New Mars

When the first humans land on Mars, what will they see and experience when they look to horizon at sunset? Ryder Miller considers the importance of sunsets to the human condition and how we must rethink our priorities in the exploration of Mars.

“The end of the day had always belonged to Nick alone and he never felt right unless he was alone at it.”

Even on a fog covered or cloudy evening, watching the sky grow dark as the sun sets over the ocean can become a fulfilling daily ritual. When there are clouds but no fog, they will be painted by the receding sun. When the sun falls below the horizon, the clouds will be painted pink due to Alpenglow. When there is fog, the sky will grow darker as the waves crash on shore. The sunset reminds of our connections to the nearby celestial bodies, but no longer in an astrological sense. We no longer believe that the celestial bodies have a supernatural impact on human events. But the sunset reminds that our daily lives are influenced in concrete ways by the movements of celestial bodies. The sun regulates our waking hours. The ocean tides are at the whims of the moon. The setting sun is a spectacle, but what will it mean when we watch the sunset from Mars?

The setting sun reminds us of Nature, as that wild uncontrollable other. The setting sun reminds us that we have finished our daily toil and are now ready to pursue other goals. Watching the sunset has been worth the weekly trips I take to the ocean. The aesthetic experience has been wonderful. Every night is different. The rumbling waves do not always offer assurance or solace, but like medicine, they provide inoculation, i.e., it starts the emotional immune system to prepare for the onslaught of daily life. The rumbling waves rather provide a warning, jump-starting your defenses against the potentially unpleasant eventualities. The ocean teaches the lesson of persistence, but it also teaches about boundaries. Beyond the surf there is another world. A deep, wet world which does not provide sure footing. Our earthly ocean is unique. The forthcoming Starise reminds of how much is out there to explore.

If we were to see a sunset from Mars, Earth would seem like just a dot in the sky. Though we don’t need to be reminded that the Earth is no longer at the center of the universe, a Martian sunset and Earth Starise, coupled with our memory of the lushness and diversity of our planet, will remind us of how special the Earth is. But it would also foster the development of the appreciation of alien landscapes. We want to go to Mars for glory, for the challenge, for exploration, for fame, for human development, and for embracing the universe. But for some of us, just aesthetic appreciation. A Martian sunset will remind us of how special the Earth is and about the wild other out there beyond the light pollution and space debris.

Though you can find pictures of Martian sunsets in astronomy magazines and on the internet, not even an IMAX movie could fully capture the wonder of it. Cinematic attempts to portray the Martian topography have been wonderful. It is possible to want to see the recent Mars movies just for the depiction of the Martian environment. The storylines have been involving in the movies Red Planet, Mission to Mars and The Ghosts of Mars, but the stories were fantastical. Maybe some alien culture is waiting for us to be able to go to Mars like in Mission to Mars. Maybe terraforming could occur real quickly, creating presently unforeseen life, like in Red Planet or The Ghosts of Mars. What is missing, however, is aesthetic appreciation: astrogeology or astroenvironmentalism. Red Planet and Mission to Mars had some wonderful footage of the Martian topography. There have been wonderful paintings of Mars by space artists. But the reproductions and the photographs available have not been fully successful. The famous picture “Sunset over Chryse Planitia, Mars” (August 1976) is no longer the state of the art and does not really show what it would be like. The Mars Pathfinder pictures on the internet are just photographs. The Martian Odyssey spacecraft which at the time of this writing is speeding over Mars looking for water, analyzing the radiation, and mapping elements and minerals is not focused upon getting video footage of the sun setting over the planet. But just as a painting or film footage of a sunset over the ocean cannot match the real thing, likely neither can footage or representations of a Martian sunset represent the real thing.

We have so far sent only robots, and as Rhodes Scholar Jenny Gruber of Oxford University writes on the internet:

“Robots cannot tell us how it feels to look up and see Earth as just a dot in the sky. Robots cannot shed tears at the beauty of a Martian sunset. Robots cannot understand the meaning and consequences of finding evidence of life on another planet. Robots do not have souls.”

