Only some days are left to apply to NASA's astronaut program, which may ultimately result into a trip to the Red Planet in the 2030s. Mars One and SpaceX are even hopeful of sending civilians much sooner to the red planet. However, prior to signing up, it is fair to ensure that all aspiring interplanetary explorers are aware of the involved risks.

Thus, take it as a bit of Mars reality check, courtesy of Pascal Lee, a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute. At the New Worlds conference 2015 in Austin, Texas, Lee talked about the topic of settling Mars.

First of all, forget about the space travel challenges involved in going from our planet to Earth, at least for now.

Leave aside the fact that it is about a journey, involving escaping Earth’s gravity well and thereafter cruising via space for six months, quite longer as compared to a trip to the moon, which is the farthest from home that has been travelled by any human until now.

Since, Scott Kelly has been in space aboard the International Space Station for about a full year now, it can be said that's doable, albeit with resupply missions less than 60 minutes away launching from Kazakhstan and Florida regularly.

Also forget that landing on the Red Planet will be risky, considering that the space agencies have landed tiny car-size rovers there, this it’s certainly possible, though we will have to land delicately quite more than a little robot supporting a manned mission.

At present, don’t consider those engineering issues, and focus on Lee's list of good and bad attributes of Mars as a potential human settlement. If we look at the positive side, there is water, which means a main building block to life is already present there. The water is frozen at the poles and has been seen running just under the surface in the form of salty brine in warmer areas. But, the bad side of the list is five times longer as compared to the good news.