Project 1 - Third Draft

The Science Needed to Establish a Sustainable Colony on Mars

On July 20th, 1969, the first man landed in the moon (NASA). It was unbelievable, what was thought to be impossible, was accomplished by people working together. Today, reaching Mars is the next goal; and unlike the Moon, the plan is not only to get there, but to eventually live there. For this, the question that we should ask is, what is the science necessary to establish a sustainable colony on Mars? Thanks to the aerospace technologies that have been developed, reaching Mars and colonizing it, is starting to sound less like a dream and more like a reality. With new systems like reusable rockets, a propellant like cryogenic methane (which can be produced on Mars), and efficient rocket launch systems, it is possible not only for humans to reach Mars, but also to stay. This goal results exciting to me as an astronomy student, and it inspires me and people from my community to reach for the stars. There are certainly many obstacles in the way, and many scientists argue that it is simply too difficult, but with scientific research and further development of technology; we can tackle these obstacles, and be one step closer to colonizing Mars.

With the progress we have made on aerospace engineering, many find hard to believe that no man has stepped on Mars yet. If NASA managed to land humans on the surface of the Moon, with only technology no more powerful than a pocket calculator; why haven't we landed a humans on Mars with the advanced aerospace technology we have today? One significant reason is that Mars is very far away. The minimum distance from Earth to Mars, at the time where Mars is closest to Earth (since the planets’ distance from each other varies on their positions on their orbits), is 54.6 million kilometers away (SPACE.com). To put that in perspective, if the Earth was the size of a one foot diameter globe, “Mars would be a mile away, the moon 30 feet away, and the ISS (International Space Station) would be ⅜ of an inch away” (deGrasse Tyson). However, rockets have already made it to Mars, carrying rovers like NASA’s Discovery, Opportunity, Pathfinder and more. But these rockets carried significantly less weight in comparison to the weight of a rocket that carries a crew of “astronauts, supplies, and fuel for a round-trip” (Anuradha K. Herath). Another reason that makes landing humans safely on Mars extremely hard is that, unlike the Moon, Mars has an atmosphere. Since Mars has an atmosphere, it has an active weather with storms and strong winds, making it more difficult to land safely on Mars. Also, the gravity present on Mars is much higher than the one present at The Moon, meaning that the descent to Mars’s surface is much more difficult than the descent on the Moon’s surface. All of this comes down to finding a way to manage the weight and fuel of the spacecraft.

With the colonization of Mars being such a hard project, we must have a very good reason to pursue it before we start putting any efforts to it. In other words, before we even start thinking about establishing a colony on Mars, we need to ask ourselves, why should we go in the first place? We need to find a purpose to begin working on how are we going to achieve such an incredibly difficult task. It has been argued that there is no other reason to go to Mars than our desire to explore, but really there are a lot of benefits that come with having a colony on Mars. First, there is making humankind a multiplanetary species. If one day anything goes wrong on Earth, then humanity should have a back-up plan. Whether it is because of an asteroid heading to Earth, nuclear warfare, or that our planet is unable to sustain more people, humans may eventually need to have another place to stay. Therefore, having a sustainable colony on Mars offers a much more secure future for humankind. It is important because it offers a safety net for our future, saving humanity from extinction if any disaster happens on Earth. Another reason is to understand more about Earth. One big theory of how life started on Earth is that it came from Mars. Even though we already have rovers delivered by NASA cruising on the surface of Mars, having humans scientists there will allow for far more intricate and deeper research to be done on Mars. By having geologists explore the surface of rocks and boulders, we can confirm if there were large bodies of water on Mars surface before, like it is suspected (deGrasse Tyson). If there were large bodies of water before, it means there might have been life. Therefore, since Martian rocks have been found on Earth, it is possible that some rocks that traveled from Mars to Earth, due to some sort of impact, may have carried microorganisms from Mars with it. Also, it is important to mention that Mars is believed to have been very similar to Earth thousands of years ago. That being the case, by means of scientific research, we could possibly determine what happened that made Mars change so much, and if it could happen to Earth. This is significant because by understanding more about other planets in our solar system, we can understand more about our own. We could learn more about our past, and what may happen in the future. Having a better understanding of our planet, to me means a safer future because it will allow us to better handle the problems that the Earth faces.

Yet the question remains, what do we need to establish a colony on Mars? What is the science that we need to work on to be able to successfully build a self sustaining base on Mars? The first thing we need to work on is on how to get there, safely. To get to Mars, we need a big rocket, one is strong enough to carry all we need all the way to Mars. The problem is that the heavier a rocket is, the harder it is to get it off the ground. However, SpaceX, one of (if not) the leading private companies that focus on space exploration, has recently successfully launched their biggest and strongest rocket, the Falcon Heavy. This rocket has the ability to carry the largest payload in the world to space, by a factor of two. SpaceX’s success proves that we have the technology to develop far stronger rockets, that could potentially make the round-trip to Mars carrying people and supplies. But that is not the most impressive aspect of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. When the spacecraft reached Earth's orbit, the thrusters detached, and unlike most rockets whose thrusters simply fall back to Earth and get destroyed, these thrusters landed back at the launch site by themselves. This is extremely important because it proves that there is reusability for these rockets. Consequently, this reduces the marginal cost of launching rockets to space extraordinarily. That brings us to the next thing we need to establish a colony on Mars, affordability. Traditionally, the way we send spacecrafts to space is outstandingly expensive. The entire cost of sending the Hubble telescope in space was a whopping 14 billion U.S. dollars (Sitrone). At this rate, the price tag of establishing a colony on Mars is unimaginable. However, innovative ideas like SpaceX’s reusable rockets will make the Mars mission affordable. To build a base on Mars we will need to launch plenty of rockets several times to resupply the base, and eventually bring more people. So reducing the cost of each rocket launch by a significant amount is a must if we are ever to colonize Mars. Still, even the launch costs are reduced we can't bring absolutely everything we will need to Mars. So eventually, another thing we need is to be able to produce resources there. One idea is to gather the methane from the atmosphere of Mars to manufacture propellant for the rockets as cryogenic methane. Another idea “involves splitting the water frozen in the subsurface Martian permafrost into hydrogen and oxygen” (Gary) for people in Mars to drink and breathe. This is crucial because one of the most important aspects of a base on Mars is that it needs to be sustainable.

