Should All-Female Crews Be Sent To Mars?

For a long time, people dreamed of traveling to Mars. However, in recent years, it's gone from being a fantasy to a potential reality, albeit one that could still be quite a way off. Agencies like NASA and SpaceX are eager to send humans to the red planet as soon as possible, with the former ambitious enough to want astronauts out there by 2040.

Of course, if NASA or any other space agency does succeed with this, who exactly will they send out on the pioneer mission? It's been a hot topic of debate for some time now, with studies suggesting that an all-female crew would be the best option. However, should all-female crews be sent to Mars, or should the focus be on diversity?

An all-female crew is supposedly the more efficient option

The main reason that people have put forward the idea of all-female crews for trips to Mars relates to studies that can be traced back as far as the 1950s. These studies suggest it would be more efficient to send women to a planet like this rather than men because they apparently occupy less space. They also allegedly consume life support resources at a slower rate, meaning that essentials like water, food, and oxygen would last much longer. While you could potentially write these studies off as being outdated, a paper in Scientific Reports suggests that the findings still stand. This paper indicated that an all-female crew would need 3,736 pounds less food on a 1,080-day mission than the equivalent number of men would. That would apparently save more than $150 million.

A lighter load should improve the efficiency of traveling to Mars

Efficiency is essential in a lot of areas, but it's particularly important in space travel. Many agencies devote a lot of time to finding ways to reduce the weight of a spacecraft so that missions will be more successful. After all, the lighter the load, the less fuel that's required to escape Earth's gravity and the further the vehicle can reach. Given that women tend to be smaller than men and consequently require fewer resources, a crew of them should result in a lighter spacecraft. Therefore, they seem to plenty of scientists like the logical solution if you're trying to travel somewhere that's millions of miles away like Mars. However, some experts argue that there is still a case for diversifying a crew to send to the red planet.

Developments in space travel have come a long way over the years

Even though studies in the past and present suggest that all-female crews could be the most efficient option for traveling to Mars, people like Dr. Saralyn Mark argue against them. They state that "we need to go forward" rather than backward, emphasizing that space travel has evolved a lot since it started. They say it's "not a question" of things like who is "smarter" or "takes fewer resources," but rather "how well you train individuals" and the "value" of a mission. There's no denying that space agencies have come leaps and bounds over the years, particularly in how they design spacecraft. While efficiency is still key, things have improved enough that a diverse crew should still be able to reach Mars just as successfully as an all-female one.

Astronauts going to Mars should be at the top of their game

As several scientists like Michaela Musilova and Gloria Leon have pointed out, it's still possible to reduce the "weight and volume" of people in a spacecraft without relying solely on women. While there may generally be metabolic differences between genders, that doesn't mean an all-or-nothing approach is required. Not only does doing this potentially lead to discrimination, but it also means that you might not necessarily send the best people for the job to Mars. If you're going to send people on a three-year mission to a new planet, you want to ensure that everyone is at the top of their game. Otherwise, it might not be a success, and who knows how much such a failure could cost a space agency. So, it's essential that factors other than an astronaut's gender and metabolic rate are considered when it comes to this job.

The notion of an all-female crew is likely pleasing to some, especially considering it wasn't until the 1980s that the first American women went into space. However, while such a crew might have its benefits, basing everything on their weight alone overlooks too many other essential factors. If a space agency does end up only sending women on a mission to Mars, it needs to be because what those astronauts offer is something that no one else can provide.