Humanity has explored Mars since 1960, and we’ve never been closer. The next logical step for Mars exploration is permanent settlement, where people that go to Mars stay there and build a new society.  There is no shortage of people today who have an opinion on whether or not humans should colonize Mars. On the pro side, there are those who think that a Martian settlement will serve as a "backup location" for humanity in case some cataclysmic event happens here on Earth.  On the con side, there are those who feel that focusing on Mars will steal focus away from efforts to save planet Earth. There are also those who think the natural hazards make it a bad idea, while people on the flip side think it is these very things that make it an exciting challenge. 

In any case, colonizing Mars will be no easy feat.  As the only other planet in the solar system we are likely to be able to settle on, Mars looks like the best first step towards establishing an off-Earth foothold. But making Mars a sustainable destination will require a few advances beyond those needed for one-off trips.  It will require billions of dollars and years of specialized research led by some of the smartest scientists and engineers in the world. It will demand advanced technologies, yet to be invented — new kinds of spacecraft, for example, advanced rocket propulsion, deep-space life-support systems, and high-speed communications.

How do we go about setting up a human colony on Mars?  Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Before people can colonize Mars, a number of cargo missions would have to be undertaken first in order to transport the requisite equipment, human habitats, and supplies from Earth.  Equipment that would be necessary will include robotic machines to produce fertilizer, methane, and oxygen from Mars' atmospheric nitrogen and carbon dioxide and the planet's subsurface water ice as well as construction materials to build transparent domes for initial agricultural areas.  In fact, Space X, the private space company founded by Elon Musk intends to do just this.  SpaceX plans to send a cargo shipment to Mars in the year 2022, ahead of a planned manned mission to Mars in 2026. 

Once the cargo missions drop off basic equipment on Mars, the path to a human colony can be prepared by robotic systems before any humans can arrive on the Red Planet.  These systems can extract basic resources such as groundwater or ice, and mine the Martian soil for metals and minerals.   The Robotic systems can lay the groundwork for early crewed landings and bases, by producing various consumables including fuel, oxidizers, water, and construction materials, establishing power, communications, shelter, heating, and manufacturing basics.  It not only costs less to involve robotic systems for the early spadework but also avoids the risk of putting humans to work on an alien planet where basic necessities aren't in place during the earliest days.

For a start, humans who plan on seeding a colony will need bigger living quarters than the Space Exploration Vehicles (SEV) that are planned to be used by the first astronauts living and working on Mars.  The bigger living quarters are required to accommodate life-support systems, supplies, and to minimize psychological issues of living in confined spaces.  

These human habitats will need to be sealed and pressurized, heavily insulated and heated, shielded against solar and cosmic radiation, self-sufficient in terms of water, power, and other essentials.  The parts for building the human habitation modules could be delivered over a series of missions.  They could then be assembled by a crew already on the surface, or by robots.  In the long run, these human habitats need to be built as much as possible using local resources available on Mars.  

Any habitat or settlement on Mars has to take into account the very real threat posed by radiation. Due to its thin atmosphere and lack of a protective magnetosphere, the surface of Mars is exposed to considerably more radiation than Earth is.  Over long periods, this increased exposure could result in health risks among the settlers.  As such, any settlement on the Red Planet will either need to be hardened against radiation or have active shielding in place.  

A few concepts for how to do this have been suggested over the years. For the most part, these have taken the form of either building settlements underground or constructing shelters with thick walls fashioned from local regolith (broken rock and soil), i.e., 3D-printed, "sintered" shells.  

Beyond the basic designs, ideas for radiation-proof habitats get a little more fanciful and a lot more technologically advanced. The settlement would consist of hexagonal modules arranged in a spherical configuration under a toroid-shaped apparatus. This apparatus would be made of high-voltage electric cables that generate an external magnetic field of 4/5 Tesla to shield the modules from cosmic and solar radiation.

Any colony on Mars has to be necessarily set up close to those locations where water can be found in abundance.  Polar regions of Mars are ideal locations for the first Mars colonies to come up as they contain water in the form of ice.  A Water Processing Plant needs to be set up in these regions to extract water from ice, process it, and supply liquid water through a pipeline to nearby human colonies. 

Assuming a large enough human habitat can be built for humans to live on Mars, the next challenge will be to produce enough food to sustain a colony of humans. Given the distance between Earth and Mars and the fact that supply missions would only be able to arrive once about every two years or so, there is a strong need for self-sufficiency when it comes to basic things like water, fuel, and food. 

Growing vegetables on Mars is an option, but plants may need to deal with higher radiation, low air pressure, and reduced gravity.  If Mars agriculturists are to use Martian soil, a knowledge of how crops respond to its contents, such as sulphates and perchlorates will be required.  To get around any difficulties, genetically modified crops may be used.  A combination of conventional farming and aeroponics may need to be used to grow food on Mars and feed the colonists all year through.

 3D Printed Food:

Mars colonists may even use 3D printers to prepare hot food.  The food, in the form of powders, can be UV sterilized, fortified with nutrients and can have a long shelf life.  A company in the US has already demonstrated how noodles, turkey loaf, basil paste, bread, and cake can be 3D printed using food powders. 

The issue of transportation is another big one that Mars colonists have to deal with.  How do they move around on Mars?  How do they travel from one Martian settlement to another?  

As for transportation on the Red Planet, there are numerous possibilities, ranging from Mars buggy to high-speed mass transit systems. The Mars Buggy is a pressurized vehicle that allows people to travel over shorter distances on Mars surface.  It is like a personal car here on Earth.  For people to travel longer distances on Mars, a solution being considered is the Hyperloop technology.  On Mars, where the air pressure is naturally less than 1% of what it is on Earth, a high-speed train like the Hyperloop would not need any low-pressure tubes at all. Using magnetic levitation tracks, the hyperloop system can transport people to and from different human settlements in very little time and even criss-cross the planet.

