Everyone is excited about the possibility of a manned mission to Mars. There is even speculation that the first humans will land on Mars in the 2030s. Well! That could be true. But it is actually harder than it looks. A manned mission to Mars could remain a pipe dream considering current technology and political trends, especially in the United States.

There are also several problems over which we have no control. This often involves our bodies and the conditions on Mars itself. It seems like Mars is out to kill the first humans who set foot on it—an opinion shared by several people including Elon Musk, who may revolutionize space travel. Nevertheless, we will keep our fingers crossed.

10 Money

NASA cannot afford a manned mission to Mars. This was revealed in July 2017 when William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s chief of human spaceflight, revealed that the agency does not receive enough funding from the US government to make NASA’s first Mars landing scheduled for the 2030s realistic.

NASA, private space agencies, and nonprofits give vastly different figures when estimating the cost of a manned mission to Mars. This ranges from $1 trillion spread over 25 years (as proposed by the nonprofit Mars Institute) to $100 billion spread over 30–40 years (as proposed by NASA). However, NASA cannot afford their estimate.

NASA received $19.5 billion in funding for the 2017 fiscal year. That amount seems like a lot until we realize that the agency splits this money between several space missions, programs, and research. Considering current trends, NASA’s funding drought is unlikely to end anytime soon. Its budget has only grown by a measly 2 percent a year within the past few years.^[1]

9 Loneliness

Humans are social creatures and often require interaction. Researchers fear this could become a problem during an expedition to Mars. A few years ago, researchers had a group of people live in an isolated habitat in the Arizona desert for a considerable period of time.

They noted that some participants soon suffered from depression and mood swings. Some also became hostile and mostly did not talk to each other for 18 months. Their few interactions were limited to brief conversations about running the facility. Although the team later had psychologists to help them, astronauts on Mars will not have the same privilege.

The results of this test have made some researchers question future plans to send just two astronauts to Mars in a single spacecraft. The astronauts will probably become bored, depressed, and could even start to dislike each other, which could lead to their doom. However, some researchers think this is unlikely to happen if the two astronauts have compatible personalities.^[2]

8 The Dust Storm

In January 2004, the NASA space rover Opportunity landed on Mars for a 90-day mission (in Mars days) to find evidence of water on the Red Planet. Opportunity completed its assignment almost immediately and went on to complete more missions over 15 years. Its surprising survival streak ended in June 2018 when it lost contact with NASA during a dust storm.

Opportunity often hibernated at night because it ran on solar power. However, it probably switched to its backup battery after the dust from the storm covered its solar panels. Opportunity ran on its batteries until it died. NASA fears a repeat incident could happen with the solar-powered stations used by astronauts on Mars.

Mars experiences two types of dust storms. The first and commonest are the regular storms that could cover large swathes of land as wide as a whole continent on Earth. Thankfully, these storms are light and only last for a few weeks. The other type—like the one that killed Opportunity—is the rarer but stronger “global dust storm” that covers the entire planet.

Global dust storms occur every 5.5 Earth years (three Mars years) and could last for months. Besides covering the solar panels, they could also block sunlight from reaching Mars, which could put the stations and astronauts in jeopardy. Thankfully, Mars dust storms are unlikely to cause serious physical damage to the stations. They are more of a breeze than a storm despite the name.^[3]

7 Food

A study by PhD students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) revealed that a human colony on Mars could die of starvation. The group based their study on the manned mission planned by Mars One.

The organization wants to set up a human colony of 25–40 individuals on Mars by 2025. Food will be provided by crops grown inside the habitat of the colonists. An MIT study to simulate that habitat has revealed that the astronauts will need to choose between getting enough food or oxygen.

The food and oxygen levels in the habitat are linked because plants produce oxygen as a by-product. On Mars, that oxygen will be used to sustain the lives of the astronauts. The MIT study revealed that the plants will produce excessive oxygen if they produce enough food to feed everyone in the habitat.

