Category Archives: Mars Colonization

Mars One, the project being conducted by a Dutch nonprofit that purports to have as a goal the establishment of a Mars colony, is coming under increasing criticism. A Monday article in Space Review suggests that the people running Mars One have not thought through the challenges of Mars colonization and lack the resources, technology, and knowledge to accomplish such a fear. Medium, having interviewed a Mars One finalist who happens to be a former NASA researcher, goes a step further and accuses the project of being an elaborate scam designed to separate people from their money.

Much of the technical criticism of the Mars One project has already been covered by the now famous MIT study. The technology that the project claims is available would be inadequate to get people to Mars, not to mention sustaining them over the long run. If Mars One proposes to develop new technology, questions arise about reliability and costs. Those running the project seem overly optimistic about the latter factor.

The Space Review also suggests that the psychological stress of being the subject of a reality show the main vehicle that Mars One proposes to make money on the project would be unbearable when added to the dangers of settling a hostile planet. The project also does not seem to have developed adequate provisions for the health and well being of the colonists. What happens if, as likely, the Mars One settlers start dying?

Some political and diplomatic impediments may stand in the way of a Mars Colony, at least as Mars One proposes. The Netherlands, where Mars One is incorporated, is a party to the infamous Moon Treaty, which most countries on the planet have rejected as an impediment to space settlement and development. However, the country is still a party to it and is bound by it. However, fears that the idea of a colony may be anathema to the world community because the sad history of western imperialism is likely overblown. No native Martians exist for human colonist to oppress and exploit.

A Mars One finalist named Dr. Joseph Roche, an assistant professor at Trinity Colleges School of Education in Dublin, with a Ph.D. in physics and astrophysics, has started to raise questions about the project as well. He applied on a lark and was surprised when he was picked as a finalist. The reason is that Mars One in no way approaches NASAs rigorous criteria for selecting astronauts, who for now only venture into low Earth orbit and not the 100 million mile journey to Mars.

Furthermore, Roche has noted that the Mars One finalists are being exploited by the project to generate revenue, even going so far as to be encouraged to donate a large percentage of the profits for paid media interviews. Indeed, he suspects that some of the finalists are on the list not for the skills they may bring to establishing a Mars colony, but rather because they bought their way onto it.

The obvious conclusion one might draw is that it is fortunate that Mars One is not likely to get off the ground. Every analysis suggests that it would fail spectacularly, in full view of the world. This might, in turn, poison the well for more legitimate Mars efforts, even the one that NASA is contemplating, which have funding problems of their own. Indeed, Mars One, if Roche is correct, can be condemned for exploiting the greatest of all dreams of forging a brighter future among the stars for profit without any hope of delivering on said dream.

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Mars One comes under increasing criticism, accused of ...

Mars Command to Mother Earth
A video made to inspire my Make-It Science students about Mars colonization. Original artwork/animation by Tyler Jacobson. "Cloud Code" original music by Aaron Michael Scott. Lyrics by Scott...

By: Scott Jacobson

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Mars Command to Mother Earth - Video

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy filled us all with hope that we could terraform Mars in the 21st century, with its plausible description of terraforming processes. But now, in the face of what we've learned about Mars in the past 20 years, he no longer thinks it'll be that easy.

Talking to SETI's Blog Picture Science podcast, Robinson explains that his ideas about terraforming Mars, back in the 1990s, were based on three assumptions that have been called into question or disproved:

1) Mars doesn't have any life on it at all. And now, it's looking more likely that there could be bacteria living beneath the surface. "That's going to be very hard to disprove," says Robinson. "We could be intruding on alien life."

2) There would be enough of the chemical compounds we need to survive. In particular, we need a lot of nitrogen and scientists had expected there to be a lot, based on the ordinary distribution of elements in planetary accretion. But there's much less nitrogen on Mars than we'd hoped.

3) There's nothing poisonous to us on the surface. In fact, the surface is covered with perchlorates, which are highly toxic to humans, and the original Viking mission did not detect these. We could use bacteria to dispose of them, but it would be a very long-term process.

"It's no longer a simple matter," Robinson says. "It's possible that we could occupy, inhabit and terraform Mars. But it's probably going to take a lot longer than I described in my books."

Instead, Robinson says that Mars can't serve as a "backup planet," and that we need to fix our problems here on Earth if we're to have any hope of surviving for the timescales needed to set up an eventual colony there.

The whole interview is over at Blog Picture Science.

Contact the author at charliejane@io9.com.

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Kim Stanley Robinson Says Colonizing Mars Won't Be As Easy ...

Let #39;s Play Sol 0-Mars Colonization #014 [Deutsch] - Mehr Bewohner
In dieser Folge bekommen wir Nachwuchs auf dem Mars.

