Will humans age differently if we live on Mars?

By Ella Madsen

From the dawn of human creation, humans have always looked to expand, evolve, and concur. As technologies and knowledge have grown, the limits are endless. Inhabiting Mars is one of humans’ latest challenges and with recent discoveries and expeditions using rovers, we have been getting closer to reaching this goal. However, as humans draw nearer to inhabiting Mars there are still differences on Mars which make it difficult. Blinding dust storms, freezing temperatures and the difficulty to get to Mars are a few of the challenge’s scientists are trying to solve. Although these challenges will not stop humans from achieving such amazing scientific achievements, they will require careful consideration and adaptation.

 

Timekeeping on Mars

Timekeeping on Mars is quite similar to timekeeping here on earth. Even though days on Mars are only slightly longer than our days on Earth, over time the difference in time will be significant. On Earth, days are 24 hours long, the length of time it takes Earth to rotate. However, on Mars it takes 24 hours and approximately 40 minutes to rotate, approximately 40 minutes longer than Earth. Scientists have named a full day on Mars as a “sol”. They also created a new time zone for Mars called, Coordinated Mars Time or MTC. A Martian year (a year on Mars) takes about 668 sols which is roughly 687 days on earth. Based on this information a Martian year takes nearly two times as long as one year on Earth. This occurs because, according to NASA, the Earth moves so much faster than Mars that in the same amount of time it takes Mars to orbit the sun once, the Earth orbits the sun twice. Mars does not have months as they do not have a significant moon like there is here on Earth. It is crucial that scientists keep track of the time on Mars, for many reasons including to communicate with their rovers that are currently on Mars. Different scientists work around the clock to monitor, communicate, and code their rovers on Mars and because the rovers are using MTC the scientists also must be aware of MTC. If humans are to ever inhabit Mars, they must adapt to new methods of keeping time.

Earth and Mars Comparison

Will humans inhabit Mars?

For over a hundred years, humans have been fascinated with the possibility of living on Mars. As we continue to learn and expand our knowledge about Mars, we have been able to discover new ways to get humans to Mars and what daily life would be like on Mars. With the help of different NASA robots such as the Mars Rover Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity and Perseverance, scientists have discovered that Mars has seasons, that there is evidence of water in the ground and that Mars has 62.5% less gravity than Earth. NASA recently sent their latest rover called Perseverance to Mars which landed on February 18, 2021 and took just under seven months to land on the planet from Earth. Over the course of the next Martian year (two Earth Years), NASA plans to have Perseverance look for habitability, signs of biosignatures, catching samples of rocks and “soil” and preparing for humans. A large concern about future life on Mars is the lack of oxygen in its atmosphere, so Perseverance is going to test oxygen productions on Mars. The results of these ongoing explorations will help give scientists the opportunity to discover what missing information exits on Mars and hopefully help us progress inhabiting Mars in the near future.

 

 

 

Plan to live on Mars

For the past century inhabiting Mars has seemed like an unrealistic and unachievable goal, but with recent discoveries humans have been able to start planning what inhabiting Mars would look like. NASA came out with a plan divided in 3 steps to get humans to Mars by the 2030s. This intricate plan includes learning what space does to the human body, how the deep space environment can help NASA test new technologies and lastly how to get humans to Mars and be independent there.

 

Will humans age differently if we live on Mars?

As scientists all over the world continue to learn more about Mars and the possibility of future life on the Red Planet, curiosity regarding this fascinating planet grows more every day. If humans eventually live on Mars, will they age differently there?

It has been discovered that timekeeping is not the same on Mars as it is here on Earth, with a sol (a day on Mars) being 24 hours and approximately 40 minutes compared to a day being only 24 hours here on Earth. This would mean that each passing sol would be 40 minutes longer than what we are used to here on Earth. A way to look at this would be to imagine if a person woke up at 8am everyday for a week on Earth. Conversely, on Mars a person would wake up 40 minutes later until they would eventually wake up at 12pm instead of 8am by the end of one week (seven days). On Earth, we measure age by years, where every 365 days a person becomes one year older. If birthdays were counted using years, one Martian year would be almost two years on Earth. As a result, people on Mars would age slower than people on Earth, meaning if a human left Earth at the age of 15 and spent 1 Martian year on Mars when they return to Earth, they would be almost 17 years old. Humans would theoretically age slower on Mars, as they would stay each age for a longer amount of time, but their bodies would continue to age at the same rate, meaning they would be younger in age, yet they would physically age faster.

 

Mars remains an extremely complex planet that we are only just starting to understand, but with new technologies and research it is indeed a possibility in the future to inhabit. Timekeeping on Mars may slightly differ from timekeeping on Earth, but the difference it is not a enough to stop our ability to inhabit that planet. Based on how time works on Mars, humans would age slower, but would physically age faster. If humans do inhabit Mars one day, perhaps after long periods of time in a different atmosphere the human body would adapt to age differently on this Martian planet. The possibilities are endless.

 

 

 

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