COLONIZING MARS

NASA did not hesitate to classify this as a colonial mission. Like the Apollo
Program, we embark on this journey for all humanity, NASA noted, adding,
Unlike Apollo,we will be going to stay We are developing the capabilities
necessary to get there, land there, and live there.

The agencys recent confirmation that there is liquid water on Mars is a good
thing for those who want to set up camp on the red planet, but it doesnt mean
living on Mars will be easy. For one thing, the water is not drinkablescientists
will still need to figure out a way to use it as a resource that could support life.
For another, the challenges that make a hypothetical journey to Mars so
dangerous, like sustained exposure to dangerous radiation, remain.
But NASA isnt stepping away from the goal of a manned mission, and it sees
three phases on the path to achieving it. The first phase, where we are now, is
described by NASA as Earth Reliant.
Earth Reliant exploration is focused on research aboard the ISS. On the space
station, we are testing technologies and advancing human health and
performance research that will enable deep-space, long-duration missions.
This, the agency explains, includes developing and testing communication
systems, researching human health, investigating life support systems for Mars,
3D printing and more.
The next phase, Proving Ground, is when NASA will learn to conduct complex
operations in a deep space environment that allows crews to return to Earth in a
matter of days. NASA explains that most of these missionsthe first of which is
set to launch in 2018will take place in cislunar space, or somewhere between
the Earth and the Moon. This Proving Ground step includes the Asteroid
Redirect Robotic Mission, slated for 2020, which will allow astronauts to test
material from a near-Earth asteroid, and developing ways to cut down on
resupply missions.
The final phase, Earth Independent, is when NASA hopes to put humans on
Mars. From the report:
Earth Independent activities build on what we learn on ISS and in cislunar space
to enable human missions to the Mars vicinity, including the Martian moons, and
eventually the Martian surface.
Once on Mars, the plan is to: harvest Martian resources to create fuel, water,
oxygen and building materials, and leveraging advanced communication
systems to relay data and results from science and exploration excursions with a
20-minute delay .

MAGAZINE

Modern Martian History -9m(A.V.)-136m(P.V.) (1960-2232)

Early Exploration -9m(A.V.)-31m(P.V.) (1960-2036)
The first Mars exploration efforts with unmanned probes, sent by the United
States and Russia, the then superpowers, started as early as 1960, only three
years after Sputnik marked the beginning of the space age. But it would take until
1974 for Viking I and II to make the first successful landings in Chryse and Utopia
Planitia.
After that, not much happened until the late nineties. Another unmanned
lander, Pathfinder , equipped with a small rover, caused widespread enthusiasm
in the summer of 1997. With the new millennium came a new generation of
robotic explorers with greater capabilities, like Spirit, Opportunity and ExoMars.
Satellites like Global Surveyor, Mars Express andReconnaissance mapped and
photographed the planet in high detail and gathered lots of information about
surface, sub-surface and atmosphere.
In the wake of these successes, small space advocacy groups like the Mars
Society and ExploreMars called for manned Mars missions. Also private
companies like SpaceX , MarsOne and Inspiration Mars developed plans for
human exploration.
But not until the 2020s did developments in that direction gather momentum. In
that decade the Chinese, who developed manned spaceflight forty years later
than the USA and Russia, set course for Mars, urging the other spacefaring
nations to speed up their Mars programs.
China got to Mars first, in 2030, although only marginally earlier than the joint
European/Russian/American/Japanese expedition that tried to beat them. Both
missions represented a major scientific leap forward; the crews stayed for over a
year on the surface and acquired knowledge and understanding about the red
world that robotic missions wouldnt have been able to in decades.
Follow-up missions in 2032 en 2034 were equally successful. It was time for
permanent habitation of the planet.

Colonization and Terraforming 31m-54m (2036-2078)

From 2036 onwards the concept of one way expeditons took root. Rather than
spending a lot of effort in the return trip, these missions invested in building a
permanent presence on the Red Planet. The first of these long term projects
started in late 2036 with the landing of ten pioneers in Noctis Labyrinthus.

