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Mars Exploration 2: Manned Missions (Concepts; Preparations; etc.)

I don't think they're going to put humans in this one.
They'll probably just send it to Mars, perhaps even attempt a landing to see if the capsule survives.
A manned landing is years away.
 
Yes, You Can Farm Potatoes On Mars

Matt Damon’s character in 2015’s blockbuster The Martian was right: you can grow vegetables in the Red Planet’s soil.

Scientists in the Netherlands have successfully raised more than ten different crops, including potatoes, in simulated Martian dirt.

The rusty-red regolith was designed by NASA — which has used its rovers to sample the planet’s surface — and was created from material found at a Hawaiian volcano.

The Dutch researchers mixed their extra-terrestrial “earth” with organic fertiliser, just like the fictional Mark Watney, though he used human faeces to give his spuds a head start. ...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulrodgers/2016/06/29/yes-you-can-farm-potatoes-on-mars/#43958def673b
 
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Elon Musk plans to get humans to Mars in six years
SpaceX founder tells meeting of astronautical experts that his only purpose is to ‘make life interplanetary’, revealing plans for reusable ship to Mars



Elon Musk unveils his plans to colonize Mars. Photograph: STRINGER/Reuters
Nicky Woolf in San Francisco

@nickywoolf
Wednesday 28 September 201600.16 BSTLast modified on Wednesday 28 September 201601.16 BST

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has outlined his highly ambitious vision for manned missions to Mars, which he said could begin as soon as 2022 – three years sooner than his previous estimates.

However, the question of how such extravagantly expensive missions would be funded remains largely in the dark.

“What I really want to try to achieve here is to make Mars seem possible – like it’s something we can achieve in our lifetimes,” Musk told an audience in his keynote speech at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Tuesday.

He said there were “two fundamental paths” facing humanity today. “One is that we stay on Earth forever and then there will be an inevitable extinction event,” he said. “The alternative is to become a spacefaring civilization, and a multi-planetary species.”


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A shot of a video about the Interplanetary Transport System, which aims to reach Mars with a human crew for the first time in history.
In order to achieve this goal, Musk outlined a multi-stage launch and transport system, including a reusable booster – like the Falcon 9, which SpaceX has already successfully tested – only much larger. The booster, and the “interplanetary module” on top of it, would be nearly as long as two Boeing 747 aircraft. It could initially carry up to 100 passengers, he said.

The first ship to go to Mars, Musk said, would be named Heart of Gold as a tribute to the ship powered by an “infinite improbability drive” from Douglas Adams’ science fiction novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Similar modules, also launched using reusable boosters, would remain in Earth’s orbit to refuel the interplanetary craft to be able to use multiple trips, including to other parts of the solar system such as Enceladus, a moon of Saturn on which Nasa’s Cassini mission recently found evidence of a polar subsurface water ocean that could harbor life.

SpaceStation and launching satellites – both already part of SpaceX’s business model.


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Elon Musk said humanity faces two paths – staying on Earth or becoming a ‘spacefaring civilization’. Photograph: Hector-Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images
He also listed three other sources of revenue that simply read “kickstarter”, “profit” and – intriguingly – “steal underpants”.

Asked at the talk about funding, however, Musk said: “The reason I am personally accruing assets is to fund this. I really have no other purpose than to make life interplanetary.”

Bill Nye, chief executive officer of the Planetary Society and host of the popular TV show Bill Nye the Science Guy, was in the audience and described the energy of the crowd as “extraordinary”.

“Watching the crowd go absolutely wild today tells me that the best is yet ahead for space exploration,” he told the Guardian, adding that Musk had presented “a very aggressive schedule that seemed feasible to the crowd”.

“No matter what we send to Mars, I very much hope we conduct a thorough, careful search for life before we consider landing people and cargo. I believe the discovery of life or evidence of life would change the way we think about the cosmos and our place within it,” Nye added.

Nasa said in a statement that it welcomed Musk’s plans. “NASA applauds all those who want to take the next giant leap – and advance the journey to Mars. We are very pleased that the global community is working to meet the challenges of a sustainable human presence on Mars. This journey will require the best and the brightest minds from government and industry, and the fact that Mars is a major topic of discussion is very encouraging.”

