Agro-ecological studies towards the establishment of colonies on Mars

And if and when a manned mission to Mars is launched, what will be the existential problems that will face the manned colony there?

 The Spirit and Opportunity landers that transmit images of the surface of Mars and confirm the possibility of water on Mars continue to strengthen the feeling that the date of a human landing on this planet is nothing but a matter of time. Looking a little further one can see that colonies will be established on the surface of the planet to be inhabited initially by engineers and research teams, but it is not impossible that the day will come when migration to this planet will take place. It is clear that life on its surface in the free air is not possible. The only way to live in it in a format as close as possible to terrestrial life will be in closed systems if it is in similar structures dome and if inside underground structures. What will be the desired ratio between the number of people who will live inside these domes and those who will live inside the underground structures. It is difficult to know. In any case, two basic figures must be taken into account. One figure is the length of the day on Mars, which is almost equal to that of Earth.

The obvious meaning is that this will not have any effect in terms of the biological clock. The second figure is the gravity which is significantly lower than that of the Earth. The gravity of Mars is 0.38 and this means that a person weighing 70 kg will weigh 26.6 kg on Mars (keep the weight close They will surely celebrate on Mars). This will have physiological effects on everyone who will live on Mars. Those who will live on Mars will have to take care of a regular supply of plant and animal food and it will be necessary to provide these necessities in the most efficient way. How to do this? Transporting food from the earth will be very expensive and economically unwise. It will be necessary to develop local agriculture and here questions arise that must be taken into account ahead of time and start investigating them today.

Assuming that 500 people will live in the first colony to be established on Mars and if they will live in one large domed structure, what is the desired ratio between the land area allocated to buildings and the area allocated to open spaces? And within this area, what is the size of the land that will be allocated for agriculture and perhaps also for animals? Although there are seasons on Mars, those who will live inside the dome will be cut off from the seasons of the planet. Will it be necessary to create seasons artificially? It is possible that they will give up on this, since mechanisms to create seasons artificially would be too expensive. In this case, it will be necessary to plan the The internal climate is so that it will be air conditioned all year round and comfortable. But will it be necessary to create a feeling of wind for periodic periods of time in terms of a refreshing breeze, so that there will not be a feeling of monotonous weather. Let's not forget that those who will come to live here are used to the seasons on Earth. They will have to adapt to a uniform climatic pattern.

In order to give the residents a feeling of uniform spaces, it is desirable that the dome be transparent. Since the year of Mars is twice as long as that of the Earth, its seasons are also twice as long and here another problem may arise. Inside the colony the climate is temperate, but outside it is winter and you can see it In the form of ice, whether it is dry ice or water ice. This contrasting situation will require adaptation. This is a phenomenon that naturally does not exist on Earth.

A dome for a colony of 500 people requires an area of ​​several square kilometers. Here a different kind of problem arises. It is a very large dome that requires reinforcements with support beams so that it does not collapse. From a technical point of view, a solution can be found for this. But any damage to the dome could crack it and lead to a leak Air. Shouldn't it be worth building several residential domes? This has several advantages. One advantage is that the safety hazard for the entire settlement decreases. A second advantage is that the access to any place where there is a malfunction in the dome of each settlement unit is more convenient since it is smaller and, as a result, also lower. He associates himself more with his neighborhood in a kind of local patriotism. This is of great importance from a sociological point of view.

