When would humans be able to colonize Mars, and what impact would colonization have on the environment of Mars?
Sylvia Answer: Our exploration of Mars is a slow and expensive process. We have been using robotic missions to explore Mars since the 1960s. We probably will not send humans to Mars for another 20 years. Colonization of Mars likely would not happen for many decades after that. Remember, we sent humans to the Moon starting in 1969 and we still haven’t colonized the Moon. I would expect that any colonization of Mars would be similar to that of Antarctica, where humans have set up research outposts. There is an effort to minimize the impact on the Antarctic environment so that scientific investigations can be conducted. I think any Mars outposts would follow a similar strategy.
