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Andrew Singleton

Professor Calhoun

English 1201-521

26 April 2020

How Humans Can Make a Colony On Mars

Mars has been an object in the sky that humans have been fascinated about for millennia.

Recently, there have been talks about possibly creating a self-sustainable colony on Mars to

expand human civilization into a multiplanetary species. The question that arises from this

growing interest is, how can humans create a self-sustaining colony on Mars? Well, it all starts

with figuring out how humans would be able to get to Mars safely and reliably. Since the closest

that Mars gets to the Earth is 55 million kilometers, spacecraft need to be designed to be

extremely fuel efficient. One way that humans could save fuel would be to first set up a base on

the moon. The moon is an excellent starting point because of its thin atmosphere and low gravity.

After the infrastructure on the moon has been setup, humans can then create a self-sustaining

colony on Mars by constructing special habitats that make oxygen from Mars atmosphere, drill

into water caverns under the surface, grow plants in a controlled environment, and slowly

terraform the surface of Mars using techniques like bacteria farms to make the atmosphere more

habitable for humans.

In the dawn of the space race in the 1950s, many people were excited about space

exploration and what it could become. Many fictional books were written in the 1950s about the

possibility of a self-sustaining colony on mars. The first book that had a major influence on the

public was The Martian Chronicles written by Ray Bradbury in 1950. It was a fictional story that

involved humans taking over mars from the martians that had inhabited it (Williams). Other
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books written in the 1950s and part of the 1960s had a very similar theme to The Martian

Chronicles, suggesting that many people believed that the possibility of martian life was high.

This idea remained popular until 1965, when photographs from the Mariner 4 space probe

revealed that Mars was a waterless, lifeless planet (Rand). After the space race, support for a

human mission to Mars dwindled until the early 21st century. Support has begun rising very

quickly recently to send human missions to Mars. This started when SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk,

spoke about his company’s plan to reach Mars by 2022 in 2017 (Rand). NASA and companies

like Blue Origin have also laid out elaborate plans to send human missions to Mars.

However, most of these missions involve going to the moon first. The moon is the

greatest way to prepare humans for Mars. Not only is it almost 143 times closer than mars, it also

allows for tests to be conducted much quicker and cheaper on many different aspects of martian

colonization. Eric Mack discusses in her article that setting up an orbital base around the Moon is

crucial to the infrastructure of travel between the Earth and Mars. The reasons that an orbital

base would be important to the infrastructure between the Earth and Mars starts with the fact that

it would be a place where moon landers and deep space probes could go to refuel or restock on

supplies. This also applies to future mars missions, which will be able to refuel fully after

escaping the Earth’s atmosphere. The Earth’s atmosphere is where most of the fuel in a rocket is

used up because the rocket has to overcome the deep gravity well that the Earth produces. Mike

Wall explains in his article the importance of setting up a moon-orbiting space station. In the

article, Wall interviews John Guidi, who is the deputy director of the Advanced Exploration

Systems division of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. In the

interview, Guidi explains that NASA is working on a design for an orbital station around the

moon. He believes that this station would help reduce the cost of traveling to Mars and would be
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key infrastructure for efficient travel to Mars in the future. The Gateway is NASAs design of a

potential orbital base around the moon.

Once the orbital station is established in an orbit around the Moon, colonies can then

begin to be established on the surface. This will allow the astronauts to gather crucial data

concerning a self-sustaining colony on Mars. The conditions on both locations are very different,

but habitation modules need to be constructed similarly. The reason why habitats would need to

be constructed similarly is because both planets pose extremely harsh challenges. Prototyping

these special habitats, or habitation modules, on the Moon first would be much safer and cheaper

than sending them to Mars. Since the moon is closer, less fuel would be required to send

materials to the Moon than to Mars. Furthermore, more adjustments could be made to these

technologies than could be made if they were on Mars. It would also give astronauts the same

feel as being on Mars because they would need to find a way to supply their own power, make

their own food, find a way to make drinkable water, and use resources from the Moon's surface

to build structures and other equipment. It could also be a great time to experiment with many

different kinds of species of bacteria to determine which ones grow the best in a harsh

environment. These bacteria and other microorganisms could potentially be used to do tasks like

recycle air and waste and even produce food. Erwan Beauvious is a space operations engineer

with the National Centre for Space Studies, and he agrees that setting up a colony on the Moon is

a crucial step to creating a colony on Mars. At the International Astronautical Congress on

October 23, 2019, Erwan Beauvois stated, “A good moon program is a good Mars program. If

you think of the space program as a road map, it can be coherent, and it is pretty beneficial to do

this”. Without the infrastructure on the Moon first, Mars travel would be much harder and less

efficient.
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Once astronauts finally reach the surface of Mars, that is when the real challenge starts.

