Citizen One

Manned Mars exploration and settlement is normally expected to a push similar to the Race to the Moon of the 1960's. In fact it will be both easier and more difficult. Much as the pioneering of successful flight was not pioneered by the well-funded Langley, but by the independent shoe-string development of the Wrights, manned missions to Mars will be born of non-governmental efforts and non-aerospace technologies.

It will be much easier to keep a manned mission alive for another two years than it will be to bring that mission home to Earth. Partially as a result of this, the first manned missions will be one-way trips. They will not be suicidal, but rather they will be settlement missions from the start.

There will be two kinds of technology in the early Mars colony. There will hardware and supplies imported from the Earth at extreme cost - roughly $1/2 mil per kilogram. And there will be hardware and supplies made on the surface of Mars - comparatively crude objects made of readily available glass, iron, water, and carbon-dioxide.

The most important technology necessary for a successful and near-term manned Mars mission will be agricultural in nature - how to keep a man alive indefinitely with the food, water, and air refined from Martian materials, using mostly Martian technology spiced with just a little hardware from Earth.

The reference mission under this architecture is one under which a single human is placed on the surface of Mars with minimal additional mass. The keys to his or her survival rests in the power source for the mission and a set of industrial boot-strap technologies designed to make air, clean water, and survival rations out of the harsh landscape of a cold Martian desert. Nearby sub-surface water is an essential component of this scenario. Exploration and communal living are not part of the scenario. Nor is the refining of rocket fuel for the trip home. Everything is devoted to keeping the human alive until the next supply ship arrives.

The minimal food source is almost certainly algae, grown in Martian water, under Martian glass, breathing warmed and compressed Martian carbon-dioxide. Glass is probably double-paned, with vaccuum in between, perhaps small tubes extruded by a special light-weight machine from Earth. Glass filters out the UV in the sunlight that would otherwise kill the algae. The insulation of the vaccuum is essential to keep the water in the tubes from freezing. If connected properly to the minimal habitation module, collection of the algae may be possible from inside the module.

The optimization of minimal life support is key to making the mission successful. Improvements in native Martian hardware will also help significantly. Responsiveness to the challenges of the first year or two will be important, but not nearly as important as predicting beforehand what challenges the survivor is likely to face initially. Land only the absolute essentials needed for survival - but those essentials must be rugged enough to function for several years. Air and water pumps, power systems, heaters, and the machine tools to make more are all essentials.

Oct 20, 2003
Cris Fitch
San Diego, CA
http://www.orbit6.com/