Challenges Surrounding Mars Colonization and Reasons Why to Do It
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Challenges Surrounding Mars colonization and Reasons Why to do it Andrew Rodriguez Honors College Senior Capstone Project Spring 2021 University of Wyoming Introduction The idea of colonization Mars have been a hot topic in the last couple of decades, with people such as Robert Zubrin writing an article called The Case for Colonizing Mars back in 1996, and more recently with movies such as the Martian showing an astronaut being stuck on Mars, or with the CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk stating that the goal of SpaceX is to enable the colonization Mars. With the advancements in Rocket technology and now having decades of experience of having people living in space, the goal of setting up a Martian colony within the next decade or so is starting to seem reasonable to an increasing amount of people, making people to ask the question of should we colonize Mars. The problems that would need to be overcome in order to set up a Mars colony are difficult, unique problems that if not solved would prevent a Mars colony from succeeding. The transportation challenge of having a way to have an economically viable rocket while also making sure the potential colonist stays safe. Another challenge would be trying to access and use the local resources on Mars in order to sustain the colony. The long-term health effects of staying in a low gravity environment is relatively unknown while there has not been to much of a discussion about what type of laws that would be used at the colony are all problems that need to be solved in order to be able to make a successful Martian colony. With all these challenges that are present in trying to go to Mars, it raises several questions to why we should bother funding a trip to go there in the first place. However, going to Mars will be something that can and will pay off in the long run. By working on being able to go to Mars, it will lead to a variety of technology being made to go into space and develop the capacity to go around the solar system. The Martian colony can be used to get access to resources that are more common on Mars and even be used to help get resources from the asteroid belt. The increase presence in space will be useful for being able to detect and prevent any sort of threat that can come from space and maybe even provide solution for global problems on Earth. While there are many problems that would need to be solved, the benefits are worth it and is why we should be pushing for the colonization of Mars. Challenges Surrounding Mars Colonization Transportation to Mars The first problem to solve in setting up the first Mars colony would be solving the transportation problems that exist when it comes to getting large amount of people and supplies off Earth and to Mars safety in a practical manner. There is going to be a limited budget that can be afforded to the colonization effort, meaning that if we were to spend billions of dollars per trip just for the rocket to get to Mars, it would prevent colony from even starting as the price tag would be unaffordable. The second problem is to make sure that colonist is able to arrive safety at the colony, since making a colony will require a massive amount of people to make it Mars and back to Earth, if they can’t, then the public support for the colony will not exist. To solve the price problem, the best way to do so would be to use rockets that can be reused. By using a reusable rocket, that would mean the just for paying for one rocket, it would cover the price of transportation for several trips, as the price for rocket fuel is very cheap in comparison to the price of a rocket itself. In addition, it would offer more flexibility when to comes to the problem of returning from Mars to Earth. A reusable rocket that uses a fuel that could be produced on Mars would mean that the rocket would only need to carry the fuel to get to Mars, thus requiring a smaller rocket, something that would be cheaper to make. A good example of a rocket that would fit the needs for transportation is the currently being tested Starship from SpaceX. The Starship is a two-stage design that would use the lower stage to boost the upper stage into Earth orbit. The upper stage is powerful enough to make it Figure 1 A illustration of the upper stage of Starship on the moon and land on Mars, and if it is refueled on Mars, it would be powerful enough to make the trip back. In theory, the rocket would be able reused up to over a hundred times, however that is something that is still be tested and the amount of reuse would change as they go through different variations of the Starship. Currently, the options to get over to Mars in the next few years is being restricted to mainly SpaceX as most other companies and governments are not working on such a design, but it is likely as we get closer to starting the colonization effort and as the colony grows, that the market for transportation for Earth to Mars will grow and we will see a plethora of options. Maintaining health of the colonists will be more difficult due to the hostile conditions of space that would cause unavoidable problems. There are several studies done on the astronauts living in the International Space Station which has shown numerous health problems that would apply for a trip going to Mars and would need to be taken care off to prevent permanent harm coming to the colonists. The radiation that comes from space is something that is normally not a problem for us living on the surface, Figure 2 An astronaut exercising on a treadmill. however, would be a huge problem for the people going to Mars and back. The radiation exposure can be reduced by using the cargo of the rocket to be between the colonist and space, as well as using materials that can be especially effective at blocking radiation to be built into the rocket. Other problems come from the lack of gravity. Without gravity, the body weight bearing bones start to lose up to 1.5% of the mineral density per month and in addition, the fluids in the body evolved to be in Earth’s gravity well, meaning that the lack of will cause fluids to shift upwards causing eye problems. Using pressure devices that can help redirect the body fluids and bisphosphonate medications that help prevent mineral loss can be solutions to these problems and is something to keep working on as development of the colony takes place. Access to Local Resources How would the people being living on Mars is something that will depend on how the colonization of Mars is going, most likely is that the first colonist living on Mars will be living on the rockets that brought them as well as using supplies that was brought from Earth. However, to make a self-sufficient colony on Mars that would not cost a large sum of money to sustain from Earth, it makes sense to procure resources locally. Studies done by NASA has shown large Figure 3 A map showing the location of ice on Mars and how deep it is. The box is a recommend spot marked by NASA. deposits of ice that is located underground that could be mined to provide a source of water and oxygen for the colonists. The Martian soil has large amounts of perchlorates in it that would need to be removed as well as having a reduced amount of nitrogen that would need to be supplemented if we were to use the soil to grow food, but it is something that could done. One of the most important things to make, the rocket fuel to head back to Earth, could be created from using the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and the water from the ice deposits using the Sabatier process to make methane, a fuel that is currently being planned for several next generation rockets such as the Starship from SpaceX and the rocket from Blue Origin. Long-term Health Problems A problem that may not easily be solved in the long-term health problems that comes from living in reduced gravity, a topic that has not been tested before due to the difficulties in artificially creating such an environment. As mentioned earlier, there has been studies done on the ISS testing the effects on keeping someone in an environment where they are in a state of constant freefall, but we currently do not know how much problems that people face on the ISS will carry over to living in the low gravity environment of Mars. One of the problems that is almost certain to be faced by colonists would the muscle weakening to some degree, something that may be a problem, depending on how severe it is. While some of the lessons that we learn on the ISS will be able to be applied on Mars, such as maintaining a daily exercise regimen, which would help in the case of the muscle degeneration, there could be entirely new health problems that is unique to a low gravity environment that if they exist, then will need to be addressed if the colony on Mars is to succeed.