Hauling materials across space is very expensive because the materials need to be very compact

to fit in the small confines of a rocket. This means that constructing habitats for these astronauts

to live in needs to be done on Mars. Scientists have already begun to research ways that the soil

on Mars can be used to build the base of the habitats. Not only would this decrease the cost, it

would also increase the replicability of the habitats to allow for easy construction with little need

for Earth influence. Special rovers and robots can be sent before the humans arrive to pre build

the habitats by turning the Mars rock into a substance that is suitable for 3-D Printing. This

would allow the robots to simply follow a pre-existing code to build the habitats. Once the

frames for these habitats are built, that is just the beginning. There are many different pieces that

need to be built and researched to allow humans to comfortably live with little outside

intervention. Although this is just one way that habitats could be built on Mars, it is one of the

most efficient ways. It also poses less of a human risk to the first colonists that step foot on Mars.
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Potential habitat design by “Team LavaHive” that was awarded 3rd place in NASA’s 3-D

Habitat design challenge. This habitat uses martian soil (Harbaugh).

There are many reasons that humans cannot live on Mars without special assistance

from technology. First off, the temperature on Mars is bitterly cold, with lows that are less than

negative 70 Celsius. That alone would give somebody frostbite on earth in less than 5 minutes.

Also, the gravity on Mars is less than on Earth and Mars has a much thinner atmosphere. The

atmospheric pressure on Mars is about 0.6 percent of Earth’s atmospheric pressure and the

atmosphere on Mars is composed mainly of carbon dioxide (NASA). This means that humans

cannot breathe on the surface without the help from systems created by scientists to provide the

vital oxygen that colonists would need. Finally, the dust storms on Mars are a very large issue

that needs to be addressed. These dust storms occur whenever the winds on Mars pick up the

particles of dust on the surface that are very fine and dry. These dust storms can span across the

entire planet. These particles are harmful to any kind of technology that is on the surface, so

scientists have to account for this whenever they are making something that needs to survive the

rugged environment.

These special habitats have to account for all of the dangers listed previously. To do this,

they have to include a variety of technologies to allow for humans to live self-sustainably on

Mars. The biggest issue that needs to be addressed is the lack of Oxygen for humans to breathe.

At the beginning, Oxygen generators would need to be hauled on the spaceship with the

colonists. This generator would convert the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into breathable

oxygen. They would be installed inside of the prebuilt habitat that was built by the robots in a

mission prior. NASA has already designed an Oxygen generator, called MOXIE, which will fly
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to Mars on NASA’s 2020 rover for testing (NASA). The next issue that needs to be addressed is

how the colonists will eat a healthy diet of food while on Mars. Most of the food production that

occurs on mars will need to be done under artificial lighting and in hydroponic greenhouses.

Hydroponic greenhouses are controlled chambers that mimic the growing conditions on the

surface of the Earth by replicating systems such as the water cycle to give the plants the ideal

environment to grow. There are many crops that could be grown on Mars in these hydroponic

greenhouses. These include carrots, potatoes, kale, onions, and other types of food that can be

combined to produce a rather healthy diet (Cartier). All of these food types listed have been

tested in similar environments. Some of them have been found to work on the International

Space Station, while others have been grown in habitats that mimic the martian environment on

Earth.

Electrical power is something else that a habitat needs to have to comfortably house

colonists. Electricity is a requirement because it is used to power all the lights and generators that

keep the habitat comfortable. It also is needed to safely communicate with humans back on Earth

incase of an emergency. Solar power is the power source that is shown in many popular movies

and is the first thing to come to mind whenever someone thinks about electricity on Mars.