As an astronomy student, a mission to Mars feels really exciting. All the progress that will be needed to establish a base on Mars, is for our generation to make. I think one of the biggest effects of our dream to reach Mars is that it inspires a lot of students. Space exploration has always been “widely recognized to be one of the most effective ways to inspire students to become interested in STEM education”, and it is truly driven people what we will need to succeed on colonizing Mars. The Mars mission will drive us to be innovative and to have a true desire to make a difference on our future, and inspire many future engineers, scientists, astronomists, physicists and more. For me, it makes me want more than to just work at some boring office doing a job I have got no real interest on; it makes me want to make a difference. It makes me look forward to the future, an exciting future, that motivates me to work hard for something that will change lives. It is projects like these that I feel that I want to be a part of, projects with a purpose beyond gaining profits. With a future this exciting, me and my community are motivated to reach for the stars.

One person that shares this enthusiasm is Dr. Christianne Beekman. She is an astronomy professor in Florida State University, whose class I took last semester. She taught me about the Earth, the planets, the solar system and beyond. She also taught me and my class a lot about Mars. While discussing Mars and the possibility of it sustaining life, Dr. Christianne Beekman mentioned that Mars is good candidate for a potential home for humans in the future. Mars is the closest and most similar planet to Earth in the solar system, the days are 23.5 hours long, is roughly the same size, and has an atmosphere. Also, Dr. Beekman adds that it is strongly believed that Mars contains water, which is essential to sustain life, therefore essential to us. This means that adapting to a life on Mars will be significantly easier than it would be on other planets, making Mars feel more like one of Earth's brothers rather than a distant, unusual planet. It is important that we explore and search for planets that could serve as an alternative home for humankind, in case something happens here on Earth that makes it unable to sustain us at some point. Also, Dr. Beekman says that eventually, “the Earth won't be able to support our entire population, so it would be a good idea to find an alternative home”, adding more significance to the mission of colonizing Mars, by proving that finding a second home is a necessary step for humankind’s future.

In regard to what we need to be successful in establishing a colony on Mars, one crucial factor is sustainability, Dr. Beekman says. The key is to be able to produce resources there, she says that we “don't want to have bring all the resources everytime. We need to be able to produce water, or at least recycle water over there”. Also, we need to learn how to use Mar’s soil to grow plants, even if it is inside an enclosure, to have a sustainable source of oxygen. Once we are able to grow plants, we can potentially grow food. Dr. Beekman emphasizes the importance of sustainability by saying that establishing a base on Mars “one time is okay, but making in it sustainable, that is the real technological challenge”. This means that it is fundamental that we are able to produce what we need there, essential things like water, fuel and food. It is not feasible to bring every single thing we need to survive in Mars on every trip there; the idea is that the colony can survive on its own.

While talking to Dr. Beekman, we discussed the benefits of colonizing Mars. One important benefit, she says, that is sometimes unforeseen, is the progress we get only for trying to colonize Mars. From her perspective as a scientist, she believes that the progress we will get from putting our efforts to get to Mars, is the main benefit. The facilities we need to build, the rocket technology we need to develop, being able to go back and forth between Mars and Earth, making the base sustainable; the fact that we need all of those things will drive scientific and technological progress, even if at the end we do not achieve our goal. “Simply the ‘want’ of doing this will drive science and technology, and along the way , there will be lots of progress, which we have seen before in the Apollo missions” explains Dr. Beekman. One great example of the progress that will occur is when we got to the Moon. The advancements that we made to get there resulted on the creation of many technologies that we use today, like satellites and computation. Therefore our efforts to reach our goal of colonizing Mars, will bring huge improvements on fields like science, engineering, and technology that will have an impact on our daily lives.

A colony on Mars is a really ambitious goal. There are many of obstacles in the way that we have yet to overcome. The development of an efficient rocket launch system, a sustainable base, and an affordable mission are necessary for this endeavor. But regardless of how difficult it will be, the simple fact that we try is going to cause countless progress in many fields. This project will inspire astronomy students like me and future generations to stay motivated, and to pave the way for our future. To establish a sustainable colony on Mars we need not only these serious advances in technology and science, but also the efforts of many truly driven people. I think that, apart from all the funding, science, and technology; really what is going to get us to Mars is people’s excitement and passion to pursue this goal.

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