Nasa says it has made “extraordinary progress” developing a plan for sustainable Mars exploration, building partnerships in both the public and private sectors.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/27/elon-musk-spacex-mars-colony
 
The Q&A session for that was awkward. Who let those people in?
 
1st Mars Colonists Should Be 'Prepared to Die,' Elon Musk Says
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | September 30, 2016 03:50pm ET

The first people who fly with SpaceX to Mars should be OK with the possibility that the decision could cost them their lives, company founder and CEO Elon Musk said.

SpaceX aims to ferry 1 million people to the Red Planet over the next 50 to 100 years using the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), a rocket-spaceship combo that Musk unveiled Tuesday (Sept. 27) during a talk at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Guadalajara, Mexico. (Well, he unveiled the ITS in concept; neither vehicle has been built yet.)

Musk painted a picture of a not-too-distant future in which 1,000 or more ITS spaceships, each loaded up with 100 or 200 settlers, zoom off toward Mars simultaneously from Earth orbit. But it's naïve to expect that everything will work perfectly from the start, he said. [Images: SpaceX's Interplanetary Transport for Mars Colonization]

"I think the first journeys to Mars are going to be really very dangerous. The risk of fatality will be high; there's just no way around it," Musk said at the IAC, adding that, for this reason, he would not suggest sending children on these flights.

"It would be, basically, 'Are you prepared to die?' If that's OK, then, you know, you're a candidate for going," he said.

Musk said he'd like to go to Mars, but it's unclear if he'll be among the Red Planet vanguard. In a teleconference with reporters Tuesday after the IAC talk, he said he wasn't sure if he'd be aboard the first-ever Mars colony ship, which may be called "Heart of Gold" after a vehicle in Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." ...

http://www.space.com/34259-elon-musk-first-mars-colonists-prepared-die.html
 
I still wonder if all of this is for real.

Dutch company Mars One, which aims to send people to the Red Planet within a decade, on Tuesday unveiled its first concept for a space suit to protect humans "under the most difficult conditions."

The pressurised suit will include an impact resistant helmet with a see-through bubble.

It will "make maximum use of local Mars resources to provide a safe and comfortable environment for crew members," Mars One said in a statement.

Made from material similar to that used for NASA's astronauts when exploring the Moon, the suit's design also takes into account "new challenges" presented by Mars' surface.

This included dealing with omnipresent red dust, which the company admitted still "needed more work."

Consisting of interchangable parts, the suit will have to ward off life-threatening radiation and be able to fit many different seizes of would-be Martian explorers.

The space colonisers will have 3D printers with them to print replaceable parts such as nuts and bolts and even fabric used in the construction and maintenance of the space suit, Mars One said.



Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-11-dutch-firm-unveils-concept-space.html#jCp
 
I still wonder if all of this is for real.

Dutch company Mars One, which aims to send people to the Red Planet within a decade, on Tuesday unveiled its first concept for a space suit to protect humans "under the most difficult conditions."

So, they're aiming to have people on Mars within 10 years, and they've only just come up with a spacesuit? That's, er, really quite ambitious.
 
So, they're aiming to have people on Mars within 10 years, and they've only just come up with a spacesuit? That's, er, really quite ambitious.
Mars is very fashionable, I'm personally a little baffled as to why we're not 'practicing' on the moon as an intermediate step.
 
NASA has found out that a human colony on Mars could be wiped out in minutes!
Mars' atmosphere is said to be 100 times thinner than that of the Earth.

February 10, 2017 14:18 IST

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has found that the odds of a human colony on Mars being wiped out are quite high! MRO's analyses of Mars has proved that are many more impact craters on the Martian surface than previously thought.

Also Read: Stunning green Comet 45P set to fly by Earth: Date, time and where to watch

A lot of these impact craters are present around an area of Mars called Tharsis — an enormous volcanic plateau located in Mars' western hemisphere, near the equator. The region harbours the largest volcanoes in our solar system.

The reason why the Red Planet is hit by space debris with such frequency is that objects heading towards the planet's surface are not burnt-up due to the thin atmosphere, unlike Earth which is blanketed by a thick atmosphere that safeguards it from most meteorites and other space debris.

