6 minute read
SEEING RED
Words: Sam Kessler
SEEING
RED
WHEN, HOW AND WHY MANKIND WILL COLONISE MARS
After years of trial and error and more than a handful of exploded rockets, SpaceX has finally managed to return their Starship, the design around which their first mission to Mars is based, back to Earth intact. It might not sound like much, but it’s a big leap into making interplanetary travel a reality. It does however beg the question: why?
For all the SNL skits, Elon Musk has been serious about his mission of getting to Mars, funnelling billions into SpaceX, its various projects and the dream of colonising a new hunk of celestial rock. And honestly, who can blame him? California burns down each year, storms wrack huge parts of the world and even our mild British weather is starting to get full of itself. Some Martian escapism could be just what we need.
The return of the SpaceX Starship (above) to Earth is one giant leap towards future space travel and (right) a potential future Mars city imagined by SpaceX
Even if it’s not about leaving a burning planet, Mars could hold resources key not just to colonising that one red dot, but the entire solar system – and potentially beyond. According to The Mars Society, unlike the moon, ‘the Red Planet is rich in carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, all in biologically readily accessible forms such as carbon dioxide gas, nitrogen gas, and water ice and permafrost.’ In short, a Martian colony is surprisingly viable.
It’s the final frontier before the next final frontier, and might even seem like an enticing prospect in a pioneering, Leo in The Revenant kind of way. Even getting there however isn’t all that easy.
Let’s say you get into space having left the Earth’s atmosphere. That leaves you with a solid seven-month journey across 140 million miles before you reach extra-terra firma. That’s a touch longer than trained astronauts currently stay aboard the International Space Station.
Ideally you can take that down to six months via the Hohmann Transfer Orbit – basically right place, right time – but that’s still a good deal of spacetime.
Still, it’s not all that bad. Download a few hundred TV series to the ship and you’re good to go. Sure you might lose muscle mass and bone density or develop a host of cancers from radiation in the vacuum of space, but the real issues start when you land.
The low atmospheric pressure on Mars means that, out in the (lack of) elements, your blood would boil in a few seconds. Not pleasant. If that doesn’t kill you, suffocation will as the atmosphere is almost entirely carbon dioxide, the thing we’d hypothetically be running away from on this planet. The cold front goes all the way down to 200 degrees F, but don’t worry, you’ll just as likely die from unblocked solar radiation. A perfect holiday destination.
In short, don’t leave the ship – which for some potential missions is the plan.
The earliest SpaceX-peditions will likely use their landed ship as a base of operations. It has the life support systems necessary to keep the crew warm and safe and should be stocked
AI SpaceFactory’s design for a Mars surface habitat (opposite, top) and how an underground habitat might look (below) if ZA Architects win the contract with plenty of supplies. From there, you can get to the business of making things better for the next crew to follow you.
Or perhaps there’s the Mars Society’s aptly-named Mars Direct plan. Their idea is to build starships more like habitats that, when they arrive, just become part of the burgeoning Martian capital, an idea which cuts costs and is apparently achievable with current technology. Just don’t expect a trip home any time soon.
Otherwise, modular structures are the norm amongst architects, which does allow for 3D printed, easily-made shelters, such as AI Space Factory’s robot-built eggs made using Martian rocks, which took top prize in NASA’s architectural challenge.
The easiest solution however might simply be to head underground. There have been a few concepts for life under the Martian soil, including this one from ZA Architects, and indeed, it’s the main reason Musk set up his Boring Company alongside SpaceX. The ground is insulating, acting as a natural barrier to radiation and has that whole mole person vibe we’ve all been looking for in life. Sun-seekers need not apply.
Fortunately, however, resupplying might not be the hardest thing in the world. The mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere is perfect for plants, provided they can survive the cold. Water – albeit frozen – is around and the soil is thought to have the right nutrients for vegetation to grow. With care and heating, a self-sustaining, eco-friendly habitat could be a reality. Provided you like kale. Kale does really well on Mars, according to plant ecologist Wieger Wamelink. In fact, better than here on Earth.
So, the first colonies will be super underground with plenty of kale smoothies – it just needs a microbrewery specialising in red ales and you have a hipster paradise. In theory self-sufficiency will be helped along by regular drops of new colonists and tech from the homeworld and with each successive trip, life on the new planet will get slightly easier.
As a side note, one thing that won’t be easier is walking. Mars is roughly half the size of the Earth and has less than 40% of the gravity, and simulations by the European Space Agency have indicated that you’ll go about half the walking speed. That level of gravity also means that you really can’t afford to skip leg day if you want to preserve your muscle mass.
So just how many people will we need to send? According to Jean-Marc Salotti at the Bordeaux Institut National Polytechnique, the answer is a nice, round 110. That’s the minimum number needed to maintain self-sufficiency and not rely on supply drops, provided of course that everyone shares resources, accepts awful conditions and generally has an awful time of it.
Unfortunately for the colonials of the future, we are still a long way away from that number. NASA’s current frontrunning mission to Mars is the Artemis Program, which will launch from the Moon in the late 2030s. Each mission would send a handful of people at a time, meaning somewhere in the region of 20-25 missions would be needed to get to the 110.
SpaceX on the other hand is far, far more optimistic. Not only is the company aiming at a 2026 launch (a bit of a pushback from their 2022 hopes), their Starship is designed to transport 100 people in one go. Granted they have more funding and direction than NASA, but that’s a worryingly short space of time before SpaceX will be sending real, living people to the Red Planet.
Could it work? Time will tell. Just don’t expect me to get on the Starship unless Musk is on the ramp up before me. In fact, between losing all muscle mass getting there, rolling a die between freezing, radiation poisoning or literally boiling and, having survived, spending years underground, I’m ok thanks.
The Earth may be in getting harsher, but at least it’s not Mars.
