Will Humans Ever Live on Mars?

That's not a construction site, that's Mars!

When Baby Boomers were kids, they dreamt of living on the moon. Millenials, they dreamt of living on Mars. As technology progresses, living on other planets is seeming more and more possible every day. But will it ever happen? Will humans ever live on Mars? That’s what a team of researchers in Hawaii are trying to figure out.

The team of five researchers are living in a mockup Mars habitat on a Hawaiian volcano, attempting to simulate a long-duration mission to the Red Planet. According to bdnews24.com, the crew spends the majority of their time in a 1,000 square foot solar powered dome, only leaving for simulated spacewalks in a mock spacesuit.

The Mars shelter is almost totally self-sustaining, except for water, which needs to be provided to the researchers every three weeks. Unless NASA (who is funding the project) discovers ice or water below the surface of Mars that can be tapped into, then life on the planet seems impossible.

If it’s not impossible, it will at least be unenjoyable: "I haven’t seen a tree, smelled the rain, heard a bird, or felt wind on my skin in four months,” expedition leader Casey Stedman wrote in a blog post. The research project started at the end of March and is ending on Friday. We’re sure Stedman and his crew will be happy to breathe some fresh air.

Another feature of the shelter is the waterless composting toilets, which sound pretty awful to use, based on the fact that they’re waterless and involve composting. The crew is also living off dehydrated and shelf-stabilized foods, so that’s another aspect of living on Mars that does not sound enjoyable.

If NASA figures out a way to send their researchers to Mars for prolonged stays, it seems like it will only be a matter of time before scientists are living on the planet. The question still remains, will average citizens of Earth ever make the big move to Mars? Will we ever want to? For now, we think we'll stick with these new homes.