However, solar power would get worn down quickly due to the constant dust storms and the

distance between Mars and the Sun is greater. This means that the light rays hitting the solar

panels on Mars would only be about half as efficient as solar panels on Earth on a perfect day

(Black). Second, the powerful dust storms discussed previously would likely cover the solar

panels very often. This would also decrease the energy production, resulting in a very small

amount of power actually being generated when both of these factors are factored in. The

technology currently being researched that is the best way to produce energy on Mars is nuclear
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power. This is a great alternative to solar power because it is a constant power source, meaning

that it is much more reliable and efficient (Black). However, unlike nuclear power plants on

Earth, the nuclear power system on Mars would be much smaller. NASA is already in the

process of prototyping their own nuclear system. The “Kilopower” system is a design that uses

uranium instead of plutonium and is going to be built to survive the rugged environment on Mars

(Hall).

Water is an essential resource for humans to survive on Mars. In order to make a colony

self-sustaining, water needs to be able to be efficiently produced and reused. Although the

surface of Mars is very dry and desolate, there have been many studies that show that water is

present below the surface. Sylvain Piqueux and a team of researchers have recently published a

study in the journal, Geophysical Research Letters, that shows evidence that ice exists only

inches below a large portion of the surface of Mars. If this is the case, it means that colonists

could easily extract this water using drilling equipment. Once the water is extracted, the colonists

will need a way to easily reuse the water, much like how humans reuse water on Earth. To do

this, colonists can construct similar systems to those that exist on the International Space Station.

Shaunacy Ferro explains in her article the process that occurs on the International Space Station

to reuse the most water possible. Ferro states that the International Space Station collects

moisture from the air and then recycles it to allow for an efficient system that requires very little

water. The same thing can be done in habitats on Mars. Water collection is crucial because much

of the food grown on Mars will require a significant amount of water to grow. The more efficient

that a water collection system is, the easier it will be to prevent water shortages with a large

colony.
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In the past, terraforming Mars has been a thought that was only in science fiction.

Recently, some studies have shown that it could be done, although it would still be a daunting

task. This has been a controversial topic for many years. Some people believe that the surface of

Mars should not be contaminated with bacteria and other living things from Earth while others

believe that it could be a way to make colonization of Mars an easier task for humans. Gary King

is a microbiologist at Louisiana State University and he studies bacteria that survives in extreme

environments (Herkewitz). King believes that the thought of growing microbial life on Mars

presents an amazing opportunity to humanity. King states, “ I don't think that it's entirely

farfetched to imagine us [humans] developing something like a microbial farm on Mars… and

not in something like 200 years, but far sooner”. Growing bacteria on Mars would alter the

makeup of the atmosphere. This would result in Mars obtaining a greenhouse effect, similar to

what occurs on Earth. Eventually, this would cause Mars to theoretically warm up and obtain an

atmosphere that is composed of a larger portion of Oxygen (Herkewitz). Terraforming Mars is a

drawn out process, but is something that would make a self-sustaining colony much easier to set

up and expand.

Although a majority of people are in favor of a colony on Mars, there are some people

that believe Mars colonization is something that should not be attempted. There are various

counterarguments that exist, and the first one is that humans will contaminate Mars. These

people believe that the microbes that human colonists would bring to Mars would end up making

the search for martian life nearly impossible (Bharmal). People with this viewpoint argue that

human presence on Mars would jeopardize the main reason why humans are on Mars in the first

place, to search for life. Although it is true that humans would bring trillions of microbes along

with them, robots already on the surface of Mars have exposed the planet to thousands of
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microbes already. This means that humans have technically already contaminated Mars, which

means that human presence would not be the first time that Mars has been contaminated with

microbial life. Furthermore, although the main goal to going to Mars can be objective, it seems

that the focus has shifted from finding life on Mars to making humans into a multiplanetary

species. This would increase the chance that humans survive if something catastrophic happens

to the Earth.

Another counterargument that exists is that robots have several advantages over humans

and that robots should remain the sole object on Mars. People that support this counterargument

explain that robots are much cheaper than humans and do not require the vast infrastructure that

would need to be built to transport humans to Mars (Bharmal). Humans do require a vast

infrastructure to get to Mars, however, robots can only do so much on the surface of Mars. First,

communication between a robot that is on Mars and antennas on Earth is extremely slow. This is

mainly due to the speed that radio waves travel. According to NASA, an orbiter around Mars can

send information and receive information from the Curiosity rover for about eight minutes at a

time, per sol. During this time, 100 to 250 megabits of data can be transferred to the orbiter to

send to the rover. This is an extremely small amount of data, and results in little progress getting

done on a daily basis. On the other hand, humans on Mars would not have to deal with the lag

between the planets. This would make research much more efficient.