This will clearly be detrimental to the lives of the astronauts because breathing excessive amounts of oxygen could kill them. However, the oxygen levels would be balanced if the plants produce lesser amounts of food, which would not be enough to feed everyone. The researchers say that this problem could be solved by developing an “oxygen removal system,” which does not exist for now.^[4]

6 Spacecraft

The race to land the first human on Mars is currently led by NASA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin. In fact, all three organizations already have spacecraft that could take us to Mars. However, their rockets use dangerous fuels and would take too long to get to Mars from a human safety perspective.

NASA is trying to solve this by developing the Space Launch System that uses liquid hydrogen and some other chemicals for fuel. SpaceX is considering altering its spacecraft to use liquid methane for fuel, while Blue Origin is settling for liquid hydrogen. However, some still doubt whether these new spaceships and fuels will get us to Mars.^[5]

One is Chris Hadfield, a former NASA astronaut, who likened traveling to Mars—in even the latest spaceships in development—to crossing an ocean in a canoe. Hadfield believes that the dangers of space and the unpredictability of the spaceships will kill most astronauts long before they land on Mars.

Curiously, this opinion is shared by SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, who once mentioned that the first manned Mars mission will probably lead to death.

5 Surgery

As the possibility of long-term manned space missions to the Moon and even Mars becomes a reality, scientists have started to grapple with the problems posed by performing surgery in space. The unique environment of space means sick astronauts are likelier to die of minor wounds and infections there than on Earth.

Astronauts sent to the International Space Station (ISS) are often trained to perform certain medical procedures like administering injections, stitching wounds, and even extracting a tooth. However, they would need to quickly return to Earth on a spacecraft permanently docked at the ISS if they have more severe medical issues.

This is because the sick bay on the ISS is no better than a first aid kit. Even if the sick bay rose to the same standard as a hospital and had a permanent doctor (which it does not), the lack of gravity would be a real challenge.

Among other problems, blood from the wound or surgical incision could float and obstruct the view of the doctor. Worse, it could contaminate the entire cabin. Also, anesthesia does not work as well as on Earth, which means lots of pain for the astronaut.

These problems could be worse on long-term space explorations to the Moon and Mars. One suggestion is to use robot surgeons controlled in real time by human doctors on Earth. While this could work on the Moon, it would be impossible on Mars where information takes 20 minutes to reach Earth and vice versa.^[6]

4 Mars Toxic Dust

Mars is filled with toxic dust that could hamper a manned mission to the Red Planet. Mars dust exists as round, fine, electrically charged silicate particles that will stick to astronauts’ suits. The dust will be difficult to remove, raising concerns that it could get into the astronauts’ base and clog crucial instruments and systems including water purifiers and air filters.

This could be deadly because the fine silicate particles could seep into the lungs where it will react with water to form harmful chemicals. The effect of the dust becomes worse when we realize that it contains gypsum and perchlorates. Gypsum is not dangerous on its own, but long-term exposure could cause eye, skin, and lung problems. Perchlorates could cause thyroid gland problems.^[7]

3 Exposure To Space Elements

Space is filled with dangerous cosmic rays and irregular solar storms that could cause intense radiation. Scientists predict that astronauts traveling to Mars will be exposed to radiation levels up to 20 percent more than they will ever receive during their lifetimes on Earth. This intense radiation could cause heart, lung, and eye problems as well as neurological disorders and even cancer.

This could be a huge problem because a one-way trip to Mars could last six months. Solar storms are also unpredictable, which makes the situation worse. One solution is to develop a spacecraft that could get astronauts to Mars much faster. However, astronauts are not free from these radiation risks even when they get to Mars.^[8]

Although Earth’s atmosphere shields us from dangerous radiation, Mars’s atmosphere does not provide the same protection. Scientists propose to solve this by covering the human habitat on Mars with a thick anti–solar storm material just like the shielding on parts of the ISS. Others propose that humans will be protected from the radiation if they live in the any of Mars’s numerous lava tube caves instead.

