What will people look like after moving to Mars?

Around the end of the 2030s, humans will fly to Mars for the first time in history. The journey will be long – according to NASA calculations, overcoming 55.76 million kilometers will take about 500 days. During this time, the muscles of the astronauts will weaken due to the lack of gravity, and at first they will have to travel in a special car. The first mission to Mars lasted only about a month. If all goes well, flights to the Red Planet will become regular and eventually a human colony will be established there. Since the human body is adapted to life on Earth, Martian conditions greatly affect the health of migrants. Some scientists believe that people who remain on Mars will evolve over the course of many hundreds of years and eventually cease to be like earthlings. Wonder what they will become?

How Mars is different from Earth

The future of humanity on Mars worries many scientists. Martian conditions will be alien to humans, and they will certainly affect human appearance.

Here are some of the main factors that can change a person’s appearance:

• the force of gravity – it is less on Mars, and is only 38% of that which is on Earth;
• the climate of Mars – the average air temperature on Mars is -60 degrees, and at the poles it can drop to -125 degrees Celsius;
• lack of oxygen – the atmosphere of Mars is 95% carbon dioxide;
• lack of an ozone layer – the planet Mars is heavily exposed to cosmic radiation.

Of course, there are other factors, such as the lack of food and other living creatures, but those listed above will affect people the most.

Mars is unlikely to meet people with open arms, astronauts will have a hard time

The evolution of humans on Mars

Given all these features of Mars, scientists are trying to predict what people will become after moving to another planet. Particularly interesting are the predictions of biologist Scott Solomon, author of Future Humans: Inside the Science of Our Continuing Evolution.

People will become short and strong

In the 1970s, astronauts who walked on the moon noted that they found it difficult to walk. The same discomfort can be felt by people after arriving on Mars. Due to weak gravity, the structure of bones can change over time – they will become denser, due to which people’s height will decrease. At the same time, they will be stronger than we are.

First of all, the inhabitants of Mars can become short.

To make it easier to grasp objects, their arms can lengthen. At the same time, the big toes will move a little to the side to give people stability. In general, the future inhabitants of Mars will vaguely resemble the hobbits from The Lord of the Rings.

People’s skin will become darker

The inhabitants of Mars will be strongly affected by ultraviolet light from the sun. To protect against it, the body will likely produce more of the melanin pigment, which absorbs harmful radiation and gives the skin a dark tint. It is possible that people will increase the level of carotenoids – if so, then the skin will turn orange.

The inhabitants of Mars will change the color of the skin

People will change their faces

There is little oxygen on Mars, so at first people will have to walk only in spacesuits. It is possible that over time, the human respiratory organs adapt to new conditions – these changes can be reflected in the face. For example, people on Mars may have enlarged or smaller nostrils, larger or smaller mouths, and so on. In addition, Martians are more likely to have slitted eyes to protect them from sandstorms.

The faces of the inhabitants of Mars will change

Other consequences of life on Mars

In addition to external changes, there will also be internal ones. For example, on a lifeless planet, people may eventually lose immunity to diseases existing on Earth. This will make it very difficult for Martians to communicate with earthlings – any contact can cause an epidemic.

Perhaps the inhabitants of Mars will have poor immunity

In addition to this, it is not at all clear how people are affected by cosmic radiation. Of course, at first it will kill – many believe that evolution will not save you from this. But there are scientists who do not exclude that the human body will somehow learn to protect itself from radiation. For example, what if people learn to heal their own wounds?

All this sounds very interesting, but it is important to understand that at the moment it is just fantasy. People have never been to Mars – perhaps the planet will present us with surprises. And they can be both encouraging and unpleasant. What do you think, will humanity be able to move to another planet? Share your opinion in the comments.