In February 2020 not one, but three expected Martian spacecraft missions arriving at the target Red Planet, it is easy to project into the future. Hearing of the utilities that abound on these spacecraft, I took some time to reflect on the resources that would be required to enable and sustain human exploration on Mars.
For readability, I intend to split this article into a series, focused on aspects pertaining to short-term, medium-term, and longer-term stays on Mars. In each, I intend to address the most relevant topics, how those might change over time, and how these effects may shape culture on Martian soil.
Even before arriving on Mars, there is a lot that can be done, and indeed will be done. The Martian explorers - Hope - from UAE, Tianwen-1 from China and Perseverence from NASA, US all seek to gather different information. Information like this can inform our effort to put humans on Mars.
Hope Mars Orbiter - to give it it's full name, is the first effort from UAE on launching missions. Its chief concern is recording atmospheric data and recording the seasonal changes in the atmosphere and on the surface. Such data can inform the future human crews on just how hostile out celestial neighbour can be (remember - even in Summer - temperatures on Mars peak at roughly 20 degC at noon, in Summer at the Equator. Plunging to as low as -153 degC at the poles during the same time).
This heterogeneous temperature distribution across the planet reflects the absence of a functional atmosphere, in terms of heat transfer. Not having liquid water, or even water vapour, Mars loses the opportunity to effectively circulate heat around the planet. This could be the subject of a future strategic action by humans to terraform Mars and start coverting the red, rusty surface and ionised dust-tainted air into something more livable.
Remember fine, deep-penetrating dust isn't something new to Human experience, but the ionised chlorate part is. Nomad and settled folk alike in Northern Africa live with sand, fine dust in all aspects of their life. It is in the air, in the bread. This feature can cause significant premature wear on teeth in those parts. In future, settling Mars should take out a lot of the dust in the atmosphere, as the planet is warmed and liquid water helps to bind the earth.
Tianwen-1 - the People's Republic effort - is the latest impressive space-faring effort from China. Though the mission has not been as open to the public as those from UAE and the US, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) did release this photograph of Mars from the rover/ orbiter at a distance of ~1.3 million miles from the planet.
At this distance, some features are clearly visible and are annotated in a post-review feature - showased by space.com in this article. The apparent softening of the surface is a combination of dusty, thin atmosphere and distance smudging the image reaching the craft.
Such devices are common among archeology digs, oil-field exploration and also in use in construction to find buried pipes, cables and other hazards. In this Martian mission, the China rover will look for
Using these geophysics data, Tianwen-1 will enable CNSA personnel to detect water-ice distribution in the sub-surface soils. This will be a critical resource for the budding Martian explorers as a key source of hydrogen for the fuel for their return trip, and water to sustain the crew.
A reminder: the SpaceX starship is fuelled by Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). Made of a single Carbon atom hugged by 4 Hydrogen atoms - the Martian crews need to track down a source of both. Right now, the high proportion of CO2 in the thin atmosphere at least gives a source of one of these components. Condensing this down into a rich, dense resource for processing is quite another challenge in itself. And rightly so it is the ulterior motive behind the recent announcement of an $100 million Xprize challenge to create a sustainable carbon capture device, capable of capturing minimum 1 ton of Carbon each day. This challenge goes over and above other carbon capture methods already in existance - by focusing in on clear all-in considered cost of the technology, accounting for subsidy, reliability, but also other factors such as value add.
As important as the fuel component, liquid oxygen will be of equal importance and can be secured once CO2 has been captured for processing and storage as CH4.
As much as securing fuel is a chief concern - the prospect of returning home hinges on this - carbon is also a key component for food for the new inhabitants. A clean, constant stream of CO2 will enable Martian farmers to generate high yields of food as well as generating some small oxygen byproduct. By farming in pressurised, heated, grow-structures, the explorers can start to secure some 'home-grown' food.
These two chief concerns are pivotal from a human mission viability perspective.
In the next segment, we shall cover the Perseverence rover from NASA and lead into the early phase 'first-settlers' concerns that will come into frame once they have safely landed.
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