Finally, there are people that argue that humans should work on fixing the Earth before

going to Mars. They believe that the money funding travel to Mars would be better used if it was

going to fund renewable forms of energy and combat climate change (Bharmal). Both of these

examples are valid things that need to be addressed. However, CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk,

believes that humans need a “backup planet” just in case something apocalyptic happens to the
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Earth that is out of humanities control. The example that Elon Musk gives is an asteroid collision

with the Earth, that could technically happen at any time. In order to ensure that humanity

survives an apocalyptic situation like that, humans need to prioritize both Mars colonization and

the Earth.

In conclusion, humanity has been viewing Mars for millenia, fascinated by its red glow

and what could exist on it. For centuries, it was just another object in the sky, but recently talks

about going to Mars and creating a self-sustaining colony have sparked the minds of many. The

journey to Mars is a long process, and involves the construction of a vast infrastructure

connecting the Earth, Moon, and Mars together. The first step is constructing a space station

around the Moon, and then creating a colony on the Moon to gather vital research and data about

living in a rugged, extreme environment. Colonizing the Moon first will allow research to be

done much faster. After this data is collected, colonization of Mars can begin. In order to create a

self-sustaining colony on Mars, colonists will need to live in special habitats constructed by

robots that create oxygen, reuse water, grow food, produce electricity, and use bacteria to attempt

to terraform the surface.

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Works Cited

Bharmal, Zahaan. “The Case against Mars Colonisation.” The Guardian, Guardian News and

Media, 28 Aug. 2018, www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2018/aug/28/the-case-against-

mars-colonisation. Accessed 29 Mar. 2020.

Black, Mason. “Powering a Colony on Mars.” Stanford University, 5 Dec. 2017,

large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph240/black1/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2020.

Cartier, Kimberly M.S. “Tests Indicate Which Edible Plants Could Thrive on Mars.” Eos, 12

Jan. 2018, eos.org/articles/tests-indicate-which-edible-plants-could-thrive-on-mars.

Accessed 29 Mar. 2020.

Ferro, Shaunacy. “How Do Astronauts Get Drinking Water on the ISS?” Mental Floss, 8

Sept. 2015, www.mentalfloss.com/article/67854/how-do-astronauts-get-drinking-water-

iss. Accessed 29 Mar. 2020.

Hall, Loura. “Kilopower.” NASA, NASA, 12 Dec. 2017,

www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/kilopower. Accessed 29 Mar. 2020.

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Harbaugh, Jennifer. “NASA Awards Top Three Design Finalists in 3D Printed Habitat

Challenge.” NASA, NASA, 27 Sept. 2015,

www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/centennial_challenges/3DPHab/2015winners.html.

Herkewitz, William. “Here's How We'll Terraform Mars With Microbes.” Popular

Mechanics, 15 Feb. 2018, www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-

mars/a15410/terraform-mars-with-microbes/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2020.

Mack, Eric. “Why NASA's Manned Mars Missions Start with the Moon.” CNET, 1 Oct. 2018,

www.cnet.com/news/why-nasa-manned-mars-missions-start-with-the-moon/. Accessed 29

Mar. 2020.

“NASA's Mars Exploration Program.” NASA, NASA, 3 June 2014, mars.nasa.gov/. Accessed

29 Mar. 2020.

Piqueux, Sylvain, et al. “Widespread Shallow Water Ice on Mars at High Latitudesand

Midlatitudes.” AGU Journals, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 17 Dec. 2019,

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2019GL083947. Accessed 29 Mar.

2020.

Rand, Lisa Ruth. “Colonizing Mars: Practicing Other Worlds on Earth.” Origins, The Ohio

State University, Miami University, Nov. 2017, origins.osu.edu/article/colonizing-mars-

practicing-other-worlds-earth. Accessed 29 Mar. 2020.

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Wall, Mike. “NASA Plans to Build a Moon-Orbiting Space Station: Here's What You Should

Know.” Space.com, Space, 10 Sept. 2018, www.space.com/41763-nasa-lunar-orbiting-

platform-gateway-basics.html. Accessed 29 Mar. 2020.

Williams, Matt. “How Do We Colonize Mars?” Universe Today, 21 Nov. 2016,

www.universetoday.com/14883/mars-colonizing/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2020.