In three Marsyears time this base, Bradbury Station, grew into a community of
two hundred pioneers from two dozen different countries. A similar settlement,
with mainly Chinese inhabitants, grew in the Nilosyrtis Mountains. Despite the
competition there was also cooperation. A satellite-based global positioning
network, for example, was developed by China and the other nations together.
The government-funded scientific bases were soon followed by private
enterprise. The Martian Pioneer Corporation arrived in 2041, even before the first
Brazilian and Indian crews landed on the planet. Rather than pursuing a purely
scientific purpose, the private missions were looking to open the Martian
frontier. The Red Planet had something that became extremely scarce on earth:
space. Mars was a tool to relieve the burden from the overpopulated and polluted
home planet.
The early settlers were highly motivated and well educated, willing to endure the
harsh circumstances in the knowledge that they helped to build a new world.
Solar radiation forced the colonists to spend most of their time in small tunacanshaped habitats and underground shelters and for every excursion on the surface
they had to get into bulky suits and helmets for protection against the cold and
the hostile atmosphere. A large percentage of the new Martians suffered, in rare
cases even died, from dust disease.
A hot item in those early days was the question: is there life on Mars, or, if not,
has there been life in the past? Towards the end of the thirties, after decades of
unmanned and manned exploration, the scientific community moved to a
consensus: exotic lifeforms existed four billion years ago, but they simply
couldn't have survived the change in climate.
This conclusion gave way to a new discussion: if life had been kicked out of
Mars, shouldn't we bring some back? By pumping a relatively small amount of
so-called super-greenhouse gasses into the thin atmosphere and the subsequent
release of carbon dioxide from the regolith and the polar caps a runaway
greenhouse effect could be created that would eventually lead to an atmosphere
where plants could thrive.
Strange though it may sound to us who know Mars as a beautiful living world,
these terraforming plans were not welcomed by everyone with the enthusiasm
one would expect. For various ethical or religious reasons, large factions pleaded
to preserve Mars as the lifeless wilderness it was. In the international community
China and India strongly supported the terraforming idea, whereas the western
world kept a more reserved point of view.
The combined influence from the two Asian superpowers however was strong
enough to dictate the outcome of the Bangkok Conference in 2051, where 140
countries, among them all space-faring nations of that era, came together to
discuss the subject. The declaration stated that terraforming Mars was desirable,

that it should be carried out by all of humanity together and that it should, as
much as possible, preserve the characteristics of Mars, rather than creating a
second Earth. The United Nations Council for the Development of Mars
(Unacodema) was installed as the official government for the new world. The first
greenhouse gasses were brought into the Martian atmosphere just six months
later.
It was clear from the beginning, though, that terraforming would be a very long
term project. But life in the settlements pretty soon acquired a little more luxury
as the colonists developed the ability to manufacture products themselves rather
than importing everything from Earth. Steel, brick, glass and plastics were
produced from the Martian soil. The tunacan-bases were extended with large
greenhouses and inflatable domes.

The Golden Decades 54m-71m(2078-2110)

The search for a cure against dust disease gave Martian nanotechnology a
headstart. As another result of the nanotech revolution, the settlements became
ever more spacious. From the end of the sixties onwards, ever larger craters were
equipped with transparent roofs. Technological knowledge and products were
exported to Earth and the young economy prospered.
The rise in temperature and the thickening of the CO2-atmosphere took place
above all expectations. The installation in 2078 of Soline, the second sun (a
giant space mirror) accelerated these effects even more. In low areas small lakes
were forming; in their vicinity appeared small green patches of mosses and some
other sturdy types of vegetation that were introduced by Unacodemas
terraforming authority.
A controversial terraforming method was the hurling of ice asteroids on an
aerobraking trajectory through the upper layers of the atmosphere, where they
would vaporize and add heat to the planets system. Though very effective in
terms of water and nitrogen import this project was abandoned when in 2104 a
large chunk of ice crashed in Utopia Planitia, causing widespread damage and
casualties.
The introduction of new propulsion systems reduced the travel time between
Earth and Mars to a matter of weeks, and made travel less dependent on the twoyearly launch window. From 2094 onward the space elevator at Robinson also
radically reduced the cost of transportation between the two planets, making a
one-way-trip to the promised land affordable for large numbers of earthlings.
A few years after the beginning of the 22nd century, it was possible to walk
around on the surface with just thick clothes and a CO2-mask. Grasses, shrubs
and bushes as well as small animals were making their appearance. Conversion
of the thickened carbon dioxide atmosphere into a more earth-like one, would

have taken thousands of years, if it had been carried out by photosynthesis of

plants. Soon, however, nanosmarties from the laboratories of Sagan University
were introduced, turning the prospect of a breathable atmosphere back to the
order of mere decades.

