Mars One

File:Mars One 2025 - Mars City made of SpaceX Dragon Capsules - self-sustaining colony.jpg

Mars One colony in 2025, when the second set of Mars settlers arrives. The colony is mainly made of Dragon habitat units at this point.

Mars One is a private project led by Dutch researcher Bas Lansdorp to establish a permanent human colony on Mars. The plan is to send a communications satellite to the planet by 2016 and after several stages, finally land humans on Mars for permanent settlement in 2023. A new set of four astronauts will then arrive every two years. The group is endorsed by Nobel Prize winning physicist Gerard 't Hooft.

Mars One is attempting to secure sponsors and investors by making it a reality television show and have prospective astronauts selected by the public. Putting the first four astronauts on Mars alone is expected to cost approximately US$6 billion. Mars One has identified potential suppliers, such as SpaceX, for every component of the mission. They claim that the project's costs are minimised because it would be a one way trip. Returning humans from Mars would require far more time and resources.

Mission

Mars One plans to establish the first human settlement on Mars. According to their schedule, the first crew of four astronauts would arrive on Mars in 2023, after a seven month journey from Earth. Further teams would join the their settlement every two years, with the intention that by 2033 there will be over twenty people living, and working on Mars.

Vision

Mars One states within their website how a manned mission to Mars is "one of the most exciting, inspiring and ambitious adventures that mankind can take on". They state how the entire world will be able to watch and help their decisions as the team of settlers is selected, follow their training and observe their settling on Mars once arrived. They state how the astronauts will share their experiences with us as they build their new home, conduct experiments and explore Mars. They continue to mention how the mission in itself will provide scientists with invaluable scientific and social knowledge of which will be accessible to everybody. They ask interested people to use platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to 'spread the word' of Mars One.

Plan

The mission plan is as follows:

• 2013: The first 40 astronauts will be selected; a replica of the settlement will be built for training purposes.
• 2014: The first communication satellite will be produced.
• 2016: A supply mission will be launched with 2500 kilograms of food in a modified SpaceX Dragon.
• 2018: An exploration vehicle will launch to pick the location of the settlement.
• 2021: Six additional Dragons and another rover will launch with two living units, two life support units and two supply units.
• 2022: A SpaceX Falcon Heavy will launch with the first group of four colonists.
• 2023: The first colonists will arrive on Mars in a modified Dragon.
• 2025: A second group of four colonists will arrive.
• 2033: The colony will reach 20 settlers.

The team behind Mars One have been working on the planning of Mars One since 2011. Within the first year of planning, the Mars One team researched the feasibility of the idea 'extensively and exhaustively', 'scrutinizing every detail with countless specialists and expert organizations'. In this analysis the Mars One team not only included the technical elements, but also comprehensively discussed the financial, psychological and ethical aspects.

The Mars One team claimed to have met with several established, international aerospace companies who (as it has been claimed) can design and deliver essential hardware components of the mission - they state to have written letters of interest that support their plan.

Technology

Mars One has developed a technical plan that is simple enough to be achieved within the next decade. For starters, all components required to complete the mission can already be ordered from existing suppliers. Mars One have claimed to have met with and spoken to a variety of companies that can together deliver the complete package needed. Mars One is not an aerospace company and will not produce any space hardware. All of Mars One's equipment will be ordered from suppliers. The fully equipped mission is made up of the following features:

• Launcher: A rocket will be used to launch the parts necessary for the manned mission to Mars itself.
• Lander: The Lander is a capsule that can enter into the atmosphere of Mars and land on its surface.
• Life Support Unit: This is a Lander that contains the systems for the generation of energy, water and breathable air within the settlement.
• Supply Unit: A Lander that contains and carries food, spare parts and other smaller components for the settlement.
• Living Unit: This Unit is a Lander that is outfitted with a special inflatable section. This allows it to create a large living space after landing.
• Rover: The Rover can be viewed, in a sense, as an electric tractor – exploring the surface of Mars in search of the most suitable location for settlement, as well as being able to transport large hardware components.
• Mars Suit: All astronauts must wear their Suits when outside in the bare atmosphere, like those used by astronauts on our Moon.
• Mars Transit Vehicle: This vehicle will be responsible for bearing the astronauts to Mars, and consists of two propellant stages, a landing module and living quarters.
• Communications system: The communications system transmits the video streams from Mars to Earth.

Launcher

Mars One expects to use the Falcon Heavy for the mission to Mars, a launcher built by SpaceX. Currently SpaceX is using the regular Falcon 9 – its 'Heavy' sibling will start undergoing test flights in 2012 or early 2013. Of course Mars One won't need its services until 2016, so there is plenty of time for this development. The Falcon Heavy is made up of mostly the same parts as the present model.