2 Our Bodies Cannot Cope

Human bodies have a hard time adjusting to the zero gravity levels experienced in the nearby ISS. This would become even worse during and after a trip to faraway Mars. Astronauts would have to cope with three different gravitational fields during a voyage to Mars.

Astronauts will experience the first gravitational field here on Earth (before and after the trip). It is the regular one we are used to. The second is the zero gravity that astronauts experience while traveling the distance between Earth and Mars. The third is the gravitational field on Mars, which is one-third the gravity on Earth.

Moving between gravitational fields causes a distortion in our senses of balance and movement. It also affects the coordination between our eyes, head, and hands. The lower gravity levels outside Earth will cause astronauts to lose valuable bone density. This makes their bones susceptible to breakage when they return to Earth.

The lower gravity level outside Earth will also cause body fluids to escape into the head. This could cause a myriad of problems including kidney stones, dehydration, loss of calcium, and eye problems. Drugs would have reduced the effects except that they work differently in space.^[9]

1 The Return Trip

Using current technology, an expedition to Mars will be a one-way trip because astronauts who travel to Mars will be unable to return to Earth. While NASA is already developing the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) to make a return trip possible, the technology is not without its own problems.

When completed, the MAV will weigh 18 tons and will carry an extra 33 tons of fuel to take off from Mars. This massive weight means that it will be unable to land safely on Mars due to the planet’s thin atmosphere, which could make the MAV burn up in the atmosphere or slam straight into the ground. For comparison, the heaviest thing we have landed on Mars is the Curiosity rover, which weighs just one ton.

NASA intends to solve this by reducing the weight of the MAV and developing an inflatable heat shield that will slow the craft’s speed during its descent to Mars. The MAV will have a minimalist interior and might not even have seats. However, the astronauts will not be standing all the way back to Earth. Instead, they will be transported to the Earth Return Vehicle (ERV), which will orbit Mars and return them to Earth.^[10]

The ERV was also created to reduce weight. Instead of making a single spacecraft that will take off from Mars and bring the astronauts back to Earth, NASA will create a two-part system consisting of the MAV and the ERV. The MAV will take off from Mars’s surface and transport the astronauts to the ERV, which will bring them back to Earth.

Scientists will also reduce the weight of the MAV by having it create its fuel from Mars’s atmosphere. The MAV will extract methane (carbon and hydrogen) and oxygen, which it needs to make its fuel, from the underground water and the abundant carbon dioxide (CO₂) in Mars’s atmosphere.

Not all heroes wear capes, as the saying goes.

Advances in animal DNA technology now stand at the forefront of forensic science. Enhanced testing techniques and ever-expanding databases are helping law enforcement agencies to catch criminals. In recent years, the hair, fur, feathers, blood, and other bodily fluids from cats, dogs, birds, and other animals have helped solve countless violent crimes around the globe.

Here are ten crimes where critters have played a significant role in bringing the guilty to justice—using DNA technology, as well as some other weird and wonderful crime-fighting abilities.

Related: Top 10 Mysteries And Crimes Solved By The Internet

10 Duck for Cover

A pet duck recently led police in North Carolina to the decomposed body of missing 92-year-old grandmother Nellie Sullivan. Sgt. Mark Walker of the Buncombe County Sheriff’s office explained how “the duck ran underneath the trailer at 11 Beady Eyed Lane, and as they were chasing after their pet duck, they ran across the container that Nellie Sullivan was located in.”

Beady Eyed Lane? You just can’t make these things up!

Even before the grim discovery of the remains, Nellie’s own granddaughter Angela Wamsley and her boyfriend Mark Barnes had been charged with concealing her death, along with charges of animal cruelty and drug possession.