If you do switch to the method of several domes, you can allocate several domes to agricultural crops that will provide the colony with its food. It must be remembered that healthy eating requires diversity in the number of vegetable sources of nutrition on the planet. This diversity is due to the growth of these sources in different places when each region is characterized by climatic conditions such as summer crops, winter crops, humidity, and different minerals found in different concentrations in the soil, which are of great importance in growing fruits and vegetables. It will therefore be possible to assign each dome to a different type of crops. One dome will grow summer crops and the other will grow winter crops. This can be achieved by planning microclimates for each dome. The fundamental question is whether it is possible to grow terrestrial vegetation on the Martian soil. It may be so. If so, is it really advisable to do so? In the case of using agricultural domes, due to the thickness of the vegetation, roots will strike and these will grow until they go beyond the boundaries of the dome. It is possible that a good thing will grow from this, since then it will be possible to grow vegetation in a natural way, which will reduce local agriculture, but a situation may arise in which the planet will become polluted. A possible solution to this is the use of planters in which the star soil will be placed and in which all crops and agricultural research will be done. A second option is to bring soil from the earth in planters and a third option is hydroponic crops. Most likely in this case the water of the star will be used, but it will undergo purification in order to adapt to agricultural needs.

These questions also concern bringing animals to the place, such as herds of cattle. But here other problems arise. Since these are large animals, they consume a lot of oxygen. How much oxygen should we provide them? What is the living space they want in order for them to feel free and not imprisoned in a kind of small pen? Will the domes be in the form of pastures or barns? What do we do with the secretions, should we use them to fertilize the soil and how do the secretions affect the soil of the planet? Will the secretions cause the spread of bacteria in the place? And maybe it would be worthwhile to break down these secretions into their chemical components and recycle them? And how do you dispose of cow bodies with their waists? Is it desirable to imitate the natural food chain or build it in a different and probably controlled way?

The question that must be examined is how the star's gravity affects the rate and quality of the food that will be grown there. It turned out that astronauts who spend a long time in space lose calcium and one of the ways to overcome this is by using food supplements. Those who will live on Mars will be spared a massive loss of calcium since they will live under power attraction, but they will still need calcium supplements in order to overcome the gravitation gap. Would it be worthwhile to give calcium to the cattle herds that will be there and perhaps it will be necessary to genetically engineer the local vegetation to provide the necessary calcium? Is it desirable? How will the low gravity affect the aroma of the vegetation?

Another type of vegetation, but extremely essential, is ornamental plants. They are important in themselves and their place in the housing culture. What plants to bring and where to place them. This is very important in another direction. Since plants breathe carbon dioxide and emit oxygen, they can be used to regulate the air inside the domes. This will also be possible in the agricultural domes. Using suitable filters, it will be possible to absorb the oxygen emitted from them and transfer it to the other domes and transfer the carbon dioxide that humans emit to the agricultural domes. A very heavy engineering problem that requires sophisticated solutions. This engineering constraint is less problematic when the entire colony is under one big dome.

This set of questions is only the tip of an iceberg of problems that will have to be dealt with when they start to establish colonies on Mars, and more problems will most likely arise once the colonies become obsolete. In any case, one must constantly have one's hand on the pulse for this enterprise to be a success story.
 
 
The easiest option for man is to reach Mars * How about settling there?     
 
14.7.2003
 
By: Dr. Noah Brosh 
 
 
A colony on Mars. For now, only imagination
Many think that the future of the human race is actually outside the earth. The reason? - The danger of the "population explosion" that threatens, some say, our world.

Apart from colonies in space - such as the International Space Station, but much larger - one of the options being considered is to turn the planets closest to us into settlement sites.

The easiest option, probably, is to get there to Mars. However, the conditions prevailing on Mars today are not favorable for human habitation. The atmospheric pressure there is as low as at an altitude of 20 km above sea level. There is no ozone layer to protect against the ultraviolet radiation from the sun. And it's very cold there - like in Antarctica.

One of the thoughts entertained by advocates of the idea of ​​settling on Mars requires placing a huge mirror in space, one that will cause the south polar dome of Mars to heat up. The heating will lead to sufficient evaporation of carbon dioxide, to increase the average temperature of Mars by about 20 degrees in just ten years compared to the current one, and also to increase the atmospheric pressure 20 times. It is likely that such a change will change the entire climate on Mars - so that it becomes it to a reasonable place of residence for humans.

The question is: is this step moral?