Crisis and Seperatism 71m-92m(2110-2150)

By the end of the twenty first century twenty million people lived on Mars, and
thousands of new immigrants arrived each day, many of them refugees from wars
and crises on Earth. Despite application of high-technology it became more and
more difficult to provide all these newcomers with food, air, room to live, and
meaningfull things to do. The end of the nineties saw a chain reaction of
accidents, incidents, riots and unrest. Racial tension, virtually non-existent in the
pioneer society, appeared on the stage.
In 2110 the Chinese government proclaimed sovereignty over the area between
latitudes -60 and -90 east, an area where most of the Chinese settlements were
located. The united front against this unilateral act soon started to crack, as
several of the worlds great powers saw their chance to get a piece of the cake.
When in 2114 the United Nations world council recognized the Chinese claim, the
five countries responsible for this decision, Japan, India, Brazil, the US and the
EU, all claimed a portion of the greening planet. At the Nozomi conference, held
the next year, the creation of six territories was legalized. Although these six
area's together occupied only 35% of Mars land surface, they definitely included
the most attractive areas, like Elysium and the emerging coastlines of Isidis,
Hellas, Argyre and Viking Bay. Of the remaining 65%, still governed by the UN, in
the next few years several regions and towns proclaimed themselves
independent. Although these newly formed countries were not recognized by the
interplanetary community not much was done against their existence.

Map 1: Mars in the 22nd century with the borders of the territories

Terraforming, in the meantime, was running smooth as ever. By 2125 global

temperatures rose so rapidly that an overheating of the planet was feared. To
avoid this scenario the artificial sun Soline was sold to an even bolder
terraforming project: Jupitermoon Callisto. Darkness returned to the Martian
nights, except for Lunette, an artificial satellite launched in 2129. This open ring
structure appears to an observer on the Martian surface to have the same size as
the full moon on earth.
After the native Martians recovered from the shock of seeing their Martian Dream
being sold-out to nationalism, they started a counter-movement, OneMars, that
soon received great response all over the UN-governed area and, to some extent,
also in the six territories. The big breaktrough however came in the late thirties,
when Sangeeta Bhattacharya joined the Indian Territories chapter of OneMars.
This former photomodel and adult feelie star started a campaign for reunion of
New India with the Unacodema-area. This goal was accomplished in 2142 after
that Territories economy crashed and a referendum was held.

In the first half of the 22nd century there was not much left of the image of Mars
as the promised land. The development of new technology that formerly pushed
the Martian economy to unseen heights suffered from the unrest and division.
The attention of the general public shifted to new destinations like the asteroid
belt, Mercury and the Jovian system. OneMars managed to convince the UN
world council that independence for the UN-governed area would be in the best
interest of Earth and Mars.

Independence and Reunification 92m-118m (2150-2199)

As a result of the first elections Bhattacharya was elected the first president of
the impoverished, incomplete Martian Union. She would stay in office until 2170.
Her first concern was to negotiate the several city states that seceded after the
Division back into the Union. When this policy appeared to be successful and
both economy and Martian self-esteem started to flourish again a popular
movement in Elysium (the EU-territory) and New Nippon pushed for joining the
Union, an event finally taking place in 2160.
While relations with Nova Brasil and the Americanadian Territories were generally
very friendly, relations with the Chinese area became more and more troubled
after 2162, when governor Shao Shan proclaimed the Territories independent
from China. In the following years his regime started violating the rights of
minorities and political opponents. In 2165 Shao Shan proclaimed himself
"Emperor of Mars". The crisis was solved in 2167 when Shao Shan was arrested
by nanocops and sentenced to fifty years of penal servitude on Deimos.

Map 2: rise of the water; development of the coastlines in the 22nd century

All this time, the terraforming process proceeded as smooth as ever. Large
mammals were introduced in the early forties. Vegetation rapidly became more
complex and widespread; the first forests appeared. Global temperatures
stabilized at a level not too far below their equivalents on Earth, high enough for
palm trees and other subtropical plants to survive in sheltered areas near the
equator. With masses of underground water melting and flowing to the three
great basins on the planet, and more water being pumped from aquifers, sea
levels kept rising until, around 2185, the coastlines stabilized.
Nova Brasil joined the Union in 2179 and the Americanadians completed the
process in 2199 when after 89 years Mars was reunified. By that time Mars was
already taking over the lead in further development of the Solar System and in
making the first hesitant steps towards the stars.

Consolidation and Greyification 118m-136m (2199-2232)