By: myNiKa Lets Plays

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Let's Play Sol 0-Mars Colonization #014 [Deutsch] - Mehr Bewohner - Video

The Mars One mission aims to establish a colony on the red planet It now has a list of 50 men and 50 women from an original 200,000 entries US is bestrepresentedin thelong-list, with 33 Americans vying to be part of themission The 33 US residents are ranging in age from 19 to 60 Some of the would-beastronautsare married with children, including oneapplicant withfive kids This will be cut to 40 in next stages, with four chosen for the first mission

By Snejana Farberov For Dailymail.com

Published: 11:30 EST, 17 February 2015 | Updated: 00:00 EST, 18 February 2015

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One hundred brave souls from around the globe are now vying for a one-way ticket to Mars, knowing they will never return from the Red Planet.

The Dutch-based Mars One project - which aims to send people to live on the faraway planet - has whittled down its shortlist of candidates from more than 200,000 to just 50 men and 50 women, a third of them Americans.

Among the array of science fanatics, Trekies, physics majors, engineers and doctors, there were also a few more surprising choices, including a singer who was doing a two-man show in New York at the time of his application for the program; an artist with a fascinating family connection to NASA; a mechanic from a remote part of Utah, and an aspiring novelist.

From this shortlist, a final crew of four will eventually be sent to Mars, scheduled to arrive in 2025 following a grueling seven-month journey from Earth.

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Meet the 33 Americans who could live on MARS and never return

For years, scientists have considered whether humans can survive on other planets. But for Cassandra Morphy of the Keasbey section of Woodbridge, the chance to find out might become a reality.

Morphy, along with reportedly 200,000 other people from across the world, filled out an online application to become a finalist for a one-way trip to Mars in 2025.

The trip is being planned by Mars One, a Dutch organization that aims to begin colonization on the planet with an unmanned mission scheduled for 2022, according to its website. Mars One plans to send the first crew in 2025 and release more crews every two years.

Morphy is one of 100 finalists 50 men and 50 women selected for the mission. The data analyst said this has been something she has dreamed about since she was young.

I have been wanting to go to Mars since I was 14 and read a novel about a group of people colonizing the planet, the 32-year-old said. I always found it to be particularly exciting.

Knowing that Morphy had a great interest in things that are rather out of this world, a colleague of Morphys informed her about the Mars One mission.

The online application phase for the mission began two years ago, and I applied immediately, she said.

Morphy said her family and friends have given her a lot of support.

My family and friends are mostly excited for me. After all, my sister already thinks Im an alien, she quipped.

The 100 finalists will be shortened to 24 finalists this fall. Those finalists will undergo rigorous training to mentally and physically prepare for the mission, according to Morphy.

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Keasbey resident is finalist for trip to red planet

Future missions to Mars may well be powered by carbon dioxide fueled engines, thanks to a recent prototype developed by Northumbria and Edinburgh Universities. Exploiting a phenomenon known as the Leidenfrost effect, researchers hope that their engine could be powered by the vast amount of dry-ice deposits found on the red planet, thereby reducing the need to transport fuel on interplanetary missions.

The new type of engine proposed by the researchers takes advantage of the Leidenfrost effect, where liquid is brought into near contact with a surface that is considerably hotter than its own boiling point, a small portion vaporizes, and an insulating layer of steam is created that then protects the liquid above it from the majority of the heat. This layer then also acts as a levitating cushion on which the heated liquid floats and moves around.

Commonly observed when beads of water dropped onto the face of a hot frying pan appear to canter across its surface, the phenomenon is exaggerated when the surface is composed of ridges, where the droplet effectively propels itself across the top of those ridges.

To create a prototype engine using this effect, the research teams were able to levitate a circular block of dry ice above a heated aluminum surface, where it floated on a pillow of evaporated gas vapor.

Underneath this arrangement, the surface over which it floated was ridged, but instead of the ridges being aligned in one way on a straight surface, they were arranged in a circular pattern, in effect creating a turbine. This meant that when the dry ice was subject to the Leidenfrost effect, instead of simply rolling across and off the surface, it rotated in a circle.

To this block, the researchers attached a series of magnets and copper coils that, when spun, acted as an electric motor and created an alternating current. This is the first time that the Leidenfrost effect has been used to produce any useful form of energy.

"The working principle of a Leidenfrost-based engine is quite distinct from steam-based heat engines; the high-pressure vapor layer creates freely rotating rotors whose energy is converted into power without the need of a bearing, thus conferring the new engine with low-friction properties," said Doctor Gary Wells, a Research Fellow in the Department: Physics and Electrical Engineering at Northumbria University.

While some other scientists have proposed exploiting the CO2 in the Martian atmosphere to power rocket motors, this system is significantly different. It doesnt burn any fuel directly in the process to create energy. Instead, it could potentially use waste heat to take advantage of the Leidenfrost effect by exploiting the low boiling point of frozen carbon dioxide to spin a turbine to create electricity.

The team believes that this type of engine and the potential abundance of frozen carbon dioxide on Mars holds a great deal of promise for interplanetary missions, where it may be used to support lengthy periods of exploration or even colonization by exploiting resources natural to that planet.

"Carbon dioxide plays a similar role on Mars as water does on Earth," said, Dr Rodrigo Ledesma-Aguilar, a co-author of the Northumbria research. "It is a widely available resource which undergoes cyclic phase changes under the natural Martian temperature variations. Perhaps future power stations on Mars will exploit such a resource to harvest energy as dry-ice blocks evaporate, or to channel the chemical energy extracted from other carbon-based sources, such as methane gas."

