If you have always wondered, like me, how would it be in practice living on another world, you can’t possibly miss the series recently prepared by Karl Tate for Space.Com, which is simply amazing. So far, Karl has published infographics for seven Solar System’s bodies (here as follows with their links) : Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Ceres, Europa and Titan.
(Credit: Space.com)
The kind of information given in the infographics are consistent across the series, so that you can compare for instance living conditions (bad news: none of them are habitable. But in some cases – say Titan or Mars – you can do manage to live there nonetheless, provided your equipment works well). I have embedded here Venus’ to give you an example.
An overview of notable features and curious stuff you will learn from them:
* You can have a look at the surface from the perspective of a hypothetical human walking on it. These simulated views are based on NASA and ESA probes’ real images therefore rather accurate.
* Length of the day: the astonishing variety here is something that always manage to surprise people, because it is difficult to figure out how life would be when one of your days is longer than your year. If you have issues in this sense, Venus is certainly to be avoided, considering that 1 day on Venus = 244 days on Earth. Mercury is only marginally better (= about 58 days), and the same can be said for the Moon (= 29 days) and Titan (= 16 days). Definitively better Europa (= 3.5 days) and with Mars we will have no adaptation problems, given that its day is only slightly longer than 24 hrs (yes, and we call it “sol”, by the way). In case you want to cheat, Ceres is the choice to make. 1 day only lasts about 9 hrs.
(Credit: Mars One)
*Gravity is an important factor to be taken into consideration when planning to live on another world, no matter how good your spacesuit might be. The only sure thing is that ISS crews have always problems when coming back to Earth, and it’s still matter of debate what represents a safe ratio for humans (for a detailed analysis, see this article).
According to NASA, humans can withstand gravity up to 4 g, which is good news if we intend to colonise some Super-Earths recently discovered. What about something closer though? This might prove problematic. Venus is the only one close to Earth’s gravity (=0.9): too bad that the rest of the planet is so unwelcoming. Mars is the second best, with 0.38, and this is why actual planning for a Mars Colony is on the way. Mercury has the same gravity (= 0.38) but definitively not the same appeal of the Red Planet, and for a reason. Just look at the surface temperature. The rest of the candidates is less of interest, if you look at the figures: Moon = 0.17, Titan= 0.14, Europa = 0.13, Ceres = 0.028. In case we want to seriously go to live in those places we will need to find a solution about it.
Ganimede (Credit:NASA)
Other considerations about the suitability for space colonies could be made regarding the presence (or not) of an atmosphere and the availability of minerals and other chemicals to produce food, oxygen and fuel (just to name some essential things). I’m going to write about these other aspects in a few weeks time.
Back to the infographics: more it’s to come – the Space.com series is in 12 parts, including Pluto – so stay tuned. And in case you would like Karl to do something similar for, say, an exoplanet, you’ll have to contact him directly. Considering now that 1897 exoplanet have been discovered so far, I might well going to suggest him some names.
Very nice article. Let’s hope we can put these ideas to work sooner rather than later. Posting this to my Facebook page.
Many Thanks – if you’re interested in the subject watch the short clip Wanderers. It is amazing!
Thanks for swinging by my blog, and thanks for pointing out those datasheets. One thought though: all the discussion of colonisation seems to be focused on Mars, but won’t the low gravity be an insuperable problem? It’s one thing for an adult to live there, but colonisation would mean children would have to grow at less than 0.4 of earth’s gravity, which doesn’t bear thinking about.
Wouldn’t Venus be a better option? The weather might be horrible, but it’s probably easier to find ways to survive it than to change a planet’s gravity.
Hi, thank you for your comment, and you’re certainly right about the dangers of (low) gravity. We can’t be completely sure Mars is fine for humans, even though scientists think adaptation will ensue for people once living there. However, the whole topic is quite complex, and IMO we simply don’t know enough by now. Venus? You’re not the only one to think about this hypothesis. See this, for instance: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/11/24/venus-cloud-cities_n_6210584.html
Thanks for the link to the article. I remembered a novella by Geoffrey Landis set in Venusian balloon cities from a few years ago, though I can only find the podcast version now: http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2011/08/30/starshipsofa-no-201-geoffrey-a-landis-pt1/.
If we’re talking about balloon cities, is there any reason to be talking about Venus rather than Saturn? The surface gravity is similar to earth, and there wouldn’t be the intense heat and acidic clouds to contend with. Less raw materials though, unless we can find a way to supply them with enough energy to transmutate hydrogen.
Thanks for the podcast! I think Saturn wind storms are simply too strong even if we could manage for all the rest. And there’s not even a “surface” the way we intend on Earth – it is a gas giant, after all. But yes, it could provide us with Helium 3 for nuclear fusion. In that part of the Solar System Titan looks however more appealing, with gravity about the Moon’s standards.