Live of the Land

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Forward: The First Manned Mission the Mars

When NASA first considered sending a manned mission to Mars, they were thinking of a mission similar to the Apollo program. However, after some investigation on the costs of such a program, it was found that it would take hundreds of billions of dollars and decades to develop. At first, it seemed that a mission to Mars would be so expensive that it would be undoable for any time in the near future.

Then, a mission started to evolve based on the philosophy "Live off the land". It is the same technique early settlers used to colonize America. The settlers didn't bring all the wood, water, and food that they would use in the New World, but instead they used the supplies available to them. What we have to do is use the supplies and materials that are available to us on Mars.

It turns out that, with just 1 kilogram of hydrogen, a ship may synthesize 10 kilograms of rocket fuel. This would drastically reduce the amount of fuel needed for a trip, because you would not have to carry all the fuel for the return trip from Earth. Instead, you could synthesize as much fuel as you need once you arrived at Mars. Reducing the fuel mass to 10x less than before will not only reduce the weight of the ship, but will also drastically reduce the amount of fuel needed to launch the fuel in the first place! This compound effect produces huge savings!

For the early Mars missions, hydrogen will be a very valuable commodity. Not only can in synthesize ten times its weight in rocket fuel, it can also be used to synthesize eight times its weight in oxygen. All of this hydrogen synthesis produces a waste product, Methane. Methane, in turn, can be used as a rocket fuel, assuming it is combined with four times its weight in oxygen. This extra oxygen may be supplied by plants in a greenhouse on the Martian base. A Martian greenhouse would drastically improve fuel production.

By using this "live off the land" philosophy, the only major supplies needed on Mars are nitrogen, hydrogen, and energy. For most of these needed commodities, Mars is able to supply more than enough. The hydrogen can be acquired from Martian water, because water is one ninth hydrogen (1kg Water can be converted into .89kg Oxygen and 1.1kg Rocket Fuel!). Energy can be supplied either by solar panels or nuclear reactors. Although nitrogen is scarce on Mars, it can be efficiently recycled inside a spacecraft.

In addition to these basic commodities, Mars can also supply many other materials. Because the Martian soil contains large amounts of gypsum, it can be used to produce glass. The Martian soil can also be used to create bricks, mortar, cement, plastics, and even metals. Mars can even provide the raw materials needed to produce semiconductor circuits. It can supply enough building materials to construct a large, permanent base.

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