With the population of the world on a steady rise, humanity must face the prospect of finding another place to plant our civilization. One solution is to colonize our neighboring planet, Mars. Surviving this foreign climate can be made much easier thanks to genetic modification. However, modifying the structure of human beings can be seen as inhumane, and it may be a little too soon to start investing in this extreme solution.
Space exploration is important for our understanding of the universe, but having to modify human genetics proves that perhaps living life on Mars is not ideal yet. Although using the abilities of some extremophile microorganisms, like stated in “Colonizing Mars may require humanity to tweak its DNA,” can help astronauts journey farther in space, scientists still need to consider the risk factor since this has not been put into practice at this high of a scale before.
Another aspect of going to Mars is how us as humans use the land. Terraforming, or altering the terrain of a particular place, would affect life living there if there was any in the first place, making it harder to research. Terraforming is the most efficient solution until technology further advances and allows us to do things like climate and atmosphere control.
Going to Mars for research may help our understanding, but due to issues like the dangers of genetically modyfing the DNA in humans, or the effects of altering Mars’s surface, right now is not the best time to consider it as a suitable place to inhabit.