First, I think it's unlikely that humans will explore the Mars surface directly, in the near future anyway, for planetary protection reasons - surely most likely from Mars orbit.
I know that NASA has as its goal to put humans on Mars but nobody has yet explained in detail how this is going to be consistent with planetary protection, and not increase the chance of introducing Earth life to Mars, which of course we must not do if we want to find out about Mars life. Especially so in event of a hard landing (crash) of a human occupied spacecraft on Mars in one of the special regions.
Anyway - putting that aside, perchlorates are harmful to humans long term, asa they interfere with the functioning of the thyroid gland. The levels of perchlorates on Mars are high enough to be dangerous to humans.
The Mars dust is also harmful to the lungs potentially. Toxic Mars dust could hamper planned human missions
Both Mars and lunar dust produce peroxide in the lungs also when breathed in which is damaging. Martian dust may be hazardous to your health
Their main idea for dealing with it at present is to use a "Suit port" - a spacesuit that is permanently attached to the outside of the spaceship. You crawl in through a hole in its back, and then a plate comes down at the back of the suit, another one in the spaceship itself - and it can then be separated from the ship leaving both suit and ship airtight - and off you go.
Suitport
This lets out about a cubic foot of air each time you use it, far less than for an airlock. And it would probably keep out nearly all the dust. It probably wouldn't do much for planetary protection - it wouldn't protect Mars from Earth microbes and wouldn't be something you could rely on to protect the human habitat from any Mars microbes - but it would protect the astronauts from dust to some extent. Perhaps a ittle dust would be introduced into the gap between the two plates when they come back to the ship - but this would be minimal.
But the much easier way to do this is to explore from orbit via telepresence. You can't send humans to the most interesting places anyway - especially for present day life - because they would bring Earth life with them. You'd use robots for those.
And humans aren't good at drilling in spacesuits. You can't use water for drilling anyway on Mars because of the vacuum conditions and porous regolith. You'd use robotic moles most likely. And humans in spacesuits aren't good at climbing or traveling over rugged terrain either - as the crew of Apollo 14 found out when they tried to climb out of Cone Crater to its rim - and couldn't make it in time, found it harder than expected and stopped short just short of the rim because of the unexpected difficulty walking over rugged terrain. Apollo 14 Surface Operations
Robots may well be better at climbing cliffs than humans in Mars conditions. They can abseil down from the top for instance. That might be risky for a human in a spacesuit.
And of course they don't need to carry oxygen and food with them, just solar cells (depending on how they are powered) or RTGs. And possibly fuel. And can sit in one place for days on end even go into dormancy if necessary. And though present robots are much slower than humans, that's mainly because of the time delay, usually upload commands each day for the robot to use the next day. A robot controlled in real time by humans in orbit - and designed to be a rugged all terrain type vehicle, maybe large balloon wheels - or whegs, or some such - it might well be far better at traversing rugged terrain than a human in a spacesuit in similar conditions. Spacesuits are inevitably very stiff because of pressure differences, like putting your hand into a garden hose, is said. Current ones anyway.
So you'd get a lot more work done probably if you have humans in orbit controlling robots on the surface. So if your aim is science exploration and discovery, you needn't be disheartened by this, that humans can't walk on the surface of Mars for reasons of planetary protection. In orbit is probably a better place for them anyway.
Also when they are in orbit - it's a spectacular view of Mars orbiting beneath them. They may be able to live on Phobos or Deimos. Easier to go home to Earth in an emergency. Direct telepresence control of robots on the surface - which also lets them "feel" things with haptic feedback and see in 3D with digitally enhanced video with binocular vision. And everything they see and do is recorded and streamed so others can then review it and maybe find out extra things they hadn't noticed themselves. And no danger to the astronaut if in worst case their surface avatars are damaged.
It seems to me the obvious next step, to explore from orbit rather than to land. And if astronauts never land on Mars then at least from the point of view of scientific exploration it may actually mean more exploration rather than less of the surface, and far better quality as you'd have no risk of contamination by Earth life - so if you found even a single amino acid, with a well sterilized rover, you'd know it is Mars originated.
However the ideas of keeping dust out of a habitat, using a suit port, would also be very useful on the Moon where humans are not a planetary protection issue. And lunar dust is also a potential long term health hazard for humans as well as a nuisance.
Adverse health effects from lunar dust exposure
Where it got everywhere inside the module, and got into their eyes and throat, with differing accounts of how much of a nuisance it was.
Spaceflight evidence
See also To Explore Mars With Likes Of Occulus Rift & Virtuix Omni - From Mars Capture Orbit, Phobos Or Deimos
For perchlorates: Page on researchgate.net. Also Toxic Mars: Astronauts Must Deal with Perchlorate on the Red Planet
I know that NASA has as its goal to put humans on Mars but nobody has yet explained in detail how this is going to be consistent with planetary protection, and not increase the chance of introducing Earth life to Mars, which of course we must not do if we want to find out about Mars life. Especially so in event of a hard landing (crash) of a human occupied spacecraft on Mars in one of the special regions.
