Would you live on Mars?

Canada will mark a milestone in international space exploration when the Mars rover Curiosity launches Saturday with an important Canadian instrument on board.  

Researchers test spacesuits on a simulated Mars surface during a training session at Moscow's Institute for Medical and Biological Problems. (IBMP/Oleg Voloshin/Associated Press)The Curiosity rover carries the APXS, or alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, built by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. The Richmond, B.C.-based company also built both the space shuttle's Canadarm and the International Space Station's Canadarm2.

The rover is tucked away in an Atlas rocket, set to launch this weekend. It's expected to land on Mars in August 2012.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission will use the APXS instrument to identify chemical elements in Martian rock and soil to determine if Mars has ever been able to support life.

The rover will carry other instruments that will access the surface radiation level of Mars and determine what kind of shielding future human explorers would need.

It's enough to make the imagination run wild with ideas of human colonization of the Red Planet, where so many science fiction novels are set.

Would you travel to Mars if given the chance? Would you go as a tourist on a short-term visit, or for the long haul?



(This survey is not scientific. Results are based on readers' responses.)