What Would A Colony On Mars Look Like?
Keith’s note: I’ll be a guest on HuffPost Live: What Would A Colony On Mars Look Like? at 2:30 pm EDT
“American astronaut Buzz Aldrin says the U.S. and NASA should focus on establishing a permanent colony on Mars by 2040. How likely is a future that include humans actually living on Mars? Should we be allocating our resources to this endeavor?”
It depends on what you send. In the short run, you’d have some “tuna can” modules, possibly supplemented with Bigelow-style inflatable habitats. In the longer run, you use local materials and local water supplies to make building materials, and you drill down into the surface for underground rooms.
There are a lot of problems to be solved before humans can survive on Mars. Just getting there and surviving a half year of weightlessness is one. Then there is landing safely on the surface and transitioning to an oxygenated habitat. That habitat would have to supply the energy needs for heating, maintaining an adequate Oxygen level, extracting water from drill holes, etc, etc. Solar panels will lose their output quickly as they get covered with dust so a compact nuclear generator would be needed. How would food be grown on Mars? Algae tubes? Maybe someone should start working on an Advanced Human Habitat (AHH) for Mars. Send a few of them to the Moon first and monitor their health/habitability.
lot of probs