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Engine running on frozen carbon dioxide may power mission to Mars

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- As private companies across the world race to put the first humans on the surface of Mars, those individuals vying for spots on the Red Planet's first manned mission are offering insight into the minds of would-be colonists.

"I think the most important thing to do in life is to leave a legacy," 22-year-old Englishman Ryan MacDonald tells The Guardian in the short documentary piece "If I Die on Mars."

"To try and find out if there's life on Mars, to inspire a new generation, to lead to the beginnings of the first civilization on another planet."

Ryan is one of 660 finalists being considered for Dutch nonprofit Mars One's intended 2024 one-way colonization mission, and, like many, has a unique, if somewhat bleak, personal world view.

"If I get to go to Mars it will be like I'm abandoning everyone," Ryan says, stressing he does think poorly of his life on Earth, but admits he has abandonment issues.

"I don't feel like I need a family to be able to survive and exist." echos Iraqi-American Dina. The existentialist-minded immigrant to America says she doesn't need love of any kind and it's "not a big problem for me not to have sex for...indefinitely."

Jeremias from Mozambique has simply lost faith in humanity

"I would like to see a better world than compared to this one." Jeremias says.

"We have so many problems that I believe it's not possible to solve."

When asked if they're all a little crazy, Dina took exception, countering by asking, "Define crazy."

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Meet the would-be colonists competing to die on Mars

Maggie Lieu is gunning for a one-way ticket off this planet.

The 24-year-old is in competition for a spot on Mars One,a proposedmission to Marssponsored by a Dutch non-profit that also has its own reality TV show.

The competition attracted 202,586 wannabeastronauts who applied from around the world. That's now been narrowed to only100 candidates, andLieu recently got word she's on theshort list.

Over the next decade, Lieu will join 99 competitors in trying toproveshe has what it takes to populate the Red Planet. She says there will be three aspects to this decade-long training program.

First there's the group training:Well be put into groups with people that we will potentially be spending the rest of our lives with and seeing how well we get on with them, Lieu says.

Candidates will also undergo technical training, wherethey'll learn the practical skills needed to man a colony. That's everything from medical and dental training to learning how to grow food and repair the outpost where the astronauts would live.

But the thing Lieu feels will be the most challenging will be the personal training. Mars One plans to simulate the experience of living on Mars here on earth with isolation simulation postsin the desert and the Arctic.

When we leave these simulation posts,well have to put on the full Mars suit, the gear, and well have to live with time delays when communicating with people on 'Earth,' she explains.

But even with those harsh realities,Lieu has been itching to leave the planet since she was a little kid. "When youre young and you say you want to be an astronaut, nobody really takes you very seriously," she says.But she's kept her eyes on space and is pursuinga Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of Birmingham.

Lieuinsists the Mars One missionisnt as fantastical as it sounds. I think this is inevitably going to happen, she says.All the technology to get to Mars is there.

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A trip to Mars is a lifetime dream and excellent reality TV

RAF MILDENHALL, England Company seeks interplanetary adventurers for one-way trip. Spartan living conditions. Death a near certainty.

Mars is not a hospitable planet. The average temperature is minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the atmosphere is not breathable nor does it provide much protection from radiation. Water is not easily obtained, and the planet is not known to have food. To live on the planet any length of time means every aspect of life must be supported by technology. Should anything go wrong, help from home would not arrive quickly the closest Mars ever comes to Earth is about 34 million miles.

Despite all of this, two U.S. servicemembers are willing spend the rest of their lives on the Red Planet.

A Naval Reserve flight test engineer and an Air National Guard cybertransport specialist are among 100 candidates vying for 24 spots to travel to Mars through a Dutch-based company, Mars One.

Although experts in space exploration have cast doubt on the technical feasibility of the project, Mars One hopes to land four people on Mars in 2025 to establish the first extraterrestrial colony. Four more colonists will follow the next year and more after that.

Coming back to Earth is highly unlikely, because no one has devised a way to return from such a distance. Mars One wants to colonize the planet for the sake of exploration and in the hopes of developing new technology, but it is not willing to wait for the necessary technology to offer the colonists a way to come home.

That means the first human visitors to Mars will live and probably die there.

A one way trip (or, in other words: emigration) to Mars is currently the only way we can get people on Mars within the next 20 years, Mars One officials wrote on the company website. This in no way excludes the possibility of a return flight at some point in the future. It is likely that technological progress will make this less complex down the line.

The one-way aspect of the trip was part of the appeal for Lt. Cmdr. Oscar Mathews. Mathews, who is a test pilot at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., said when he saw the trip was one way, he knew right away this mission was for him.

If youre going to go to Mars, you may as well stay on Mars because the whole reason to go to Mars is to do science and to live and to establish a habitat, Mathews said, also pointing out that by living on Mars, colonists could explore far more of the planet than a temporary mission could.

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2 US servicemembers make the first cut for a trip to Mars