Рынкевич А.В. (соавтор, рук.), Клименков М.С. (студ.)

Технологический университет, Королев, Россия

How to colonize Mars? SpaceX’s plan.

“One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”. Everyone has ever heard these words. In 1969, for the first time, humanity touched the surface of another space object except Earth. We’ve discovered new pages in the space exploration and our history generally. However, we have never traveled to another planet but there is one perfect candidate. Mars has always attracted our attention but humanity still doesn’t have a plan how to reach it. Except Elon Musk and his SpaceX team. They know how to get people there. Moreover, they know how to make this planet comfortable for human beings.

Why do we need to fly to Mars and colonize it? It’s a frequently asked question when we start to talk about Mars colonization. People used to say as “Hey, we’ve got a lot of problems here, on Earth! Stop squandering money for needless space exploration and let’s solve our global problems!”. Their position sounds like “I will worry about my health when I have less bills to pay for”. Humanity will always have problems on Earth but we can’t let those problems force us to forget about our life. Let’s just remember how dinosaurs have disappeared. Science society thinks they were killed by radical climate changing caused by an asteroid. Imagine that we have real possibility to be destroyed as humanity by another asteroid. We don’t have any backup plan and site where the survived human civilization can start all over again. In that case, Mars could be our fallback the starting point of our history new page. This is only one reason. I can distinguish more ones: global warming, war for resources, lack of free space for the future generations.

Here it is another reason. Some actions should be done not only for solving problems but to inspire us. Those things should make you feel proud for humanity. The best examples are the first human spaceflight with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard or “Apollo 11” flight. Thus, Mars colonization will be able to become another great adventure and achievement for the human race.

However, colonization will have a lot of problems as well as possibilities. The first problem that we’ll face is the distance between Mars and Earth. Mars is 100 million kilometers away from our planet. It demands lots of fuel and time to take us to the red planet. However, there is a position when Mars and Earth are aligned and there is only 55 million kilometers between them. Unfortunately, it occurs only every two years and the nearest approximation will be in 2016. It’s too late to launch a rocket to the red planet but Elon Musk hopes to send it in 2018. SpaceX will use their own spaceship called Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT).

MCT is a giant spaceship capable to carry more than one hundred people with tons of equipment at once. But continuous space flight can hurt the space crew being injured or even killed by solar radiation. SpaceX engineers suggested protecting the crew using huge water tanks that absorb this radiation. Also, MCT will use the brand-new rocket engine called Raptor and developed only by SpaceX. This engine will provide MCT with an impressive 7000 kilonewtons thrust which will allow to lift MCT into the air. It should be noted that MCT will weigh at least 100 tons itself plus their payload.

Another problem is cost. Delivering the giant MCT will cost us millions of dollars but we can’t just launch one MCT, we will need to provide the first expedition with equipment. Fortunately to us, SpaceX currently tests different ways to lower the cost of every space launch. Their idea is very simple: we just need to return the first stage of rocket back to Earth and not draw it in the ocean.

There are three ways to do it. The first one is to bring astronauts back from ISS: their command module just falls down into the water using parachutes. This way is relatively cheap and simple but salt water always damages the expensive equipment and once landed command module can be repaired for a couple of months. So, this method is not suitable for our MCT. The second manner consists of using a controllable spacecraft like Shuttle. It is not suitable as well because Shuttle and similar spaceships need runway to land or lift off. There will be a problem with finding a runway on Mars. The last but not least way is to use reactive landing like lunar module of “Apollo 11” did. SpaceX chose this mean.

The first colonists will face a lot of problem on Mars surface because they will have to build their entire new life and the first Martian city as well. That’s why Elon Musk, the creator of SpaceX, thinks that for each one ship with colonists ten ships with supplies will be necessary.

There is a list of needed things for the first colonists.

Energy. There is a possibility of using nuclear energy but Elon Musk suggests using solar energy instead. Solar panels should be delivered from Earth before the colonists and Musk has an idea of making those panels very flexible and light.

Oxygen. Colonists will need plants that produce oxygen.

Water. The poles of Mars have a lot of ice so colonists can make a pipeline that will provide them with liquid water.

Shelter. A human can’t go on the surface of Mars without space suit because lack of pressure will boil its blood, the temperature will freeze him to death and solar radiation will just remove his skin. Unfortunately, the first 15-20 years colonists will have to live under big domes. They will also need shelters for storing things, establishing schools, hospitals and so on.

Rocket fuel. To return to Earth MCT will use methane. Methane is just CH4 so colonists will be able to produce it from Martian CO2 and H20. Also, colonists will produce fuel for travelling on the surface of Mars.

SpaceX plans to deliver 1 million people to the red planet but then they ask themselves a question: “If we deliver 1 million people to Mars, what will we do next?” There is one simple answer: we will need to make Mars our new home. We have a proper word for this - “Terraforming”. It means that we will change Mars so it will be just like our Earth.

There is a big question of how we are going to do this but we have some strategies that can be applied with further technologies of 21th century.

1. We can melt ice on Mars South pole.

There is enough ice on Mars to cover the whole planet with an ocean of 11 meters deep. If we are able to melt it, the chain reaction will start. Greenhouse gases from melted ice will condense the weak atmosphere of Mars and start to hold more solar energy so eventually the temperature on the surface will be increased.

2. Using of plants

Mars inhabitants should start colonization from microbes that used to survive in places like Antarctica and then they should pass on to the simple plants like mosses. Due to this process Mars atmosphere can be formed.

3. Making air breathable.

Thanks to the photosynthesis of plants, the level of oxygen on Mars will be eventually increased. However, it will be very slow process requiring from 300 years to one thousand one. Unfortunately, if we do not invent something new in this field many generations of colonists will wear breathing masks.

To sum up, we are stand before the long way up to Mars. There are plenty of technological, political and even ethical problems. We have never had similar experience before and a lot of things can go wrong. Fortunately, we have companies like SpaceX which set big plans and know how to make them come true.

Literature:

1. Вэнс, Э. Илон Маск., Tesla, SpaceX и дорога в будущее / Э. Вэнс. – М.: Олимп Бизнес, 2015. – 416 с.

2. SpaceX Official [Электронный ресурс]. – Режим доступа: www.spacex.com