Mars' atmosphere is said to be 100 times thinner than Earth's. Due to this, Mars is more prone to being hit by space rocks. Though there are times when the atmosphere is dense enough to break up an incoming object, it merely causes the object to splinter into smaller pieces which hit the planet over a wider area.

This, however, has alarmed scientists working on building and testing human habitats for a future manned-mission to Mars. The habitats are pressurized and impacts (large or micro) could endanger the atmospheric integrity of the structure, thereby threatening the lives of astronauts or scientists living in these Martian habitats. ...

http://www.ibtimes.co.in/nasa-has-found-out-that-human-colony-mars-could-be-wiped-out-minutes-715566
 
NASA has found out that a human colony on Mars could be wiped out in minutes!
Mars' atmosphere is said to be 100 times thinner than that of the Earth.

February 10, 2017 14:18 IST

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has found that the odds of a human colony on Mars being wiped out are quite high! MRO's analyses of Mars has proved that are many more impact craters on the Martian surface than previously thought.

Also Read: Stunning green Comet 45P set to fly by Earth: Date, time and where to watch

A lot of these impact craters are present around an area of Mars called Tharsis — an enormous volcanic plateau located in Mars' western hemisphere, near the equator. The region harbours the largest volcanoes in our solar system.

The reason why the Red Planet is hit by space debris with such frequency is that objects heading towards the planet's surface are not burnt-up due to the thin atmosphere, unlike Earth which is blanketed by a thick atmosphere that safeguards it from most meteorites and other space debris.

Mars' atmosphere is said to be 100 times thinner than Earth's. Due to this, Mars is more prone to being hit by space rocks. Though there are times when the atmosphere is dense enough to break up an incoming object, it merely causes the object to splinter into smaller pieces which hit the planet over a wider area.

This, however, has alarmed scientists working on building and testing human habitats for a future manned-mission to Mars. The habitats are pressurized and impacts (large or micro) could endanger the atmospheric integrity of the structure, thereby threatening the lives of astronauts or scientists living in these Martian habitats. ...

http://www.ibtimes.co.in/nasa-has-found-out-that-human-colony-mars-could-be-wiped-out-minutes-715566
Whilst that may be true, it's a bit alarmist. The rovers have all been on Mars for years, and nothing has hit them yet.
 
But they move about. A stationary and bigger target is another story.
Yes, perhaps a Mars colony needs to either move about or dig a base deep down into bedrock.
 
Yes, perhaps a Mars colony needs to either move about or dig a base deep down into bedrock.

A proper survey would indicate the safest spots which would also have to be assessed for earthquake potential, wouldn't take a direct hit to cause an atmosphere breach on a habitat.
 
But they move about. A stationary and bigger target is another story.
Stationary would have nothing to do with it, since they most likely wouldnt know the rock is coming a moving target is just as likely to move into the path as move out of it.
 
Stationary would have nothing to do with it, since they most likely wouldnt know the rock is coming a moving target is just as likely to move into the path as move out of it.

But It wouldn't take a direct hit to cause an air breach and likely casualties on a habitat. I presume given these flagged dangers some sort of detection system would be a necessity.
 
But It wouldn't take a direct hit to cause an air breach and likely casualties on a habitat. I presume given these flagged dangers some sort of detection system would be a necessity.
A detection system could detect something larger than a golf ball, but would not be able to react in time.
Anything smaller cannot be detected.
 
We're not doing so great with detection of potential Earth intersecting space rocks, and we'd need to detect much smaller rocks for Mars because of the thinner atmosphere being less protection. I would think burying the habitat would be both easier and cheaper than building a mobile base capable of movement and a space rock detection system capable of monitoring things well enough to take advantage of a mobile base.
 
I'd suggest the same, ideally in a big bit of rock. Having said that anything that stood a realistic chance of getting to Mars intact with a sizeable crew would need to be made of sealable autonomous compartments and have a protocol in respect of not all being in the same compartment at the same time, to avoid a rock strike taking out the whole crew and ship.

In other words, assume you'll be hit by rocks and work out how to ensure the mission (if not the whole crew) will survive it. The ideas and protocol ought to be established well before before they land.
 
Impermeable force field. It's the only way.
 
Let us know when you have one that works. Thanks.

As you have gleaned, it wasn't an entirely serious post, just a flippant way of pointing out the unlikely feasibility of transporting enough heavy duty mining / excavating machinery to Mars to create an underground facility any time soon..
 
