Final Project

Aaron H.

Legislator:  Steve Ogden, Senator

(Click on the image above to enlarge.)

Mars Colony

One of the first missions to Mars was conceived in 1948 by the German rocket scientist Werner von Braun, the leader of the team that designed the Saturn V rocket that brought the Apollo astronauts to the Moon. Science Fiction has driven society and engineers to concepts of actual Martian space travel. Since 1948 Ideas of Martian life, UFO spottings, and Martian colonization have taken over Americas dreams. I have theorized this dream into my Final project with a functional mars colony and the calendar for its completion, not to mention the space craft to get the crew and cargo there.

This design is hopefully a fully functional, self-sufficient, colony in a world of its own. It is hard to fit almost every aspect of a functioning country into a one single town with a population of 100 or more individuals.  Since there is no gold yet discovered on Mars an economy was sort of hard to support, so its financial aid is based solely on the finances of the NASA space program and all monetary worth is related to Americas economy, which is going to make it hard to be international but for now lets say they are all Americans living on this colony. Also the governmental system will be run using the American Constitution, but it will make its own laws that are voted on by the people for the people. Now suppling vintage and common stores here on Mars would be quit difficult. For this reason Grocery stores, clothing stores, toy stores, etc. are not going to be supported on this colony, but there will be a few civilian "tourist" that come to stay every now and then. The site for this colony is somewhere in the Northern Arabia Terra.

I would like to first focus on the basic infrastructure and buildings located in my colony. First we have the circular living quarters that hold 25 people in each cylindrical housing unit, and of course there are four of them to fit the 100 necessary individuals. Below theses quarters is the storage area for all things that need to be stored like water, food, clothes , rovers, and scientific equipment. Above the living quarters is what I like to call the M.A.L.C. (malk'). This building is the Mars Athletic and Lounge Center, here is where all people staying come to work out and hangout. This facility contains an indoor-track facility, soccer and football complex, Olympic size pool, weight room, aerobics room, dance hall and much more. Centralized to this is the elliptical Dinner Hall, this contains two restaurants that will serve great home cooked meals every once in a while. Above the MALC is the Governmental Head Quarters combined with the Police and Fire Departments to keep the colony in order, and solve problems among residents, and occasional court cases. To the left of the Fire Department is the Solar Fields that supply all the necessary energy to run the colony. In the top right corner is the Agricultural Center. Here all the plant foods are grown and processed along with the meat from live stock that is transported up there from earth. The agricultural Center is also in charge of recycling biological waste. Below this is the hospital and medical research facility which takes care of sickly residents and also does medical experiments to improve health care and fight diseases. Below the Hospital is the Main Scientific research and experimentation center equipped with all the latest tools and scientific gadgets to perform a multitude of experiments and test on the Martian planet. Then in the bottom right corner of the Colony is the distributions center. This landing pad sends and receives back up crew members and all necessary supplies for life on Mars, such as food, clothes, fresh water, if needed. The road ways will be enclosed in tubular pressurized chambers. The mode of transportation will be a rechargeable battery powered rovers.

100 individuals will be select to run the colony. 10 fire fighters and police officers, they will be qualified in both fields. 5 government workers (1 mayor, 4 judges)5 members working in the Control tower of the distribution center, 20 Doctors / medical research specialists working in the Hospital. 20 NASA research Scientist working the Science research Center. 20 biologists/farmers and agricultural research specialist in the Ag Center, 10 cooks and 10 repair technicians for general and advanced maintenance.

This is the plan that I have laid out for a Martian Colony. The next step is to create a working schedule for the building of the colony from the first launch of the space shuttles to Mars until final completion and vacancy of the colony.

