Source: Interesting Engineering

Mars has often been thought of as a plan B planet with entrepreneurs like Elon Musk making ambitious plans to colonize the Red Planet. NASA has even flirted with the idea, releasing a strategy for human exploration and colonization of Mars in 2015.

However, there’s been no proof that the celestial body could actually sustain life. Now, according to Amazon Prime’s Tomorrow’s World, a scientist has replicated Mars’ conditions in a chamber to test whether life could indeed survive on the planet.

Thriving on the Red Planet

What he found was that life not only survived, it thrived. Dr. Jean-Pierre Paul De Vera, of the German Spatial Research Centre in Berlin, created what is called a “Martian chamber” to test the living conditions on the Red Planet.

In this amazing invention, the “temperature, atmospheric pressure, chemical composition, UV rays,” and more of Mars were recreated and regulated with precision to match the planet’s real conditions.

In 2012, DeVera began by testing how long cyanobacteria could survive in the chamber. He found that the phylum lasted several weeks with no complications.

He then extended his experimentation to using microorganisms from Antarctica. These organisms also thrived in the Martian chamber.

Complex organisms

“From what we’ve seen, the results we’ve had, it would be possible to find life there, or terrestrial life, microorganisms could survive on Mars,” said De Vera in Amazon’s show.

“It’s impressive, we never imagined these results, especially with more complex organisms. They are not bacteria, they’re organisms, which use photosynthesis. Life is possible on Mars, and Mars can be a habitat for organisms that live on Earth,” he added.

Although this is promising news for humanity, it must be noted that actually getting to Mars and then making the planet livable is well beyond our reach at the moment. As such, it is best not to count on plans B and work our hardest to save the planet we are on right now.

Source: Interesting Engineering