The 'easy' way to put a colony underground would be to inflate a dome then cover it in a layer of soil (regolith). This could be done by half a dozen astronauts with buckets and spades; because of low gravity this would be slightly easier on Mars than it would be on Earth, but of course people don't tend to shovel dirt on Earth wearing spacesuits.
 
I wonder if it might be possible to use something along these lines - although I'd imagine they'd have an issue transporting concrete to Mars, they might be able to use local materials
 
I wonder if it might be possible to use something along these lines - although I'd imagine they'd have an issue transporting concrete to Mars, they might be able to use local materials ...

This sort of free-standing ferrocement construction requires steel reinforcement materials (ranging from chicken-wire style mesh to conventional rebar) to be embedded within a concrete layer which is molded (i.e., 'erected') using an inflatable membrane. Once 'plastered' and 'inflated' the concrete layer has to dry / cure.

I suspect supplying the requisite metal (or whatever ... ) reinforcement framing would be at least as big a problem as figuring out how to make suitable concrete from available materials at the Martian site. Another problem is that this relatively convenient construction approach requires fairly heavy equipment (e.g., compressors, excavation gear, the inflatable membrane). Finally, the requirement for large amounts of water might be the biggest deal-killer of all.

The paradigmatic examples (Binishells) require exacting procedures to get a structurally reliable product, and any single fault or deficiency early on could doom the outcome.

Such domes are not usually intended for bearing loads other than their own weight, so they're best suited for surface structures. I recall reading about experimental builders back in the 1970's using ferrocement to line excavated spaces (as opposed to raising a free-standing framework). Given the earlier references to subterranean placement, this sort of lining / finishing could end up being the extent of practical application of this sort of technique.

Some of the notable dome failures in Australia are reviewed at:

https://failures.wikispaces.com/Binishell+Domes

In general, these failure autopsies illustrate how critical it is to execute the procedures 'just so'. More specifically, I'm struck by the fact that temperature fluctuations during the drying period were blamed for weakening the structures from the outset. Daily temperature fluctuations on Mars are far more extreme than the variations encountered here.

My guess is that some variation on this approach's themes could contribute to a feasible Martian construction strategy, but for now, at least, I'm sensing more problem than promise with the notion of literally applying this technique.
 
This sort of free-standing ferrocement construction requires steel reinforcement materials (ranging from chicken-wire style mesh to conventional rebar) to be embedded within a concrete layer which is molded (i.e., 'erected') using an inflatable membrane. Once 'plastered' and 'inflated' the concrete layer has to dry / cure.

I suspect supplying the requisite metal (or whatever ... ) reinforcement framing would be at least as big a problem as figuring out how to make suitable concrete from available materials at the Martian site. Another problem is that this relatively convenient construction approach requires fairly heavy equipment (e.g., compressors, excavation gear, the inflatable membrane). Finally, the requirement for large amounts of water might be the biggest deal-killer of all.

The paradigmatic examples (Binishells) require exacting procedures to get a structurally reliable product, and any single fault or deficiency early on could doom the outcome.

Such domes are not usually intended for bearing loads other than their own weight, so they're best suited for surface structures. I recall reading about experimental builders back in the 1970's using ferrocement to line excavated spaces (as opposed to raising a free-standing framework). Given the earlier references to subterranean placement, this sort of lining / finishing could end up being the extent of practical application of this sort of technique.

Some of the notable dome failures in Australia are reviewed at:

https://failures.wikispaces.com/Binishell Domes

In general, these failure autopsies illustrate how critical it is to execute the procedures 'just so'. More specifically, I'm struck by the fact that temperature fluctuations during the drying period were blamed for weakening the structures from the outset. Daily temperature fluctuations on Mars are far more extreme than the variations encountered here.

My guess is that some variation on this approach's themes could contribute to a feasible Martian construction strategy, but for now, at least, I'm sensing more problem than promise with the notion of literally applying this technique.

Also the problem that Mars's atmosphere is what we'd call a vacuum if we had it in a container on earth, so even minor structual faults mean leaks or worse a rapid decompression. Maybe even explosive decompression. Structures need to be massively reliable and mantainble.
 
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