The Challenge of Sustaining Human Life on Mars

The Coming of the Martians
by Chris O'Kane
June 2005

No one would have believed in the first years of the 21^st century that H.G. Wells’s classic science fiction tale, The War of the Worlds, would still pack a powerful psychological punch after 100 years of scientific progress and technological development.  It has been said that the story is a reflection on the misadventures of the British Empire, at that time stamping its identity all over the cultures it was subduing around the world.  Wells once pointed out the alarming fact that British forces had completely wiped out the peoples of Tasmania by the end of the 19^th century.  This invasion of a superior, technological empire into the land of a primitive culture was overwhelmingly one-sided. 

Thus it was for us Earthlings in the face of the Martian onslaught, turning all valiant defenders to ash with their ghastly heat ray, suffocating the unfortunate souls who could not run with their chocking black gas and engulfing the world in their unearthly red weed.  War of the Worlds was written in 1898 by one of the great minds of the late 19^th and early 20^th century.  H.G. Wells is rightly regarded as the father of modern science fiction. All SF writers acknowledge their debt to this gentleman from another time and different world.  Although Wells was born in Bromley and trained as a draper, he went on to study under T.H. Huxley and took an interest in science which he would later teach before his writing career shot to the stars. 

Wells could be regarded as a man before his time. He forecast nuclear war from the air in 1910 in his story “The World Set Free”.  He also predicted the coming of the Second World War and speculated on the future of mankind.  Before his death in 1946 he wrote that he despaired for our species. Realising that much that he had speculated on had come about.  The re-launch of War of the Worlds comes at an interesting time for us.  The novel played its role in the late 19^th century. Producer George Pal’s 1953 film of the story echoed the fears and paranoia of the cold war. Today it reminds us that our troops continue to kill and die in a foreign war as part of a superior power invading yet another country. That nothing much has changed since Wells’s first draft of the story tells us a lot about the nature of our species and confirms Wells’s worst fears.  Our world teeters perilously on the brink of extinction. We seem to be consuming ourselves out of existence and it causes us to ponder Professor Archie Roy’s question, “are we a flawed species, destined to fail?”

 Mars as a planet has always captured our imagination.  It has invaded our minds for thousands of years.  It seems to have played an important role for all the pharaohs of ancient Egypt. The Romans, Greeks and many others regarded it as a god of war.  Since speculation began about life on other planets Mars was the number one candidate.  The next planet out from us, coming close to us in its elliptical orbit to within 35 million miles. (A mere walk in the park in solar system terms)  Its fiery red/orange appearance outshines all the stars and planets at certain times of opposition.  It catches our eye and commands our attention for a while before dimming down and fading away. Then, after a long absence, returns to stalk us once again.  On its last opposition Mars came closer than 35 million miles, in, fact, closer than it has in some 70,000 years. On the very eve of opposition London was blacked out by a massive power failure, leaving hundreds stranded on trains desperately trying to get home from work.  As if on cue, and uncannily apt, a green fireball was seen shooting across the sky over the west of Scotland.  Mars has lost none of its powers and Wells’s nightmare story still scares us.

 Mars does seem to haunt our minds.  Before Wells wrote his stirring invasion story Ellsworth Douglas had envisioned an Egyptian type civillisation on Mars. The two Victorian heroes of his novel “The Pharaoh’s Broker” ventured to the red planet in search of gold, only to find a starving population in the midst of a terrible famine.  In 1900 radio pioneer Nikola Tesla, suggested that Mars might be trying to contact us by radio. By which time Bostonian astronomer Percival Lowell had begun to map his infamous, imaginary canals of Mars at his new observatory high above the sleepy Arizona town of Flagstaff.  In 1901 Lord Kelvin suggested that we try to contact the Martians by radio. And in 1924 an experiment by the US Navy listened for 10 hours during a very close opposition of Mars. In this experiment a pattern of signals was recorded during a period of pre-arranged international radio silence. It was concluded that the signals probably originated on Earth by electric motors in trams and lifts.  But nobody really knows for sure where they originated.  These signals were recorded on a moving roll of photographic film when a small light bulb flashed in response to a received signal.  The records of this experiment are stored in the archives of Harvard University. 

By the mid 1930s Hollywood was sending Flash Gordon to battle Ming the Merciless, who had taken over Mars and enslaved the Clay People in his never ending conquest of the Universe. By this time science fiction writers were submitting Martian stories to Amazing Stories magazine and others.  In 1938, on the eve of the second world war, a young American playwright, Orson Welles, terrified much of America with a very realistic radio drama using The War of the Worlds as a scary Halloween story. Thousands fled New Jersey in panic believing the broadcast to be a real Martian invasion.  By the end of 1939 John Wyndham had published “The Sleepers of Mars”, in which he portrayed an adventure trip by America, Russia and the British (taking along their trusty Lee Enfield rifles just in case of problems with the locals).  Once on Mars the intrepid explorers find a dead civilisation. Wyndam’s description of Martian bodies, sealed in green glass vials in vast underground caverns, lying dead while their faithful robot servants try to terraform their extinct desert world in vain, is chilling. 

Soon after the Second World War and the coming nuclear age, Mars became prominent in astronomy, science fiction literature and cinema. It was in 1950 Ray Bradbury published his classic work “The Martian Chronicles”.  It is this story of a vanished and haunted Mars that a generation of NASA engineers grew up with.  For the past 100 years or so there has been this notion in science fiction that Mars may once have had a great civilisation. But in recent years we have come to know it as a dead and deserted world in which we will ultimately become the Martians when we colonize the planet.  Stories like Bradbury’s continue to feed our curiosity and imagination about Mars.  

