

The Human Mission to Mars - 55 Papers, 1700 pages - adrianN
http://journalofcosmology.com/Contents12.html

======
wallflower
I went to see Buzz Aldrin, the 2nd man on the Moon, speak at a book lecture.
He is very passionate about colonizing Mars. He says there are two big things
that have to be accomplished before we can colonize Mars. The first is to
train astronauts to live in a confined isolated space for 260 days (the length
of a journey to Mars).[1] The second is harder: We need to go to Mars at least
three times and bring back the men and women successfully. Once is not enough.
Three proves we've mastered the engineering, financial, physical, and
physiological aspects.

[1] [http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/03/mock-
mission-m...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/03/mock-mission-mars-
moscow-hangar)

~~~
pshapiro
Why do the men and women have to be brought back? It adds a big amount to the
requirements of the craft to get them there.

Perhaps that space, weight, time, and money could be better spent on
developing long-term survival and colony-establishment equipment and
techniques.

~~~
wallflower
From a purely logistical standpoint, if the first people you send to Mars had
no hope of returning - how would they quickly enough create a bubble within
which lies a life-sustaining environment to survive? Unless of course you're
thinking of crash loading the entire contents of a remote manned space
station. Psychologically, it might drive men and women to madness - being
forever marooned.

Just saw this. More on Mars from Buzz Aldrin in a NOVA PBS special:

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/aldrin-mars-au.html>

~~~
pshapiro
Heavens, not by any means, "forever marooned." Just for a maximum of 10 years
while we get another mission with a return vessel over to Mars. In the mean
time, those men and women could establish a fledgling colony there with
hydroponics, a rover or two, and ways to build housing with present materials.
I'm not in a position to comment accurately about how long it will take them
to establish the livable colony because I don't know specifically what
provisions and methods of atmosphere production/recycling they're bringing
with.

Think of it like a startup. PG once wrote something like (paraphrasing here),
to prove that a startup will work, try to build the smallest functional subset
and build from there. And launch quickly and iterate often.

After we get a craft to pick them up, we'll have a temporary colony that the
return craft's crew can occupy.

Besides, if those men/women were not able to stand ten or twenty years of
loneliness and hard work being colonists, are they really the right people to
send on a mission to explore another planet?

~~~
wallflower
> Heavens, not by any means, "forever marooned

You'd think by some of my friends comments visiting in-laws that they were
visiting Mars this holiday season.

I wonder if there have been any Sci-Fi treatments done of the one-way
colonization of Mars.

~~~
pshapiro
lol... We got a lot of snow here too. My cofounder was tied up for most of the
day negotiating her way through the transit system back home. At least I
assume that's what you mean. :)

------
adrianN
If you're interested in a human mission to Mars, I highly recommend the book
"The Case for Mars"