Sgt. Walker described the initial search for Nellie as being “a wild goose chase.” Nothing turned up after numerous local searches, and Nellie’s neighbors had insisted she had, in fact, gone missing several years prior. Wamsley and Barnes had been collecting Nellie’s social security and retirement benefit check, as well as refilling her prescriptions in her absence.

“If I could give that duck a medal, I would,” Walker added.^[1]

9 Bird the…umm…Bird

Texan Kevin Butler was apparently such a fan of NBA great Larry Bird that he named his white-crested cockatoo after him. Friends described Bird as being very devoted to Butler. This was even more evident after two men broke into Butler’s Pleasant Grove home on Christmas Eve 2001. Bird loyally tried to defend his home and his owner. Unfortunately, Butler was bound, brutally beaten, and ultimately stabbed multiple times, causing his death. Sadly, Bird, too, was mortally wounded during the altercation—stabbed with a fork. Afterward, the men escaped into the night.

But Bird ultimately saved the day, providing investigators with the evidence they needed to solve the crime and secure a conviction. Following the attack, DNA recovered from Bird’s beak and claws was matched to a man named Daniel Torres, a disgruntled former employee at Butler’s pool company. Torres also wiped the blood off his head after being badly pecked by Bird and then touched a light switch, leaving trace evidence and putting him at the crime scene.

Faced with the evidence, Torres confessed to killing both Butler and Bird. He was eventually convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. They were also able to track down Torres’s accomplice, his half-brother Johnny Serna.

During the trial, the prosecutor submitted to the court that “Bird died valiantly. There were feathers scattered through the house, and he put up a fight, no doubt about that. Kevin’s family and co-workers have told me that you just didn’t mess with Kevin while that bird was around.”^[2]

8 A Snowball’s Chance in Hell

In 1994, on Canada’s Prince Edward Island, a 32-year-old mother of five, Shirley Duguay, vanished without a trace. Many people suspected that her sometimes boyfriend, ex-con Douglas Beamish, was somehow involved in her disappearance.

Three days after she went missing, a blood-stained men’s jacket was found in a bag in the woods near Duguay’s home. The jacket also contained several white cat hairs. A detective on the case, Constable Roger Savoie, recalled seeing a white cat in Beamish’s home while investigating Shirley’s disappearance. Savoie sent the hairs to be DNA tested, and it was confirmed that they belonged to Beamish’s family pet, a white tomcat named Snowball.

It was the very early days of animal DNA testing, and Constable Savoie even went cat-catching and collected blood samples from a bunch of neighborhood strays. Much to his relief, their DNA profiles were all quite different. Statistically, the chance of another cat having DNA similar to Snowball’s was revealed to be one in some forty-five million.

Around this time, Shirley’s body was discovered by a local fisherman, and Beamish was arrested. While his defense attorney argued that “without the cat, the case falls flat,” Beamish was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life with no eligibility for parole for 18 years. This is believed to be the first time animal DNA was used to successfully convict a criminal.^[3]

Go, Snowball, go!

7 Dodgy Doggy DNA

In 1998, a Seattle, Washington, couple, Raquel Rivera and Jay Johnson, were found slain along with their pitbull-lab mix pup, Chief. All three were victims of a home invasion gone horribly wrong. While standing trial, suspects Ken Leuluaialii and George Tuilefano were surprised to learn that prosecutors planned to introduce an unlikely piece of evidence, Chief’s DNA. Dog blood had been found on the defendants’ clothing during the investigation, and forensic testing was able to match it to Chief.

In his opening argument, prosecutor Tim Bradshaw stated that “the irony will be that the witness who could never speak, even when he was alive, will present the most eloquent of evidence.” Prosecutors said that Tuilefano and Leuluaialii kicked down the door of the house after Johnson refused to sell them marijuana, then opened fire, shooting the dog first, before killing the couple. DNA evidence indicated that bloodstains on the two jackets and pants linked to Leuluaialii and Tuilefano were from Chief.

