";s:4:"text";s:1248:" Yeah, Mars is pretty great… if you’re not made of meat and don’t need to breathe oxygen. All in all, unless you’ve got yourself a suit like the new Z-2 that NASA hopes will one day be worn on Mars, you’re better off keeping it terrestrial. The atmosphere on Mars is 96 per cent carbon dioxide, says Vasco Guerra at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. If astronauts tried breathing the air on Mars, they would quickly suffocate. For that long, long trip to Mars, plan on a lot of hibernation ... and less food to eat and even air to breathe. The atmosphere on Mars consists of 96% carbon dioxide and less than 0.2% oxygen (Earth has about 21% oxygen). It’s not much more habitable than the cold vacuum of space. "You can also extract water from the Martian atmosphere, or bring hydrogen from Earth and react that with the carbon dioxide atmosphere on Mars to make methane and oxygen," says Dr Clarke. Otherwise, it’s incredibly hostile.