Lander

Mars One also expect to use a Lander built by SpaceX. It is likely to be a special variant of the company's Dragon spacecraft, first tested in 2010. The version Mars One requires will be slightly larger than the current version. The Lander can be executed in five different ways: as Supply Unit, Living Unit, Life Support Unit, Lander for the astronauts and Lander for the Rover. The first four will all be utilized as part of the settling process after landing, and will then be linked together using a passageway component by the astronauts.

Supply Unit

This unit is a lander that contains supplies. The company that supplies the lander will also install the supplies into the lander - Mars One expect this will be SpaceX. The lander will be equipped with a camera to send live images back to Earth.

Life Support Unit

In charge of caretaking is the Life Support Unit; a Lander that is rigged with various extra technologies to capitalize on the elements present on Mars. It uses these resources to create a habitable living environment for the astronauts. It does so in a number of ways. First of all is energy, which is generated by thin film solar panels. These are flexible and can be rolled up for compact transportation and are rolled out on Mars. Another vital task is the production of water, which is extracted from the water ice in the local ground soil. About 60 kilograms of soil is loaded into a container within the Life Support Unit by the Rover and heated to evaporate the water. The water is condensed and the dry soil is dumped. Part of the water is stored and part is used to produce oxygen. The Life Support Unit collects 1500 liters of water and 120 kilograms of oxygen in 500 days. Finally, it filters the nitrogen and argon out of Mars' atmosphere and injects them into the habitat system as inert gases. The Life Support Unit is connected to the Living Unit by a tube, which feeds the oxygen, nitrogen and argon through in order to create a habitable atmosphere. Once the astronauts have landed, it will also be in charge of the water purification and removal of harmful gases from the Living Unit atmosphere. The Life Support Unit is hosted inside a Lander. Paragon Space Development can produce the life support technology itself. The company specializes in life support systems and produces parts for similar set-ups on the International Space Station.

Living Unit

The Living Unit is also a Lander, one that has a special inflatable living section and an airlock, which is used by the astronauts when leaving the settlement. The inflatable quarters are laid out by the Rover and filled with breathable air by the Life Support Unit. In addition to this, the Lander contains construction materials for the astronauts to construct rooms, floors and electrical outlets. The Lander itself contains the 'wet areas', such as the shower and kitchen. The inflatable unit can be supplied by ILC Dover, which applies itself to Space Inflatables and makes equipment such as NASA's space suits and the landing airbags on three previous Mars rovers.

Rover

As the summary above explained, the Rover can be compared to a large electric tractor. It has both a digger arm and robotic hand to carry out a wide variety of tasks. In contrast to the scientific rovers dispatched to Mars to date, our Rover's tasks will be focused more on utility, deployment & maintenance:

• Travel autonomously around Mars to locate the most suitable area for settlement
• Measure the amount of water in the soil
• Transport the Landers
• Remove protective panels from the Landers
• Lay out the roll of panels
• Extract the still deflated Living Unit from the Lander
• Connect the air tube between the Life Support Unit and the Living Unit
• Deposit soil in the Support Unit for water extraction and carry away the dry ground

Mars One has discussed with MDA Space Missions and Astrobotics Technology the surface rover and robotic systems, based on longstanding flight heritage in robotic systems for international human spaceflight and Mars exploration.

Mars Suit

Mars' atmosphere does not allow for us to walk around without some kind of protection. You can compare the surface air pressure to that of Earth's when at a height of 25 kilometers. This means that the astronauts need to wear a specially pressurized suit: the Mars Suit. They are somewhat similar to those the astronauts wore on the Moon. Paragon Space Development can produce these Mars Suits.

Mars Transit Vehicle

The Mars Transit Vehicle is a compact space station that will carry our astronauts all the way to Mars. It is made up of several parts, which are fused together while in low orbit around the Earth - two propellant stages, a Transit Living Module and a Lander. The propellant stages propel the Transit Vehicle towards Mars. The Transit Living Module is home to the astronauts during their seven month journey. They can sleep there, train and prepare for their arrival and landing. They enter the Lander once nearing Mars, at which point the living capsule is disconnected and left behind. The Lander is the only piece that sets foot on Mars – with the astronauts. The Transit Living Module will remain in space, orbiting the Sun. Mars One expects the Lander to be made by SpaceX, and it will be of the same design that has been used for other, unmanned missions. Mars One also expect SpaceX will be the supplier of the propellant stages, which would require only small changes compared to the Falcon 9 upper stage, with the biggest difference being the sheer quantity of fuel. The Transit Living Module can be built by Thales Alenia Space, the company that made several of the habitable components for the International Space Station.