While the science of animal DNA was not yet as reliable as that of human DNA at the time, the state Court of Appeals later upheld the murder convictions of the two men. It even ruled that one should be re-sentenced to a longer prison term.

Joy Halverson, a senior scientist at PE AgGen, the company that tested the bloodstains, said that cat DNA was used in a criminal case in Canada (see above) but that this may be the first time DNA from a dog had been used in the United States. The tests showed there was only one chance in 350 million that the blood was not Chief’s.^[4]

6 Layla Van Dam

On the night of Feb 1, 2001, in the Sabre Springs neighborhood of San Diego, 7-year-old Danielle Van Dam vanished from her own bed without a trace. Police had little to no evidence to go on. Eventually, neighbor David Westerfield came to the attention of investigators. Westerfield was acting suspiciously, often leaving his house during searches for missing Danielle. He was also seen at a dry cleaner just days after Danielle’s abduction, dressed only in his underwear on a cold morning. He gave the dry cleaners two comforters, two pillowcases, and a jacket.

Police obtained a search warrant for Westerfield’s home and found hairs that matched the Van Dam’s dog, a Weimaraner named Layla. According to prosecutors, the dog hair was attached to Danielle’s pajamas and was left behind in Westerfield’s home. In addition, Danielle’s blood was found on Westerfield’s jacket retrieved from the dry cleaner, and hair from her dog was also discovered on the comforter. Danielle’s blood was also found in Westerfield’s RV, the one in which he’d left town to stay in the desert just minutes after Danielle’s parents had discovered that she was missing and frantically dialed 911.

Hundreds of volunteers had been involved in searching the desert, highways, and remote areas for weeks. Finally, on Feb 27, searchers found her nude, partially decomposed body near a remote trail. Some searchers had decided to search this particular area as it was a possible route that Westerfield could have taken to get to the desert the night that Danielle disappeared.

It was enough evidence to charge and convict Westerfield of abduction and murder. As a result, he was sentenced to death on August 21, 2002, and he is still currently awaiting execution. (Because of the continuing 2006 moratorium on executions in California, and the July 2014 ruling on the unconstitutionality of the death penalty in California, it is not known when or if Westerfield will face execution.)^[5]

5 Two Cats, One Murder

When Pennsylvania pet shop worker Lori Auker disappeared on her way to work in May 1989, her family imagined the worst. Unfortunately, their fears were confirmed when after three weeks of searching, Lori’s decomposed body was discovered in a remote wooded area. Her identity was confirmed through dental records, and Deputy Coroner Matthew determined that Lori had died after being stabbed numerous times.

Police immediately focused their attention on her estranged husband, Robert Auker, who had been stalking her in the weeks leading up to her death. The couple was involved in a bitter child custody battle and financial support dispute. However, it was also later revealed that Robert had recently taken out a substantial life insurance policy on her, despite the couple being in the middle of a messy separation when she disappeared.

Robert’s own mother and stepfather reported to police that he had been ferociously scrubbing his vehicle clean before selling it shortly after Lori’s disappearance. Despite his best efforts, forensic examiners found several cat hairs in the car that later proved to be an exact match with Lori’s two cats. The same fur was also stuck to a Velcro splint Auker had been wearing on his hand the day Lori disappeared.

In March 1992, Robert Donald Auker was convicted of kidnapping and murder and sentenced to death.^[6]

4 “Don’t f—ing shoot!”

Eye witness testimony is often crucial when it comes to solving a crime. In this instance, the eyewitness in question was a 20-year-old African Grey parrot named Bud. Several weeks after the 2015 murder of Sand Lake, Michigan, resident Martin Duram, Bud began repeating an argument between two people. It ended in what is believed to be Duram’s last words, as the parrot repeated the phrase, “Don’t f—ing shoot!” mimicking the late owner’s voice.