Laurence Bergreen in Voyage To Mars asks a similar question: “We don’t know what happens to humans when they’re out in space and they can see the Earth only as a dim, blue speck in a field of stars…. But the vast Martian terrain, pitiless and pristine, beckons you. It is time to walk into a new epoch in history…. You reach the last rung on the ladder, and step down on the surface, feeling the Martian soil crunch underfoot….

“And the paradigm shifts.”

Scientists can explain how a Martian sunset would be different, but it would be unique to experience one. Experiencing a Martian sunset would motivate us to see sunsets on other worlds as well. What would a sunset look like on Mercury or from above the clouds or from the moons of Jupiter or Saturn? How festive it would be to visit these strange new worlds just to observe the landscape.

But many science fiction writers expect that we will terraform Mars before most of us will be able to experience a Martian sunset. Terraforming expert Martyn Fogg writes over the internet that terraforming will change the color of the sunset. As the atmosphere thickens and clears of dust due to rain fall, the sky will change from pink to blue.

Presently the Martian sunset would be rusty. The sky is salmon pink due to suspended particles of ochre dust from the clay soil. The iron in the particles have been oxidized. Unlike the Earth atmosphere which is much thicker and composed in large part by nitrogen, the Martian atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide. Scientists believe the Martian clouds are made of both water and carbon dioxide. One would have to observe many sunsets to describe how they would be painted by the setting sun. But the haze caused by the dust which extends high into the atmosphere will keep the sky bright for more than an hour after sunset.

Observing the Martian sky and topography would reveal exquisite things. Bergreen writes of, “a landscape saturated with garish, tawdry red. The Pathfinder images, especially those in color, were far more subtle. The surface of Mars appeared to be ocher, burnt umber, caramel, butterscotch, tarnished silver, rust, and a number of other subtle shadings, but not red.”

All this would change if we were to terraform the planet as would the unique colors of the Martian sunset.

Bruce Jakosky, a Caltech trained geology professor, asserts, “By exploring the world, we are exploring ourselves, and what it means to be human.”

Yet before we go to Mars, wouldn’t it be wise to know ourselves better? Martian explorers will face unforeseen eventualities, but they will represent the whole species. We need to make careful plans.

Terraforming would change everything before we had the chance to really appreciate Mars or search the planet for life. I would like to see a Martian sunset before we change the sky. I would like to see the view from Olympus Mons. I would like to look over the depths of Valles Marineris. We should explore Mars before we strive to change it as terraforming would do. Exploration and protection rather than exploitation and alteration.

Bergreen in Voyage to Mars notes that even though the Mars Society attracts fringe activists, it is still ‘preservationism’ to want the Martian terrain to remain pristine until we have searched it for life and wonder. I believe the Mars Society needs a Mars First contingent which probably couldn’t exist elsewhere. If there were more of a Mars First attitude at the Society it would be easier to get the approval of environmentalists who are busy with more immediate goals. We should agree to protect the ocean we have on Earth before we go on to create another on Mars. We should acknowledge environmentalism as the scientific revolution of our time and take those values with us into space as astroenvironmentalists. We should observe a pristine sunset on Mars before we change it. We should protect Mars for our children. When we express this concern about protecting a pristine Mars we are saving two worlds.

Related Links:

Why isn’t the Martian sky blue like the Earth’s? A comprehensive and readable explanation of the sky color of Mars by NASA.

What would the Martian sky look like without dust? We know that the pink/red color of the Martian sky is largely due to suspended dust particles, so what would it look like without that dust? Experts from NASA tell us that it would be near a dark blue color…

Clouds, Sunrises and Sunsets on Mars - a gallery of images taken by the Mars Pathfinder.

Images courtesy NASA.

Filed under: Articles on January 4th, 2002