Home away from home: Landers would shelter the first wave of Mars explorers, until more permanent accommodation could be arranged, perhaps underground. As depicted in the illustration, living conditions would be cramped and not dissimilar to those endured by Antarctic explorers.
Credit: ESA
4. A Mars colony is unlikely to stage a revolution
Would Mars colonists eventually revolt and throw off the shackles of Earth? Probably not, says science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the award-winning Mars trilogy. Or at least not as long as the Red Planet hasn’t been terraformed. That’s because a pre-terraforming Mars colony won’t be like 19th-century Australia, it’ll be more like today’s Antarctic bases.
Just as Antarctic scientists have never moved to form their own nation, Mars scientists are likely to remain firmly tied to Earth. “[In Antarctica], there are a few who’ve made it their life,” Robinson says, “but most come back to the ‘world’.”
A bigger problem will be the dynamics of small, isolated groups. Bases will need either to be large enough to function as small towns (several hundred to 1,000 people), or small, like expedition camps. “There’s an awkward size of around 120 where it’s small enough to know everybody, but big enough for cliques and jealousy,” Robinson says. “Like high school, with ‘in’ crowds and ‘out’ crowds.”
If there were a revolution, he doubts it would be like America in 1776. Rather, people tired of waiting for the government to decide whether or not to make Mars more habitable, might take matters into their own hands. “You could get ‘Rambo’ terraforming,” he says. “That would be the revolt.” — Richard A. Lovett, science writer in the Portland, Oregon.
5. A human could do in mere days what it's taken many years for rovers to achieve
Steven Squyres finds it easy to fantasise about visiting Mars. That’s because, as principal investigator on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission, he’s spent more hours ‘on’ Mars than just about anyone.
He compares the surface of Mars to the vast red-rock deserts of Australia or the American Southwest: stark, desolate, yet eerily beautiful. But it’s also a land totally devoid of the comforting hues of water and life. “The colours are painted from a very narrow palate,” he says. “Everything is in shades of brown and orange and pink. I think initially it would strike you as monotonous, until you got used to the subtleties.”
For generations, scientists have been studying Mars at an arm’s length by means of telescope, orbiting probe, and ever-more-sophisticated landers. This makes it one of the most thoroughly explored worlds in the Solar System. But none of this even remotely compares to what a true geologist could do.
“A well-trained human could do in days what it’s taken our two intrepid rovers four years to do,” says Scott Hubbard, head of NASA’s Mars program from 2000 to 2001.
That’s because humans, unlike robots, can think on their feet. We’re better able to figure out where to take rock samples, drill for water, or search for life. We can enter caves, climb steep hills, and descend into craters. Plus, we’re inherently curious.
The biggest problem would be focussing that curiosity. For a geologist, even a short trip to Mars would be like being the proverbial kid in a candy store. “You’re going to see things no one else has ever seen,” says Hubbard. “And over the next rise is going to be something even more strange and wondrous.”
Squyres agrees. “I’m a robot guy,” he says, “but there’s so much more a human is capable of, even in a spacesuit.” — RAL.
6. Astronauts on Mars may home brew their own rocket fuel
Need a recipe for homemade Martian rocket fuel? Try methane plus oxygen, says Robert Zubrin. You can make it from hydrogen carried from Earth, plus carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere. The formula is simple enough: CO2 + 4H2 g CH4 + 2H2O. Then electrolyse the water to get oxygen (and get back part of your hydrogen in the process). You can either burn this to power the rovers, or if you prefer a liquid, convert it to methanol by reacting it with steam.
Later generations of colonists could free themselves from imported hydrogen by electrolysing water melted from the Martian permafrost or mined from the polar ice caps. This would allow them to make ever-more-complex hydrocarbons such as ethylene, which, Zubrin notes, is great for making plastics.
They could also make ammonia by reacting hydrogen with nitrogen from the Martian atmosphere. That’s great for fertilising vegetables grown in greenhouses made from Martian plastic – and is another cog in an expanding chemical industry. — RAL.
