How can people live on Mars and drink water if water can't exist as a liquid?

Question

I was just thinking about this and couldn't find anything online. All I know is that the atmospheric pressure on the surface doesn't allow water to exist as a liquid and it either freezes into a solid or evaporates. So if this is the case and Mars One is going to send those people up there, how will their bodies allow them to survive if the water can't exist as a liquid(since we are composed mostly of water). Anyone have any idea???? Thanks

Answer 1

Did the thought ever occur to you that they would be in a climate controlled habitat? It's not like they can stroll the surface of Mars in burmuda shorts and find a place to take a nap.

Answer 2

This is simple really. They will live in a specially designed and built pressurized habitats. As for water, they can either drill for water, find a source of water ice and harvest it to be melted it once its in the habitat or they can heat the martian soil which is 2% water by weight.



Its not really that difficult to support human life on Mars, it just takes a little bit of work, most of it directed at finding water. Water provides us with oxygen and hydrogen, one we breath and the other can be used as a fuel for generators or a lifting gas for weather ballons or UAVs designed to map the surface in detail and hunt for additional water ice, iron and other precious metals they will need when building a larger habitat.



All we really need to do is get the first few dozen people to Mars. The flood gates will open up after that and it wont take long before we have thousands of people living on Mars.



@Paul, the reality is this. Assuming its a warm summer day on mars and the temp is a glorious 70 degrees. You could wear a pair of shorts and a t shirt outside so long as you were wearing a pressurized helmet. You couldnt stay out there for very long, but you could indeed walk around on the Martian surface without a space suit.

Answer 3

First of all how are they gonna breathe? If they can solve that problem then it solves this problem because Mars's atmosphere is way thinner and is made of mostly of CO2 so they would have to find a way to create a thicker atmosphere that has more O2. If they can do that then water wouldn't boil since there would be more pressure and they could get water by just boiling the soil. The water wouldn't freeze either because to maintain the atmosphere they would have to build a pressurized enclosed settlement that's temperature could be regulated

Answer 4

The same way people survive on the space station, where the pressure is even lower. They will live in pressurized habitats and wear spacesuits when not in them.......



Not that Mars One is actually going to succeed.



@ JW.C: That is incorrect. Military pilots have to wear a pressure suit any time they're flying over 60,000 feet, and they're in a climate controlled cockpit with a forced air oxygen mask strapped to their face. Mars is the equivalent of being at 100,000 feet. The temperature is irrelevant. The air pressure on Mars is so low that without a fully pressurized spacesuit on you would die in a matter of minutes. Your lungs would be incapable of absorbing the air in them into your blood at those pressures. Even if pure oxygen was being pumped in under pressure. Not to mention that your blood would literally boil without a suit on as the gasses came out of solution. This blood boiling due to pressure change is exactly what happens to SCUBA divers, and causes the bends.

Answer 5

In an artificial environment which is pressurized. They will not be ever able to feel the surface of Mars beneath their feet or breathe the air or feel the Sun on their skin. They will live in a pressurized habitat and walk around on the surface of Mars in a pressurized space suit.

Answer 6

They won't be living outside, on the land... they'll need to be inside pressurized modules or habitats - think of modules of the international space station placed on the Martian surface. When they go outside, they'll need to wear space suits; inside, it should be shirt-sleeve normal, with heat and pressure such that they'll be able to eat & drink as always.

Answer 7

The same way as astronaut survived on the moon. They will live in a specially constructed settlement with environmental controls. They will wear spacesuits when outside the settlement.

Answer 8

Think about it.



You have a ton and a half of frozen water outside your spaceship.

How are you going to use it?

How do they use it at the south pole?



Same idea.

Answer 9

they will live in pressurised capsules.