Will the future allow us to get married on Mars?
Astronomers and spaceship builders have wanted to go to Mars and colonize there for a very long time. Now SpaceX is introducing us to the idea of a scheduled spaceship service to Mars. It is claimed that the SpaceX spaceship, called the Starship, would be able to carry around 100 passengers and transport them to Mars – in 2024.
How to get to Mars
The travel to Mars could take around nine months, this seems like an incredibly long time to be stuck in a spaceship. Luckily, astronomers and spaceship builders are working on creating a gas station (in space!) which would decrease the travel time to Mars. Refueling via the gas station in a low Earth orbit allows the spaceship to reduce travel time by accelerating first and braking harder later. This makes it possible to fly to Mars in the timespan of just 80 days!
Terraformation and getting married on Mars
The scheduled spaceship service to Mars is just the first step. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, wants to eventually colonize Mars and make the planet livable for humans, a concept called terraformation. This would entail that Mars would be transformed into a new earth with liquid seas, an atmosphere to protect humans from radiation and the necessary elements of providing humans with oxygen and a pleasant temperature to live in. In the future it will therefore certainly be possible to get married on Mars!
What would it be like to get married on Mars?
Once Mars has been colonized, slowly humans will be able to travel to Mars and live there instead of on Earth. But what would that be like? First off, Mars has an axial tilt of 25.19°, which is quite close to the value of 23.44° for Earth. This means that just like the Earth, Mars also has the same seasons as spring, summer, autumn and winter. However, there are some minor differences to keep in mind though when moving to Mars. For instance, summers and winters on Mars have different lengths and intensities in the northern and southern hemispheres. An encounter with extreme temperatures won’t be uncommon. Therefore, it is important to choose the right season for your wedding day and to dress accordingly!
Will the stars still be the same – will we still be able to see the stars I gifted to my significant others?
Yes. Don’t worry about losing your most important stars out of sight! Stargazing on Mars would show us the same constellations as when stargazing from Earth. The only difference would be that the North star wouldn’t be the pole star. This is because, as previously mentioned, Mars has a slightly different axial tilt than the Earth. On Mars, the north celestial pole would be near the constellation Cygnus.
The most astounding when stargazing from Mars would be that the large moon that we now see on Earth would be replaced by two small moons: Phobos and Deimos. A stargazer on Mars could even see the moon Phobos cross the sky twice during the night. And there’s no worry for homesickness since the view from Mars would show the Earth and the Earth’s moon in the night sky as well. While they may be far away, visible as merely a bright star in the sky, this shows us that wherever we go – the universe follows.