In order to function at all, the colony would need basic utilities to support human civilization. These would need to be designed to handle the harsh Martian environment and would either have to be serviceable while wearing an Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) suit or housed inside a human habitable environment.  The colony should also have backup power options.  For e.g., if electricity generation systems rely on solar power, large energy storage facilities will be needed to cover the periods when dust storms block out the sun, and automatic dust removal systems may be needed to avoid human exposure to conditions on the surface.  In the event that dust storms become too prolonged or severe, it would be handy to have nuclear reactors that can service a settlement's power needs until the dust storms clear.  If the colony is to scale beyond few hundreds of people, systems will also need to maximize the use of local resources to reduce the need for resupply from Earth, for example by recycling water and oxygen and being adapted to use any water found on Mars, whatever form it is in.

For the Mars colony to be self-sustainable, it has to minimize or eliminate supplies from Earth over a period of time, and make use of locally available resources to sustain itself.  This is because supplies from Earth can only be sent once in 2 years (when Mars is closest to Earth), and the cost of sending supplies from Earth can be very expensive.

The second question about the sustainability of the Mars colony has to do with the population of the Mars colony.  That is, how many people can live on Mars?  If people have to settle down on Mars, what is the minimum number of people needed to procreate, self-sustain and even grow the human population on Mars?  And if these people were effectively cut off from Earth, how many would there need to be to keep a self-sustaining population going?

There could be longer-term challenges to sustaining a colony, however.  On Mars, much as with a spacecraft, the issue is how to ensure sustainability and self-sufficiency over long periods of time.  A colony may initially be able to sustain itself if it can find a resource to trade with Earth.  These are questions that need further discussion and debate.

Watch the video about the first 10,000 days on Mars...

Here's a video of how a Mars base near Gale crater may look like in the not so distant future.  

Here are some artistic impressions of how a Mars city may look like in the distant future. It might take a few centuries or even millennia to get us there, but could be well worth the effort... 

1. Project Eagle: A 3D Interactive Mars Base

Project Eagle is an interactive model of a Mars colony in Gale Crater at the base of Mount Sharp, near the original landing site of the Mars Curiosity Rover.  Project Eagle is a tool that allows users to explore and learn about a potential future Mars colony. Eagle base is grounded in real possibilities, informed by real science with direct guidance and feedback from NASA and JPL scientists about the technological and material constraints for building human habitation on the red planet. Download Project Eagle from here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/224000/Project_Eagle_A_3D_Interactive_Mars_Base and install it on your computer. 

2. Mars Simulation Project

The Mars Simulation Project (mars-sim) is an open-source Java project aimed at building computer models that characterize important aspects of establishing human settlements on Mars.  

Download the Mars Simulation Project from here: https://mars-sim.github.io 

Below, you will find two types of activities:

1. Digital Activity

2. Physical Activity

You can use the knowledge acquired in this module to complete and submit either a digital activity, or a physical activity or both.  The choice is yours, but submitting at least one activity per module is important to receive participation certificate at the end of the bootcamp.

Complete ANY ONE of the below activities using a digital or AI tool of your choice:

• Create an animation of a Martian colony.

• Design a 3D Model of a human habitat module and have it printed using a 3D printer in your ATL.

• Design a 3D model of a Robotic Excavator that mines the Martian surface for metals and minerals. 

• Design a 3D model or animation of a Greenhouse on Mars where food crops can be grown.

• Design a 3D model of a 3D Printer that can print food for the Mars colonists.

• Design a 3D model of a Mars rapid transit (transportation) system (either Mars Buggy or Hyperloop).

• Design a 3D model of a Nuclear reactor on Mars.

• Build a Mobile app that helps Mars colonists navigate their way around Mars (similar to Google Maps on Earth).

• Build an interplanetary messaging app (similar to WhatsApp) that allows communication between Earthlings and Mars Colonists.

• Build a Dish Antenna on Mars that can track satellites and orbiter revolving around Mars to send / receive signals to / from Earth.  Use an Arduino board, TinyGS tool (https://tinygs.com), and two Servo Motors.  Watch this video from 14:00 minutes onwards.

Customize or enhance the above activities further as per your interest and bandwidth.

If you need guidance in using AI-based digital tools, please click here.

Submitting your Digital Activity: Click the "Submit Activity" button at the bottom of this page to submit your digital activity.  In the submission form, paste the link to your digital creation directly from the online tool, or paste the link to your digital creation from your Google Drive folder.  Ensure that the link has "public access" or "Anyone with the link can view".

Design and build a physical model of a Martian colony.  

Colony should be in the midst of valleys, craters and mountains on Mars.   The colony depict the following:

• • Human settlement pods where human beings live

  • Buildings where people work 

  • Water storage and purification tanks

  • Green houses to grow plants 

  • Forests (to reduce dust storms)

  • Solar panels to generate power for the colony

  • A network of roads across the Martian colony

  • Martian transportation vehicles

  • Communication Discs for communication between Earth and Mars

  • Machines to create the oxygen

  • A launch pad for launching space-ships

  • A landing pad for space-ships to land near the Mars colony

Submitting your Physical Activity: Take a photo or video clip of your physical prototype or model and upload it to your Google Drive folder.  Click the "Submit Activity" button at the bottom of this page to submit your physical activity.  In the activity submission form, paste the link to the photo or video uploaded on your Google Drive folder. Ensure that the link has "public access" or "Anyone with the link can view".