Communications System

The Communications system consists of a satellite over the Mars settlement, one in orbit around the sun and ground stations on Earth. The satellite over the Mars settlement is an areostationary satellite, the Mars equivalent of a geostationary satellite. It is always in the same place in the sky on Mars, receiving data from the settlement and transmitting them to Earth. On Earth the data is received by ground stations, large satellite dishes. The areostationary satellite enables almost 24/7 communication, which is interrupted only when Mars is in between the satellite and the Earth. This is solved by the second satellite in a sun orbit, trailing 60 degrees behind the Earth. With this second satellite in place, when Mars is in between the areostationary satellite and the Earth, the signal can be relayed by the second satellite. Once every 26 months, the Sun is exactly in between Mars and the Earth. This occultation lasts about six weeks. The second communications satellite will also be used to relay signals in this situation. However, when the Sun is in between Mars and the Earth and at the same time Mars is in between the areosynchronous satellite and the second satellite, Mars One will have no contact with Mars for about two hours. Fortunately this is a rare situation and occurs when it is after midnight on Mars. The communication satellites and the ground stations can be supplied by Surrey Satellite Technology.

Mankind on Mars

Emigrating to Mars

A one way trip has obvious technical advantages, but what does this mean for the astronauts themselves? That depends on who you ask. You could say that most people would rather lose a leg than attempt it: leave for a cold and dangerous planet, saying goodbye to your friends and family, possibly never being able to speak to them face-to-face again and swapping creature comforts for a Spartan existence on the Red Planet. However, there are also individuals for whom traveling to Mars has been a dream for years. They relish the challenge. To them, it is about exploring a new world, having the opportunity to conduct the most revolutionary research ever, build a new home for mankind and tackle the unknown.

Training

Even before they find their way onto the rocket, each astronaut will be put through the required ten years of training. They will be isolated from the world for a few months every two years in groups of four, by being placed in simulation bases to see how they cope with being secluded and living in close quarters with each other. In addition to the expertise and work experience they must already possess, they also have to learn quite a few new skills. After all, the four of them will be in charge of every aspect of the Mars base: making repairs, cultivating crops, and even addressing medical problems, such as fractures, for example.

Journey to Mars

The flight will take seven months. The astronauts will spend those seven months together in a small space – much smaller than the home base will be – devoid of luxury or frills. This will not be easy. Showering won’t be an option, instead they will have to make do with wet wipes like the International Space Station astronauts. Tinned food only, constant noise from the ventilators and equipment and a regimented routine of three hours of exercise a day to keep up muscle mass all add to their trials. If they are hit by a solar storm they will have to take refuge in the shelter area of the rocket, which provides the best protection, for as long as several days. There is no doubt that the trip will be tough, but the astronauts will endure it – it is the flight carrying them to their dream.

Living on Mars

Once they arrive on Mars, the astronauts will begin making use of their spacious living units; over 50 m2 per person, and a total of more than 200 m2.

Within the settlement are inflatable components which contain bedrooms, working areas, a living room and a ‘plant production unit’, where they will grow greenery. They will also be able to shower as normal, prepare fresh food (that they themselves harvested) in the kitchen, wear regular clothes, and in essence lead typical day-to-day lives. If they want to leave the settlement they will have to wear a Mars Suit, but all Units will be connected by passageways, so that the astronauts can move freely from one end of the base to the other. It will not take long for them to put down roots, and once they have done so they can begin building and researching.

Building and Researching

Several new components will touch down on Mars with the first group of four. They will be bringing a second Living Unit and Life Support Unit ready for the arrival of the second group, along with some other components. The already established astronauts shall connect them to the main base. Not only are they now prepared for when the other groups land, but they also have more room themselves and extra security due to the back up equipment essentially doubling. Hopefully by this point they will also already have the technology to produce additional living area from local materials.

There will also be a lot of research done on the planet. The astronauts will research how their bodies react to living on Mars, how the plants respond, research into both geological and biological matters… who knows, they might find out that there was life on Mars before them!

Reality TV and reports

All of our astronauts’ activities will be captured by the Living Unit cameras, so that those back on Earth can experience them as well, and are kept up to date with how they are doing. The astronauts themselves will also report back. They will tell us about everything we’ve wondered. What is it like going outside? What is involved? What is it like living with Mars’ gravity, which is just 40% of Earth’s?

Expansion

A new group of four will land on Mars every two years, steadily increasing the settlement’s size. A Living Unit will be built out of local material that will be big enough to house trees. As the number of settlers increases, so will the sense of normality, as they will be able to have a social life alongside their work.

See also

• Mars
• Manned mission to Mars
• Mars to Stay

References

• Main reference - http://mars-one.com Mars One

External links

• Official website
• Mars One Fans - Forum Community
• Facebook page