What Would It Actually Be Like to Live on Mars? (A Day in the Life)

What would it actually be like to live on Mars? We spend one day with a future Mars settler, sometime in the 2060s: a sol that lasts 24 hours and 39 minutes, air you can't breathe at less than 1% of Earth's pressure, nights below minus 70°C, radiation measured by NASA's Curiosity rover, 38% gravity, planet-wide dust storms, buried ice, making oxygen with MOXIE, growing food indoors, nuclear power, a 3 to 22 minute delay on every call home, launch windows every 26 months, and finally blue sunsets, two tiny moons, and Earth as a bright dot in the evening sky. Honest note: the settlement and the day-in-the-life story are imagined. The science and numbers come from NASA missions and published research, and we flag what is still unknown on screen. Nobody knows yet what years of low gravity and radiation would do to the human body. Would you go? One-way ticket, or return trip? Tell us in the comments. If you enjoy journeys like this, subscribe and give the video a like so you don't miss the next one. Watch next: Voyager 1, the farthest thing we've ever built. CHAPTERS 0:00 Waking up on Mars 0:30 Our future settlement 0:46 The sol: a longer day 1:18 The air 1:49 The cold 2:15 Radiation 3:10 Low gravity 3:56 Dust and dust storms 4:42 Water and oxygen (MOXIE) 5:35 Food 6:23 Power 6:56 Calling home 7:35 Getting there (and back) 8:04 Blue sunsets, two moons and Earth 8:47 The honest verdict CREDITS (all public domain) Curiosity rover images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS (blue sunset: with Texas A&M Univ.; Earth from Mars: MSSS/TAMU). Rover selfie mosaics processed by semeion.photo. Perseverance images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS; dust devil: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Phobos transit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI. HiRISE (Phobos, Deimos, north polar ice): NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona. Ice cliff: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA/USGS. Mars globe texture, Olympus Mons, Viking Mars mosaic: NASA/JPL/USGS. Cave map: USGS Astrogeology Science Center. Dust storm: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Viking 2 frost: NASA/JPL. MOXIE photos: NASA/JPL-Caltech. RAD instrument: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI. Kilopower: NASA Glenn, NASA. CHAPEA habitat: NASA/Bill Stafford, NASA Johnson. Space station photos: NASA. Spacesuit: NASA/Joel Kowsky. Deep Space Network: NASA. Artist's concepts: Mars Ice Home: NASA/Clouds AO/SEArch. Mars habitats and base: NASA/John Frassanito and Associates. Charts, orbits and the Mars globe render were made for this video. Use does not imply NASA or USGS endorsement. Narration: synthetic voice (Kokoro TTS). Music: original ambient score. SOURCES NASA Mars facts: https://science.nasa.gov/mars/facts/ Curiosity RAD surface radiation: Hassler et al. 2014, Science 343; cruise: Zeitlin et al. 2013, Science 340 MOXIE results (NASA): https://www.nasa.gov/missions/mars-20... Buried ice cliffs: Dundas et al. 2018, Science 359 Perchlorates (Phoenix): Hecht et al. 2009, Science 325 CHAPEA (NASA): https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/... Kilopower test (NASA): https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/dem... Blue sunset, PIA19400: https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cat... Curiosity mission: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-... #Mars #Space #Science