With its domestic issues solved, Mars could finally grow into its current position
as a major player in interplanetary politics. In the new century, some possessions
in the main asteroid belt were acquired and a number of Kuiper Belt colonies
were founded. And in 2230, the Martian Exploration Agency organised the first
manned starbound mission, for which purpose asteroid 7973 Koppeschaar was
converted into a multi-generation starship.
Demographic developments were a reason for concern in Martian politics. After
many decades of rapid population growth, towards the end of the 22nd century
the number of people living on Mars stabilized around 200 million. In 2212, for the
first time in history the number of immigrants was exceeded by the number of
people leaving the planet for onward destinations like the Jovian or Saturnian
system or the asteroid or Kuiper belts. In the same year the average age of the
remaining population was eighty years and rising. Since Mars always had a small
and relatively wealthy population, longevity treatments were available for a
considerable percentage of the Martian people much earlier than it had been on
Earth and the problems of greyification appeared much sooner than anywhere
else. In the new century a program to keep Martians not only physically, but also
mentally young, became a major priority for the Martian government.
While some people as early as 2190 proclaimed terraforming finished, reality has
been more complex. Though global temperatures and sea levels have been more
or less stable for almost half a century, unpredictably changing climate patterns
remain a reason for concern. Seismic activity, virtually absent in the early days of
colonization, dramatically increased due to the sudden pressure of large bodies
of water in certain areas. Also flora and fauna of the new world are still
struggling to reach a natural balance. Theres still a lot of gardening to do and the
Martians, proud as they are of what they call the martification are more than
happy to fulfil that task.

Nasa planning Earth Independent Mars Colony by 2030s

Nasa has released its plan for establishing

colonies on Mars within the next 25 years

Humans will be living and working on Mars in colonies entirely independent of

Earth by the 2030s, Nasa has said.
The US space organisation today released its plan for establishing permanent
settlements on the red planet, setting out in detail plans to create deep-space
habitation facilities which will act as stepping stones to Mars.
In a new report entitled Journey to Mars Nasa said the mission was historic
pioneering endeavor similar to the early settlers in America and Moon landing.
Like the Apollo programme, we embark on this journey for all humanity, the
report states. Unlike Apollo, we will be going to stay.
In the next few decades, Nasa will take steps toward establishing a human
presence beyond Earth."
We seek the capacity for people to work, learn operate and sustainably live
beyond Earth for extended periods of time. Any journey to Mars will take many
months each way and early return is not an option.
Nasa 'mystery announcement': does water on Mars mean alien life is out
there?Play!02:10
Efforts made today and in the next decade will lay the foundation for an Earth
Independent, sustained presence in deep space. Living and working in space
require accepting risk and the journey is worth the risk.

Nasa has divided the challenge of getting to Mars into three stages; Earth reliant,
proving ground and Earth independent.

An artist's impression of the Mars One colony

In the coming decades the space agency will continue to gather information from
experiments aboard the International Space Station, so that crews can live in
deep space without health problems from radiation and the effects of microgravity.
Currently the amount of time astronauts can spend in space is limited because of
fears that space radiation causes cancer. Many crew members also need glasses
after returning from space because the effects of micro-gravity causes pressure
to build up in the optic nerve. There are also fears that astronauts could
develop dementia or suffer fertility problems.
The first experiments away from the ISS will take place in cislunar space the
area of space around the Moon before missions begin venturing further afield.
The final step will see human missions sent into Mars orbit or one of its moons,
before crews eventually land on the Martian surface and set up colonies using
modular architecture and 3-D printing.
NASA is closer to sending American astronauts to Mars than at any point in our
history, said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
Today, we are publishing additional details about our journey to Mars plan and
how we are aligning all of our work in support of this goal. In the coming weeks, I
look forward to continuing to discuss the details of our plan with members of
Congress, as well as our commercial and our international and partners, many of
whom will be attending the International Astronautical Congress next week.

The surface of
Mars CREDIT: NASA/JPL/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

Nasa says it is also committed to designing a new and powerful transportation

system which will involve solar electric propulsion, using the Suns energy to
take spacecraft deeper into space. Cargo ships will being shuttling supplies to
Mars, months or even years before the first humans land.
It is hoping that the upcoming Asteroid Redirect Mission, which seeks to bring
an asteroid into lunar orbit where it can be studied, will be using solar propulsion,
and Mars scientists will be following its progress closesly.
NASAs strategy connects near-term activities and capability development to the
journey to Mars and a future with a sustainable human presence in deep space,
said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Exploration and
Operations at NASA Headquarters.
Probes and robotic rovers like Curiosity have already been on or around Mars for
40 years and Nasa will continue to send new landers in the coming decades to
gather more information about the planet ahead of landing. Recent discoveries
have shown that salt water which could sustain life is likely to be flowing on
Mars. The remains of ancient lakes and river beds are also present.

Rivers of salt water are flowing on

Mars CREDIT: NASA/JPL/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

The report concludes: NASA and its partners are working on the solutions every
day so we can answer some of humanitys fundamental questions about life
beyond Earth: Was Mars home to microbial life? Is it today? Could it be a safe
home for humans one day? What can it teach us about life elsewhere in the
cosmos or how life began on Earth? What can it teach us about Earths past,
present and future?
However Nasa may be beaten. The Mars One project, set up by a nonprofit
organization based in the Netherlands has proposed to land the first humans on
Mars and establish a permanent human colony there by 2027