Classic science fiction tales of Mars have often featured goggle-eyed Martians invading Earth for its precious resources. But the reality is that in the next twenty years - with all the technical and budgetary constraints - it is people who will be the only ones invading the Red Planet. This year NASA unveiled its latest plan to jump 300 million kilometers to the fourth planet from the Sun. The strategy envisages the creation of a lunar station in the orbit of the Moon, which will serve as an intermediate point for long-distance space flights to Mars. The Deep Space Gateway manned outpost will serve as a launching pad for Deep Space Transport, a version of the space agency's Enterprise.
By the early 2030s, an astronaut may have left the first human trace on another celestial object since 1969. He or she will need clever gadgets that will make it possible to live on a cold, inhospitable planet far, far from the nearest place that might be called "home."
Water, water everywhere
The fact that there is water on Mars no longer surprises anyone. Surface currents on the Red Planet, which periodically leak, lead scientists to believe that liquid water should indeed take place. NASA announced last year that it had also discovered a huge reservoir of ice frozen beneath the planet's solid surface.
However, early travelers to Mars are unlikely to have easy access to these sources of water, or it will be too costly to access them. Instead, future astronauts could use a type of water catcher developed by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley.
This solar-powered device uses a special metal-organic framework (MOF) to draw water out of the air in conditions of at least 20 percent humidity. A study on this topic was published last month in the journal Science.
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With this prototype, it was possible to collect about three liters of water from the air in 12 hours, using just a kilogram MOF. The frame combines metals like magnesium with organic molecules that line up into rigid, porous fibers to store gases and liquids.
“If the relative humidity on Mars is around 20 percent or more, I don’t understand why this device cannot work there,” says Omar Yagi, the co-author of the work who first invented MOF 20 years ago.
While a water trap would be wonderfully useful in arid places on Earth, such a device would also work on completely dry Mars, where, despite desert conditions, the relative humidity can reach 80-100% at night - which is more than enough to suck water out of the atmosphere.
Yagi's team is already working on a cheaper and more efficient MOF for water vapor sorption. “It's just a matter of time before this technology becomes economically competitive. This is an important step towards the future of water supply, I call it “personalized water”.
Civilization stamp
We can 3D print anything these days - even working ovaries. The ability to produce tools and parts will definitely help Martian colonists who can't take everything with them in one go.
Recently, a team from Northwestern University demonstrated the ability to print 3D structures using Martian and lunar dust. More precisely, not real dust, but a NASA-approved imitator of the same size and shape. The researchers, led by Ramil Shah, have used a so-called 3D painting process, which uses new inks that her laboratory had previously used to print things like graphene and carbon nanotubes.
The study was published earlier this year in Nature Scientific Reports.
Composed of 90% dust by weight, 3D printed material is highly flexible and durable like rubber. It can be "cut, rolled, folded, and shaped before 3D painting." You can even make LEGO bricks.
“In places like other planets and moons with limited resources, humans will have to use what is available on this planet to live,” says Shah, an assistant professor at McCormick School of Engineering. “Our 3D inks really open up the possibility of printing different functional or structural objects to create habitats beyond Earth.”
A home away from home
NASA is developing its own solution for housing on the Red Planet. This is an igloo.
Technically, the "Martian Ice House" is a large, inflatable tubular structure that will include materials collected from the planet and enclosed in an ice shell.
The idea of the inflatable part of the structure is that it is easy to transport. Why ice? Water provides excellent protection against radiation, and this is one of the biggest dangers that humans face in space travel. Long-term exposure can cause cancer or even acute radiation sickness.
Alternatively, housing, laboratories and other buildings could be buried beneath the surface, forcing the researchers to live like troglodytes. But Mars Ice Home offers a better perspective.
“All the materials we have chosen are translucent, so some of the daylight from the outside will be able to penetrate in and let you know that you are in a house and not in a cave,” said Kevin Kempton, principal investigator for the Mars Ice Home project at NASA.
One apple a day
It's unclear if the sci-fi blockbuster The Martian actually boosted potato sales, but scientists are developing sophisticated self-sustaining plant farms that will provide future astronauts with fresh fruits and vegetables.
For example, a joint project between NASA, the University of Arizona and private enterprises is a bioregenerative life support system (BLSS), represented by a hydroponic plant chamber that does not need soil (or, better yet, human feces) to produce food.
A closed loop system starts with nutrient-rich water. Nutrient water supports the plant root system. The system benefits both plants and humans at the same time, since the latter emit carbon dioxide, which is absorbed by the vegetation. Plants, in turn, produce oxygen through photosynthesis.
“Our first major project started in 2004. We have designed and built a food growing chamber at the South Pole (Antarctica). It is still there and still working,”says Gene Giacomelli, director of the Agricultural Center for Managed Environments and former principal investigator of the BLSS project.
BLSS was featured in Biosphere 2, a closed ecological system owned and operated by Australians.
Challenges ahead
Obviously, there is still a lot of work to be done before astronauts start growing delicious red apples on the Red Planet. NASA and its commercial partners are still developing next-generation rockets that will handle all the heavy operations of future missions. Other projects are underway to create deep-space habitation modules that will take humans to Mars.
Serious obstacles remain. For example, the problem of radiation. ESA-funded scientists recently announced a device that simulates space radiation to study threats and develop solutions to mitigate its effects on people and equipment. Currently, aerospace medicine focuses on the study of how people stay healthy and resilient in deep space.
There is also the question of being away from home. Are people tough enough to survive such a long journey? Research is also being conducted on this topic in Antarctic conditions.
This year will mark the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the space age, when Russia first launched a space satellite. Getting to Mars in less than a century from this tipping point will be a historic moment that will herald a new future for the human race.
ILYA KHEL