The Martian shuttle takes its model and form from current military jet technologies. But we all know a jet can't fly to the Mars. But a jet built with NASA aerospace technology would. The basic form of a jet combined with future Nuclear Electric Propulsion(NEP) will allow Earth to Mars transportation to be as easy as a midnight flight to London, well not that quick but a lot faster then current theories. With the new glass cockpit technology from NASA guidance will be user friendly and ease the mind of the crew of 8 people. The shuttle will maneuver like a shuttle when leaving earth but move like a jet in space and in the Martian "atmosphere." As it enters the atmosphere it will slow its speed and approach an altitude low enough to hover above the surface and carefully descend while extending its feet like landing gear. To leave Mars its central thruster, along with its underside landing thrusters, will provide enough thrust to reach the escape velocity of Mars. To land on the earth the same technique for Landing on Mars will be applied.

The average distance between the Earth and Mars is approximately 78,300,000 kilometers. Traveling at currently available spacecraft speeds, it will take about 7 months to reach Mars. With the new space crafts I designed, and using the "long-stay short transit" flight method I estimate that we can reach Mars within 2 months one way.

My Missions first launch date is set for August of 2005, Two of the shuttles will be launched with necessary supplies for construction of a temporary living quarter and the solar panel arrays. The crew will total 16. When Mars is reached some time in October Half the crew will install the solar panels and the other half will install the temporary home, I give them till march 2006 to complete these projects, for a return trip in May.

The next Launch will be in August 2006. This trip plans to construct 1 of the four permanent living facilities and the landing pad (distributions center). The landing pad should not take too long to construct, I give it a month. When it is completed one ship will leave while the other ship continues to construct the living quarters. The ship that leaves will arrive in January of 2007 and the crew will be replaced and cargo will be extra supplies for the living quarters and materials for the storage facility. It will leave within that same month and arrive in March 2007.  They will begin building the storage facility while the other crew finishes the first living quarter and then heads back home, arriving in May 2007. A quick replacement of crew and materials for the Agricultural Center, and a departure within that same month. They will Arrive in August, the Storage facility should be completed, and a combined effort will be place on the Ag. center to start plant growth. The power from the solar arrays should be installed to all completed facilities but not turned on yet. Both crews should leave in December and arrive back at Earth in February 2008. The crew from 2006 will replace the second crew and go back to mars with materials to build the Scientific Research facility and begin planting crops, arrival at Mars in May 2008. 2 biochemist will work in the Ag Center growing food, while the other 14 members build the Research Center. One crew will return to earth to bring more supplies, leaving in September, and returning January 2009. Construction on the Hospital and Medical research center will follow for 5 months, and the crew that has been there the longest will leave in June, arrive at Earth in August 2009. After Medical and Scientific Research Centers are completed the biochemist will harvest any crops and store them then return back to Earth with the remaining crew members. Crews will be replaced and next launch date will be scheduled for January 2010. Now scientist will begin to stay on Mars and do research, The two launches will first build the infrastructure and bring the transportation and wire all buildings for electricity and water. This will take place between January 2010 and October 2010 when 6 of the 16 crew members arrive back to earth. They will bring 10 more crew members with them and begin construction the second of the four living quarters. The next three flights will be doing the same building living quarters and leaving people up there to do research. All Four living facilities should be completed by December of 2012 when both shuttle will return to get materials to construct the MALC. The MALC will be completed in December of 2013. There should be close to 50 permanent members staying in the colony now. The remainder of the flights to Mars will be to construct the police/Fire/Government Headquarters and to bring livestock to the Ag center, and population the remainder of the living space. Final completion will be in 2016 a complete 10 year project from start to finish.

With the establishment of this colony many test can be carried out to better understand the effects of earth objects in 1/3 gravity. For example, livestock, plant grow, Human growth, Human response, and other science and medical experiments. Also Mining operations could be established on the planet in surch for fuels and minerals that we are lacking on earth. Better understanding other planets will help us better understand our own.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mars/marsprof.html

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/mars_missns/mars-mro.html

http://aerospacescholars.org/scholars/earthmars/unit5/Index.htm

Last Updated:  09/10/01