Life On Mars… er, not Mars

Turns out Mars isn’t the golden child that is is made out to be. Kids here at Hill all think that life on Mars will be problematic. “It’s possible,” answered Nicholas Cruse, a 7th grader at Hill Campus, “but there are so many better options, scientists have found hundreds of other planets we could live on.” The majority of kids agree that Mars will be too risky. To start, the atmosphere is 98% carbon dioxide. After taking a breath of pure carbon dioxide, it would only take 1 minute for a human to die. The second problem is water. Water is the key component for life on Earth, and Mars doesn’t have any. If you drink 64 ounces a day for a year, you use 1,825 gallons of water. That’s only for one person. If you do the calculations for all 8 billion people, you’re using 14,600,000,000,000 gallons per year. And that doesn’t include water for things other than drinking. Plus, there are countless other problems like dust storms, shelter, food, even stupid things like, where do you get your toothpaste?

If Mars is out of the question, where do scientists have their sights set on now? There isn’t a perfect answer, but the most promising is Enceladus, a small moon of Jupiter. Enceladus is an icy world about the size of England. Its surface is uninhabitable due to below freezing temperatures and strong radiation caused by a tiny atmosphere. But beneath the miles of ice lies what interests hundreds of scientists. In Enceladus’ icy oceans, there is water. Not only that, but there are hydrothermal vents spread around, very similar to the ones on Earth. These vents produce temperatures up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, providing a heat source. This could not only help sustain human life, but would also be a habitable zone for extraterrestrial life. And most people today think it would be life-changing. Onesty Morris, a 7th grader here at Hill says, “I think that it would be an amazing experience,” and Delainy Morris, an 8th grader at Hill commented, ”People are ruining life on Earth. We should have a second chance for the people who want to do good.” The only problem is that since Enceladus has only liquid water and ice, there’s no way to grow food. Also, there would be barely any sunlight at Enceladus, even on the surface. This causes a deficiency in Vitamin D and would cause sleep deprivation and other perhaps deadly things. So Enceladus is better than Mars, but not perfect.

The big question remains, is there a planet other than Earth that will sustain human life? In short, no. There will probably never be a way for us to pack up our society and leave forever. But we can still imagine what it would be like to live on Mars.