that produced optical illusions.
(I visited Lowell Observatory in 1981 and had the opportunity to observe Saturn through the magnificent 24-inch refractor. It was an awe-inspiring image I will never forget. My only regret is that Mars was not the object of our attention that evening. I can only imagine what views this great refractor provided to Lowell in the clear and stable air of Flagstaff. Would I have succumbed to the Lowellian Syndrome as well?)
The Present
We have learned much about the Red Planet since Lowell’s time. While larger and improved telescopes have contributed to that knowledge, many spacecraft (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_Mars) including orbiters, landers and rovers, have visited Mars and greatly enhanced our understanding of our planetary neighbor. The flyby of Mariner 4 in 1964 put an end to the idea of Martian canals. Mars is a bleak desolate world that is heavily cratered and has been dry for a long time. There are huge volcanoes, global dust storms, and great sand dune fields.
However, old riverbeds discovered on Mars indicate it once had flowing water on its surface. And there are other indicators of past water as well. Somehow much of Mars’ atmosphere and the surface water were lost to space. Today water may still be trapped beneath the surface as permafrost. The polar caps also contain much water ice, though it is mixed with a lot of carbon dioxide. There is no liquid water on the Martian surface due to the low atmospheric pressure.
The debate about water on Mars is an ongoing research topic among planetary scientists. See this link to an article entitled, Liquid Water on Mars (#39): http://education2.marssociety.org/category/redplanetpen/.
Most importantly of significant interest is a NASA report in November 2016. Scientists who analyzed data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter instruments determined that there is a “Lake Superior” amount of underground ice in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars. You can read the report here:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2016-299. This discovery is great news for future exploration of Mars by humankind.
Prior to 1976 faint hope still persisted that Mars supported some form of life. I’m sure that belief drove the research teams who oversaw the two Viking landers that successfully touched down on the Martian surface in July 1976. Among other experiments, the Viking landers tested the soil surrounding the space craft for microscopic life. The results proved negative, though some biologists and chemists say “inconclusive.” A television camera on board scanned the immediate area. No Martian, large or small, sauntered past the lander. I think many researchers would have indeed been shocked if the camera had revealed a curious creature peering into the lens. Our outlook on life in the universe, as well as our place in it, would have dramatically changed.
What continues to draw us to Mars? Is it because we still believe life may once have flourished upon or beneath its now lifeless terrain? As this article was being written in May, 2018, NASA’s latest Mars mission called InSight was launched on 5 May. It will land on Mars on November 26 after traveling for just under six months due to a favorable Earth/Mars orbital configuration. The lander will perform many tests of the Martian environment, including a seismometer to record marsquakes and meteorite impacts, and a probe that will be hammered about 16 feet down into the surface to take Mars’ temperature. There are a variety of other instruments as well.
The Future
The next ambitious expedition to the Red Planet will be the Mars 2020 mission, another in the long line of Mars rover programs. Its goals overview: Studying Mars' Habitability, Seeking Signs of Past Microbial Life, Collecting and Caching Samples, and Preparing for Future Human Missions. This mission will include a drill to collect core samples and save them onboard the lander for a future retrieval mission. Most importantly, Mars 2020 will carry with it an autonomous helicopter that can fly out a maximum of 2,000 feet from the rover and a maximum altitude of 1,300 feet and hover for about 30 seconds. This “marscopter” will be an exciting new chapter in the exploration of Mars, and another first in space exploration for NASA. Launch of Mars2020 is scheduled for July 2020.
In conclusion, for now that is all we can do until human beings make the journey to the Red Planet sometime in the near future and set out to explore its surface. That prospect may not be that far ahead as you might think. Boeing and SpaceX are both looking to put humans on Mars. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg believes Boeing will make it to Mars first. “I firmly believe that the first person to step foot on Mars will get there on a Boeing rocket,” he said. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk begs to differ. Musk believes SpaceX spaceships could begin landing on Mars as soon as 2022. See this article for details: http://fortune.com/2016/06/11/elon-musk-regular-mars-flights/.
The Martian space race is well underway.
