We live near a star surrounded by eight planets. Our home is the third planet from the Sun, our home star. When we first studied our solar system, we may have imagined human travel to one or more of the other planets as we enjoyed several of Jules Verne’s space travel science fiction novels. The Artemis program has generated enthusiasm for a return to Earth’s Moon for the first time in over a half century. Elon Musk has for his proposal to establish a colony of humans on Planet Mars, perhaps within a decade.
Are both the Moon and Mars within reach of the human race? Our space scientists utilized the technology available to them over a half century ago to reach the Moon and safely return the astronauts to their home planet. On the contrary, Mars, the Red Planet, is 200 times more distant from Earth than the Moon. It is unrealistic to believe human travel to Mars and back is feasible in the near future.
Planet Earth is the only planet of the Solar system located comfortably within the habitable zone. The most important factor of habitability relates to the adequate presence of water in all three phases—solid, liquid, and vapor. Planet Mars is not located comfortably within a habitable zone. Mars apparently possesses no liquid water necessary for life to exist. There is some evidence that Mars was a water world similar to Earth millions of years ago. But now it is mostly a waterless world because its water has boiled away in the thin atmosphere—less than1% of atmospheric pressure present on Planet Earth. It has virtually no oxygen. The thin atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide.
Prospective Mars travelers would experience exceedingly low temperatures, almost no atmospheric pressure, and deadly cosmic radiation without the magnetic shield present on Earth. Mars’ gravity is only 38% of Earth’s gravity. Mars sunlight possesses only 43% of the light intensity on our home planet. Green plants could not thrive in the Martian soil. In short, human travelers would need to transport many elements of our earth environment in the space vehicles which would ferry humans to the Red Planet. The time frames required to travel from Earth to Mars and subsequently return to Earth make Mars colonization virtually impossible.
When Elon Musk founded his ambitious Space-X program in 2002, he had a vision of colonizing Mars. Recently, Musk has turned away from that goal and refocused his attention to establishing a human colony on Earth’s Moon. He shocked many observers with his pivot: a Moon colony instead of a Mars colony. Musk has become incredibly wealthy and famous with the Space-X program’s achievements and his oft-stated goal to colonize Mars.
Does Holy Scripture deal with humanity’s colonization of a distant planet or even our nearby lunar companion? Some people may believe the Bible provides an answer to our questions concerning space travel. Two passages in the Book of Psalms come to mind: “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands…” (Psalm 8:6 ESV) Does this verse signal space exploration? Another passage: “The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.” (Psalm 115:16 ESV) These two verses could be interpreted in different ways. We pray for wisdom as we read and interpret God’s word.