The special regions of Mars are regions where it's thought there's a possibility of habitats where Earth life could be able to survive. This includes the black asterisks on this map. So humans on the surface couldn't land in any of those regions - everyone agrees on that - for planetary protection reasons. But then - what about a hard landing if the spacecraft misfires its motors, for instance - a crash?
And anyway Mars is one connected planet with global dust storms and wind patterns - can you guarantee contamination by Earth life that will stay in one part of Mars, again especially after a crash? It would be a risky mission, especially for humans, and if you had, say, a half dozen missions without a crash, still, it doesn't prove much. The next one could be the first one to crash - often happens with early versions of vehicles, test flights etc. The landing on Mars is likely to be one of the most risky points in the journey. Even without a crash, you can't land an "inside out biocontainment laboratory" on Mars with humans on the inside of it.
The only way this can be consistent with planetary protection is through relying entirely on hostility of the surface of Mars to protect the planet. But that's not certain, that you can do this.
Anyway - putting that aside, perchlorates are harmful to humans long term, asa they interfere with the functioning of the thyroid gland. The levels of perchlorates on Mars are high enough to be dangerous to humans.
The Mars dust is also harmful to the lungs potentially. Toxic Mars dust could hamper planned human missions
Both Mars and lunar dust produce peroxide in the lungs also when breathed in which is damaging. Martian dust may be hazardous to your health
Their main idea for dealing with it at present is to use a "Suit port" - a spacesuit that is permanently attached to the outside of the spaceship. You crawl in through a hole in its back, and then a plate comes down at the back of the suit, another one in the spaceship itself - and it can then be separated from the ship leaving both suit and ship airtight - and off you go.
This lets out about a cubic foot of air each time you use it, far less than for an airlock. And it would probably keep out nearly all the dust. It probably wouldn't do much for planetary protection - it wouldn't protect Mars from Earth microbes and wouldn't be something you could rely on to protect the human habitat from any Mars microbes - but it would protect the astronauts from dust to some extent. Perhaps a ittle dust would be introduced into the gap between the two plates when they come back to the ship - but this would be minimal.
But the much easier way to do this is to explore from orbit via telepresence. You can't send humans to the most interesting places anyway - especially for present day life - because they would bring Earth life with them. You'd use robots for those.
And humans aren't good at drilling in spacesuits. You can't use water for drilling anyway on Mars because of the vacuum conditions and porous regolith. You'd use robotic moles most likely. And humans in spacesuits aren't good at climbing or traveling over rugged terrain either - as the crew of Apollo 14 found out when they tried to climb out of Cone Crater to its rim - and couldn't make it in time, found it harder than expected and stopped short just short of the rim because of the unexpected difficulty walking over rugged terrain. Apollo 14 Surface Operations
Robots may well be better at climbing cliffs than humans in Mars conditions. They can abseil down from the top for instance. That might be risky for a human in a spacesuit.
And of course they don't need to carry oxygen and food with them, just solar cells (depending on how they are powered) or RTGs. And possibly fuel. And can sit in one place for days on end even go into dormancy if necessary. And though present robots are much slower than humans, that's mainly because of the time delay, usually upload commands each day for the robot to use the next day. A robot controlled in real time by humans in orbit - and designed to be a rugged all terrain type vehicle, maybe large balloon wheels - or whegs, or some such - it might well be far better at traversing rugged terrain than a human in a spacesuit in similar conditions. Spacesuits are inevitably very stiff because of pressure differences, like putting your hand into a garden hose, is said. Current ones anyway.
So you'd get a lot more work done probably if you have humans in orbit controlling robots on the surface. So if your aim is science exploration and discovery, you needn't be disheartened by this, that humans can't walk on the surface of Mars for reasons of planetary protection. In orbit is probably a better place for them anyway.
Also when they are in orbit - it's a spectacular view of Mars orbiting beneath them. They may be able to live on Phobos or Deimos. Easier to go home to Earth in an emergency. Direct telepresence control of robots on the surface - which also lets them "feel" things with haptic feedback and see in 3D with digitally enhanced video with binocular vision. And everything they see and do is recorded and streamed so others can then review it and maybe find out extra things they hadn't noticed themselves. And no danger to the astronaut if in worst case their surface avatars are damaged.
It seems to me the obvious next step, to explore from orbit rather than to land. And if astronauts never land on Mars then at least from the point of view of scientific exploration it may actually mean more exploration rather than less of the surface, and far better quality as you'd have no risk of contamination by Earth life - so if you found even a single amino acid, with a well sterilized rover, you'd know it is Mars originated.
However the ideas of keeping dust out of a habitat, using a suit port, would also be very useful on the Moon where humans are not a planetary protection issue. And lunar dust is also a potential long term health hazard for humans as well as a nuisance.
Adverse health effects from lunar dust exposure
Where it got everywhere inside the module, and got into their eyes and throat, with differing accounts of how much of a nuisance it was.
Spaceflight evidence
See also To Explore Mars With Likes Of Occulus Rift & Virtuix Omni - From Mars Capture Orbit, Phobos Or Deimos
For perchlorates: Page on researchgate.net. Also Toxic Mars: Astronauts Must Deal with Perchlorate on the Red Planet
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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