It turned out that Martin’s wife, Glenna Duram, shot her husband five times in front of Bud before turning the gun on herself in a failed suicide attempt. She suffered a head wound in the incident but survived. She was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of her husband after an eight-hour jury deliberation.

While Bud’s eyewitness account was ultimately not used in the court proceeding, for many people involved in the case, it just proved that the jury had come to the right decision. Duram’s parents were sure that the salty-mouthed bird had overheard the couple arguing and was repeating their final words. His mother asserted, “that bird picks up everything and anything, and it’s got the filthiest mouth around.”^[7]

3 Yet Another Mouthy Parrot

In 2014, when Neelam Sharma was killed in her home in Agra, India, along with her pet dog, the local police had few leads to go on. That was until a parrot named Heera provided them with a vital clue.

Heera was the only witness to Sharma’s murder, as the attacker had killed the family dog, who had been barking throughout the struggle. Neelam’s grieving husband, Vijay Sharma, was also at a loss as to who could have perpetrated the violent crime. That is until a family member pointed out to him how Heera would become highly agitated whenever his nephew, Ashutosh, visited or even when his name was mentioned in passing.

Vijay informed the police of his suspicions, and Ashutosh eventually confessed to the robbery-turned-murder of his aunt. Ashutosh and an accomplice had entered the house intending to steal cash and other valuables items. He stabbed his aunt to death when they were caught in the act, afraid she would recognize him.

Police later downplayed the bird’s participation in solving the crime, saying it was an unexplained bite mark on Ashutosh that made him the primary focus of their investigation. However, a local newspaper reported that when investigators spoke with Heera and read through a list of suspects, the bird supposedly squawked, “Usne maara, usne maara,” which translates as “he’s the killer, he’s the killer,” when Ashutosh’s name was read.^[8]

2 A Random Grasshopper

According to forensic entomologist M. Lee Goff, the 1985 murder of a woman in Texas was ultimately solved by a dead, mangled grasshopper that had been found on the victim’s clothing. The insect was missing a limb, and a close investigation of one of the main suspects revealed that he just so happened to have the severed hind leg of a grasshopper attached to the cuff of his pants. When Goff re-assembled the insect, he found it to be a perfect match, and the fracture lines lined up absolutely perfectly.

Although the defense argued in court that ”grasshoppers always break their legs like that,” the evidence was conclusive. It was impossible to deny that the stray grasshopper leg on the suspect matched what was missing from the grasshopper recovered from the victim’s body. The suspect was convicted of the woman’s murder, and many consider this case to signify the birth of forensic etymology.^[9]

1 Scooby-Doo Saves the Day

A real-life Scooby-Doo created legal history in Paris, France, when he actually took to the witness stand to “testify” at his owner’s murder trial. When Scooby’s owner was found hanging from the ceiling in her apartment, her death was initially presumed to be a suicide. However, the woman’s family had some suspicions and persuaded the police to open a murder investigation. They identified a suspect, and the man was brought to court for a preliminary hearing to decide if there was sufficient evidence to launch a full murder inquiry.

As Scooby was in the apartment at the time of the alleged murder, he went to the witness box. When faced with the potential killer, he immediately reacted and “barked furiously.” A court clerk actually recorded Scooby’s barks and noted his “general behavior throughout the cross-examination.” After Scooby gave his “evidence,” Judge Thomas Cassuto praised him for his “exemplary behavior and invaluable assistance.”

While prosecution lawyers welcomed the dog’s appearance in court, others doubted that the animal’s behavior could be interpreted as actual legal binding, legitimate evidence. Some critics of the move pointed out that the two-and-a-half years since the death of Scooby’s owner is the equivalent of approximately 17 dog years. “That’s a long time for a dog to remember what went on,” explained a legal source close to the case.

A spokesman for the Palais de Justice in Paris confirmed that the case was the first time a dog had appeared as a witness in criminal proceedings in France. He said he was almost certain it was also a world first in legal history.^[10]