Article by Shrihari Sankarasubramanian, Pralay Gayen and Vijay K Ramani
Shrihari Sankarasubramanian, Pralay Gayen and Vijay K Ramani discuss work on methods to make fuel and oxygen on the red planet
MARS, the fourth planet from the Sun, has been an object of fascination for millennia. The Romans deified the red planet as the god of war while writers like HG Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs imagined it as the home of alien civilisations. Scientists have long speculated that Mars may have hosted life at some point in its planetary history. This public and scientific interest has helped make Mars the most explored and studied of all the planets of the Solar system, with six orbiters and two rovers currently active on and around the planet. Going forward, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to land humans on Mars by 2033. Eventually, Mars may become the staging ground for the exploration of the asteroid belt and the outer planets.