The Westchester Amateur Astronomers Club held their monthly membership meeting in the Lienhard Hall lecture room at Pace Fri., Mar. 3.

This week’s guest speaker Alan P. Witzgall, a long-time member, and officer of the New Jersey Astronomical Association, traveled from New Jersey to speak about Mars and whether or not humans will ever be able to travel there.

“At no other time have we come so close to sending people to mars,” Witzgall said. “What if there is life on Mars? I would love to meet a Vulcan.”

Witzgall opened his presentation with his top reasons to travel to Mars. He believes that travel to the Red Planet would help us on Earth to ensure our survival, as it would allow people to be able to identify any threats planet Earth may be facing in the future.

Witzgall stated that life on Mars is still unknown and the ability to travel to and explore the planet can give answers people are desperately looking for.

Also, survival on the Red Planet is not entirely impossible, according to Witzgall.

It has been proven that there is frozen drinkable water 70 feet below the ground and with the adequate supplies building greenhouses to grow food is a possibility. The greenhouses will be a means of providing oxygen as well as recycling organic waste.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is building a prototype spaceship called the Orion. Ideally built to fit two to six people, 26 feet long, with green walls to grow food and protected from solar radiation, it would be the safest way for astronauts to travel the 249 million miles to Mars.

The travel to Mars is a hazardous one. Surviving on the Red Planet has never been easy for robots which means it’ll be even more difficult for humans.

The most difficult aspect is getting there, according to Witzgall. The journey to Mars would take 180 days there in addition to a 500 day stay on the planet and 180 days travel back.

Not only will the eight-month journey be grueling on one’s mental state, but upon arrival, one must prepare themselves for the temperature of -81 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 130 degrees colder than the normal temperature of Earth. Also, the gravity is only 38 percent that of Earth’s and the human body can begin to fall apart without enough gravity.

All the hazardous conditions aside, Witzgall explained that he would be willing to make the trip to Mars and hopes to encourage future astronauts to as well.

Witzgall ended his presentation with the words of Mark Twain, “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.”