Living on Mars

Living on Mars book cover — Be a Space Scientist LIVING ON MARS COLONIZE A CAN YOU PLANET David Hawksett PowerKiDS press New York

Living on Mars — page 1 — Chapter 1 A SECOND HOME IN SPACE Earth is our home planet It formed from the dust in the solar nebula around 4 5 billion years ago Although life on Earth began as microbes very quickly after the birth of our planet human beings did not appear until three million years ago Like all other organisms on Earth humans have evolved to suit Earth’s environment Our eyes are adapted to see in full sunlight Our lungs work perfectly with Earth’s atmosphere at sea level and our skeletons are designed to cope with Earth’s gravity Our Dangerous World Although Earth is the only place we know of that has life it is also a dangerous place Just think of the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago We know an asteroid around 6 2 miles 10 km wide hit Earth at this time and massive volcanic eruptions also affected Earth’s climate The asteroid punched a hole in Earth’s surface 112 miles 180 km wide but this crater was discovered only in the 1990s It was not just the dinosaurs that suffered around three-quarters of all plant and animal species became extinct 4

Living on Mars — page 2 — Going back even further around 252 million years ago another mass extinction took place It is known as The Great Dying Nobody is sure whether volcanic activity an asteroid or something else caused it but an incredible 96 of all species on Earth were wiped out A Home on Mars Earth is still not safe today Volcanoes and asteroids threaten us We also face new disasters that are more likely to be caused by humans than nature Climate change overpopulation pollution and nuclear disasters are just some of the problems humans have created Earth is our home but it is under threat One day people may need a new place to live If we are to make sure that the human race survives we need a second home in space That home may be on Mars The explosion that made the world’s dinosaurs extinct was more than a billion times greater than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II 5

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