A Minimum, One-Way, Mars Settlement Program

Abstract

2The Mars Foundation This plan would establish a small (initially two-person), permanent Mars settlement, within the financial constraints of the ‘flexible path’ proposed for NASA by the second Augustine commission and using expected commercial launchers, namely the Falcon 9 Heavy by SpaceX. The main reason to go to Mars is not just 'exploration' but to expand life beyond the Earth. Mars ascent vehicles will be dangerous and extremely expensive to develop, making a round-trip mission unaffordable in today's economic climate. More importantly, the return leg of a journey simply does not contribute to the goal of expanding civilization beyond the Earth. Exploration and scientific investigations would be only secondary goals until the base is firmly established and safe. The sequence of deployment is: after an (optional) human sortie to a near-Earth asteroid, human sorties would go to Mars orbit, Phobos, or Deimos. For safety, the crew would not land immediately. Instead, from this orbital outpost, the crew would control the deployment, assembly, and testing of base modules on the surface of Mars using teleoperated robotics, or avatars. When sufficient fuel, air, and water are stockpiled at the Mars surface base, two settlers descend from Mars orbit to the surface base. The crew will concentrate on food growth, repair, and manufacture of simple plastic components for greenhouses. After some years to stockpile food and bootstrap manufacturing capability, additional crew members would arrive who could then concentrate on scientific investigations. This study draws heavily from the Mars Homestead Project designs by the Mars Foundation, but adapted for minimal size crew, automated/teleoperated assembly, and a much slower, more economical build-up. Our conclusion: given the uncertain funding for future heavy lift launch vehicles, this method of quickly sending two people to grow food and manufacture materials and devices on Mars may be the only way we can keep people in space in our generation.