SpaceX rival plans to build permanent, sustainable colonies on Mars
MARS — The race to Mars has begun.
SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk has announced that the company will send people to the red planet by 2024 and that he would reveal plans for colonization in September, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Meanwhile, a nonprofit group also aims to establish permanent Mars colonies, sending the first group of astronauts by 2026.
After Earth, Mars is the most habitable planet in our solar system. It has similar natural resources, a temperate climate and an adaptable gravitational pull on its surface.
Mars One — a non profit foundation founded in 2011 with a team of ambassadors and advisors including an astronaut, Nobel Prize laureate and the former NASA Chief Technologist — has developed a mission plan to colonize Mars. Mars One has already selected six teams of four individuals. The first team will begin training next year, according to the Mars One website.
In 2020, Mars One will launch a communications satellite to the red planet. Between 2022 and 2025, a series of rovers will land and assemble the habitats.
The colony will have livable habitats, a life support unit and a communications system.
The Living Unit will house an inflatable living section and an airlock used by astronauts when leaving the sealed, habitable settlement. The unit will include materials for the construction of rooms, floors and electrical outlets, and comes equipped with shower and kitchen areas. Additional units will arrive and be constructed as new teams join the colony.
The Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) is rigged with extra technologies which capitalize on the natural resources available on Mars. Thin film solar photovoltaic panels will be included to generate electricity. The ECLSS will be equipped with heating units to boil and extract water from ice in the planet’s soil, according to the Mars One website.
The ECLSS will be connected to the Living Unit through a tube which will feed nitrogen and argon gas, extracted from Mars’ atmosphere, into the habitable space as inert gases. Once the astronauts have landed, it will also be in charge of the water purification and removal of waste gas such as carbon dioxide from the Living Unit atmosphere.
The Mars colony’s communication system will involve two orbiting satellites: one around Mars and one around the sun. The satellite orbiting Mars will only be interrupted when Mars is positioned between it and Earth.
To counter the lapse, the second satellite orbiting the sun will intercept and relay the transmission, allowing almost 24/7 communication with Earth. The colony will lose transmission only when the sun is between Mars and Earth and Mars is between its satellite and Earth simultaneously.
Mars One will launch a team of four every two years starting in 2026. It will take a year after departing Earth for a team to land on the surface of Mars. The organization hopes to train and send new teams, even after the initial six have colonized the planet.
SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk has announced that the company will send people to the red planet by 2024 and that he would reveal plans for colonization in September, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Meanwhile, a nonprofit group also aims to establish permanent Mars colonies, sending the first group of astronauts by 2026.
After Earth, Mars is the most habitable planet in our solar system. It has similar natural resources, a temperate climate and an adaptable gravitational pull on its surface.
Mars One — a non profit foundation founded in 2011 with a team of ambassadors and advisors including an astronaut, Nobel Prize laureate and the former NASA Chief Technologist — has developed a mission plan to colonize Mars. Mars One has already selected six teams of four individuals. The first team will begin training next year, according to the Mars One website.
In 2020, Mars One will launch a communications satellite to the red planet. Between 2022 and 2025, a series of rovers will land and assemble the habitats.
The colony will have livable habitats, a life support unit and a communications system.
The Living Unit will house an inflatable living section and an airlock used by astronauts when leaving the sealed, habitable settlement. The unit will include materials for the construction of rooms, floors and electrical outlets, and comes equipped with shower and kitchen areas. Additional units will arrive and be constructed as new teams join the colony.
The Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) is rigged with extra technologies which capitalize on the natural resources available on Mars. Thin film solar photovoltaic panels will be included to generate electricity. The ECLSS will be equipped with heating units to boil and extract water from ice in the planet’s soil, according to the Mars One website.
The ECLSS will be connected to the Living Unit through a tube which will feed nitrogen and argon gas, extracted from Mars’ atmosphere, into the habitable space as inert gases. Once the astronauts have landed, it will also be in charge of the water purification and removal of waste gas such as carbon dioxide from the Living Unit atmosphere.
The Mars colony’s communication system will involve two orbiting satellites: one around Mars and one around the sun. The satellite orbiting Mars will only be interrupted when Mars is positioned between it and Earth.
To counter the lapse, the second satellite orbiting the sun will intercept and relay the transmission, allowing almost 24/7 communication with Earth. The colony will lose transmission only when the sun is between Mars and Earth and Mars is between its satellite and Earth simultaneously.
Mars One will launch a team of four every two years starting in 2026. It will take a year after departing Earth for a team to land on the surface of Mars. The organization hopes to train and send new teams, even after the initial six have colonized the planet.