According to a study published in Scientific Reports, the first crew to go to Mars should consist of women. The number one target of space exploration, which has flared up again in recent years, is this time Mars. Both private companies like SpaceX and government agencies like NASA have already started selecting astronauts to travel to Mars.

According to a recent article in Scientific Reports, all of the first crew on Mars must have been women. So why?

Men consume more resources

Space travel research, which first started with the participation of men, has gained a more gender-equal structure with the participation of female astronauts on the International Space Station in the following years. However, contrary to what has been practiced so far, according to scientists, only female astronauts should be supported in the Mars mission.

The team led by Jonathan PR Scott of the Institute of Spatial Physiological Medicine in France discovered that male astronauts consume significantly more resources than female astronauts. Accordingly, in a team consisting of men, the total energy consumption increases by 30%, oxygen consumption by 60%, carbon dioxide production by 60% and water requirement by 17% compared to women.

Conserving resources during a month-long mission like the Mars mission could allow astronauts to set foot on the Red Planet and live there in a much healthier way. As of August 2022, only 70 of the 621 astronauts who went into space were women.