The dawning of the Space Age in October 1957 with the launch of the first satellite, Russia’s Sputnik, brought about our first explorations of the solar system. As early as 1962 Russia sent the first probe Mars 1 on a flyby of the planet.  It was known from telescopic observations that Mars had a thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide.  Although the surface appeared predominantly red, patches of dark green could be seen shifting about the globe while the white polar caps grew and shrunk with the seasons.  There was a belief that there might be some kind of primitive vegetation. Some even held on to the notions of canals, while Hollywood never gave up its Martians.   

It was not until the fly-past of Mars by Nasa’s Mariner 4 probe in 1965 that the first close range TV images came back. The 22 low-resolution black and white pictures (the first digital images) showed a dry and cratered world. Thus dispelling any further notions of a balmy, canal etched surface, or oasis of life.  Mars seemed as dead as the Moon.  From this point on even science fiction writers dropped the notion of ET on Mars.  There followed other probes and in 1971 Mariner 9 photographed the entire globe in medium resolution from orbit. By this time it was obvious that we didn’t have the full picture. Mars was slowly giving up its secrets. There was evidence of river valleys and large volcanic activity in the ancient past. These observations included water ice at the polar caps. All of this suggested that there was a time when Mars was wet, warm and earthlike. A situation, many thought, may have been promising for life to begin. So the Martians were not quite dead yet. 

The next thing to do was to send probes down to the surface and look for traces of microbial life.  First down was Russia again with Mars 3. Operating for only 20 seconds before being engulfed by a massive dust storm.  The big success came in 1976 when NASA set down its sophisticated tripod machines to conquer the planet and dig up the secrets of its ancient red soil. Viking 1 and 2 landed in areas surveyed by Marnier 9 that were thought to have been covered with water in the ancient past.  The colour panoramic pictures sent back looked uncannily earthlike. They could have been from some of our rocky deserts.  Even though it is an inhospitable place where daytime temperatures rarely get above –20c. in its thin carbon dioxide atmosphere. Viking dug the soil and with its clinical method and complex instruments searched for evidence of microbes. Two out of three important experiments performed suggested active microbes in the soil. But because no organic compounds were found it was concluded that the reactions were due to exotic chemistry and the nature of the soil.  However, these findings are now under closer scrutiny by some scientists.

So once more it was another deathblow for the Martians.  There were no canals, no ruined cities, and no beautiful princesses waiting to be rescued. For the geologist it was a wonderland, but for the average taxpayer Mars offered nothing but rocks and dust. Except for a few oddities like a quirky face and strange pyramid formations that is. But dare we go look lest we break the paradigm that pays the rent? There’s not supposed to be anyone else out there like us.  They can be microbes or plants but that’s as far as it goes say the scientists.  In recent years new probes with rovers have prowled the surface in search of clues to the mystery of the missing water. We still do not know were it went, though images sent back last year from Mars Express in orbit suggest that a lot of it may be frozen under the surface.  Mars Express also detected the presence of Methane near areas where water vapour has been detected. This has been confirmed by Earth based observations and is now the subject of great debate. Methane can be produced by living microbes.  There may yet be life to be discovered in the old planet yet.

 Over the past 40 years we have come to know Mars as a real world. A place where explorers will some day venture. We may not find that hoped for life on Mars, but we need to explore as we consider the rate at which we are guzzling up resources and space on Earth.   What would H.G. have thought about our new discoveries?  From his writings we can only guess that he would not be surprised. In fact towards the end of his life he despaired for the survival of the human race.  He had lived to witness most of his predictions come true.  He died a year after the atomic bombing of Japan. His observations on the scientific progress of mankind are as relevant today as they were in 1941 when he wrote in The Conquest of Time, “These are Man’s present possibilities; and without haste and without delay he can complete his material conquest.  He will soon be able to talk to anyone anywhere, be within help of everyone, and laugh at the tides and seasons that once chased his haunted heartbeats round the year”.  This is so true today. Time and distance are no longer the barriers they used to be.

 On a recent visit to Bromley I discovered that Alders store, the older part where Wells once worked, is gone. The H.G. Wells café is no more.  To my disappointment I also noticed that the mural up the hill that was painted on the side of the gable to celebrate H.G. is gone too.  Painted over in white. I trust it is a blank sheet ready for new art to commemorate the great Bromley prophet in the 21^st. century.  My enquiries at the charity shop next door end with blank expressions from the staff. “What mural?” they didn’t seem to have seen it or heard about it.  

 I bought a newspaper and made my way to the Compass pub near the high street.  The sort of pub I’m sure Wells will have enjoyed a pint of ale or two.  It’s an old Victorian design, but with all the distractions of the 21^st century.  I order a pint of ale and begin to read my paper. Retired US Defence secretary Robert McNamara is in the UK warning of the continued danger of nuclear conflict.  The world it seems is just as dangerous in this century.  A couple argue about a domestic issue in the corner, two gents at the bar discuss the fortunes of their football team and on the TV in the far corner above the bar, a warning is hailed.  It shows a trailer promotion for the upcoming film “War of the Worlds” I move closer to the TV, the customers and bar staff are oblivious to it.  I stand there with my pint and enjoy the irony.  In the first years of the 21^st century no one would believe the calamity that was about to hit world cinema screens.  The world went about its business as usual.  I’m sure Wells would have enjoyed the irony too. Once more Mars is calling our attention.

 Copyright © Chris O’Kane 2005