How Big a Hole Should Humans Dig on Mars to Find Its Secrets?

Sure, establishing a base on another planet would mean a significant step forward for humanity in its quest to become a spacefaring species, but one has to consider the financial aspects of such an endeavor. So far, the decades of space exploration have been nothing other than sinkholes that swallowed enormous amounts of money while offering few tangible things in return.

In some circles, there’s hope that Mars will be the place where we finally find life outside the boundaries of our planet. In others, there’s hope some valuable mineral or substance will be found there, making all the efforts and spending worthwhile. Some others are in it just for the kicks.

But no matter where you stand on this, the reality remains that whatever secrets and treasures the neighboring planet hides, we won’t find them on the surface. So dig we must.

Even the rovers presently on the planet have the clear goal of taking samples of the Martian soil by going as deep as their limited hardware allows.

But how big of a hole should humans dig on Mars to find anything? How long will it take? What would the unseen layers of the planet reveal? Will we find life? And, of course, would it be much more difficult to dig holes on Mars than it is on Earth?

These are some of the questions an “imaginary exploration” media outlet by the name What If is trying to answer in the video attached below and titled “What if we drilled through Mars?”

The place chosen for the imaginary experiment is the Jezero Crater, the playground of the most recent American rover, Perseverance, and an area suspected to have harbored a river delta billions of years ago.

We’ll let you enjoy the video on your own and learn the possible answers to the above questions, but be warned; you should “expect the unexpected” and get ready for some really nasty revelations.