Mars Colony Concept

[NSEP]

Oi peeps, i had some ideas for a Mars Colony and i thought i would share the idea:

But first! At 1-11-2016, this was tagged as Thread of the Month! (Thanks @sal_vager!) I originaly wanted to leave this thread alone, but im going to continue it. I am making a new mars colony, since my first one is not that good and is pretty unrealistic. So here is my old one:

At 1-11-2016 on 20:00 CET, the old colony got scrapped, you may rest in a mini digital museum.

Spoiler

Location:

-At the Northen Hemisphere, where water from past oceans could be under the surface. Dust storms would be more common, but that is not that big of a problem, just get some dustoff gear and you are ready. The riverbeds could also have some water hidden under its surface.

Components:

-An ITS, how would you get to mars without it?

-An airlock for the underground cave base and an inflatable oxygen storage balloon tank.

-Solar plant for electricity.

-A machine that extracts the Oxygen and Hydrogen from the water, for people to breathe and to use for liquid oxygen for the return mission. Also, storage tanks.

-Methane mining and coverter for fuel. Also, storage tanks.

-Inflatable tubes so people can walk to modules without going outside.

-Tubes for oxygen, power and all that stuff to travel through the base.

-Plants as Co2 scrubbers.

-Hydrogen gas radiators (idk if hydrogen radiators are a good idea, but i dont know what else you can do with hydrogen)

-Urine to water converter

-Iron forge station.

-Super Cooler to turn oxygen into liquid oxidizer.

-A rover that can hold people for at least 2 weeks without ressuplies.

Resources:

-Methane.

-Oxygen.

-Water.

-Hydrogen.

-Vegitables like: Potaters, Lettuce, and more easy to grow veggies for food and oxygen.

-Algea production thing.

-Martian soil to cover modules with.

-Plants that produce fiber, something like cotton. 

-Terrestial soil just in case Martian soil is not good for growing plants.

-Iron is common on Mars, we can use that for repairs.

Crew:

-3x Spacecraft crew.

-8x Engineers, and people who can repair stuff.

-13x EVA crew, who clean the solar panels and put the base together.

-4x Explorer crew members, who do science stuff and explore Mars.

-5x Gardeners

-6x Product makers, to make clothes and other stuff.

-3x Medical crew.

Setup and Installation:

1. The Explorer crew goes outside and plans the location for the underground base and the solar power plant.

2. The EVA crew places down the passage tubes and dig out a hole for the underground base, then they shove the airlock in it.

3. The Engineers make sure the airlock of the base is sealed perfectly, while the EVA crew expands the cave.

4. Two EVA crew members go outside and place down the Solar Plant.

5. When the cave is and the Solar Plant is done, struts and power cables are added to the cave by the EVA team.

6. After the cables and struts are set up to the base, the EVA crew adds wall and roof plates. The plates are made out of good old fiberglass.

7. The Engineers place down the water and methane extraction unit. After that, they place the water splitter and the super cooler down.

8. More resource cables and tubes are added.

9. The radiators are placed next to the solar plant by the EVA team.

10. Storage tanks are placed above the underground base, expect for the water and oxygen.

11. Passage tubes are added so people can go from the ITS to the Mars Undergound Base without going on a EVA.

12. The Station now has power, gardeners and the other crew members setup their furniture and gear, the Product makers do the same thing.

13. The Medical crew goes on an expedition with the explorer crew to explore Mars with their rover for 1 week.

14. Once everybody has their stuff they need for their job set-up, life in the colony can begin!

15. The Spacecraft crew does not have much to do, but they are well honoured, they act as owners of the base since they did an important job to actually get people to Mars.

My new base is more of a community project, so if you have any good ideas, tell me so i can improve!

(Everything with an Asterisk may not be a good idea, but is just an idea)

Components

-Power:

-A solar plant

-Hydrogen fuel cells

-A Nuclear reactor*

-Rechargeable Battery's

-Power Lines (Duh)

-Robotics and Vehicles:

-A mobile drilling/digging vehicle. Something like a excavator, or maybe something else.

-A mobile module transporter.

-A manned exploration vehicle.

(I do not have all of the required vehicles for a Mars Colony, more coming soon)

-Resource gathering:

-Resource tanks/storage units!

-A water extraction unit that extracts water from Martian regolith.

-A water splitter that splits water molecules into Hydrogen and Oxygen.

(I do not have all the required resource gathering units for a Mars Colony, more coming soon)

-(Do not have much time now, more coming soon.)

 

 

This is my idea for a Mars colony, feel free to give feedback, but please note:

-It is just an idea, not like i actually want it to happend.

-I am not an Aerospace Engineer, Chemist, or Architect. Dont expect it to be hyper realistic.

-More will come soon, you could help me out if you wanted to.

Thanks for reading (-;

[NSEP]

Setup and Installation added!

Drawings coming hopefully soon!

Edited October 21, 2016 by NSEP

[Bill Phil]

Also, the Northern Hemisphere has a better track record of success (if I recall correctly).

[NSEP]

Just now, Bill Phil said:

Also, the Northern Hemisphere has a better track record of success (if I recall correctly).

Yeah i think so, It has much flatter terrain, so landing would be alot less risky.

[NSEP]

First drawing is out! It is a map of the underground cave base!

(The beehive does not exist)

Edited October 22, 2016 by NSEP

[Shania_L]

11 hours ago, Bill Phil said:

Also, the Northern Hemisphere has a better track record of success (if I recall correctly).

That would be because the northern hemisphere is the (ancient) ocean bed and is at a lower 'altitude' than the continental southern hemisphere. This means incoming spacecraft have more atmosphere to work with before the ground comes up to meet you. IIRC only northern hemisphere (or in bays of the ocean which crossed into southern hemisphere) landings have ever been attempted.

[Gkirmathal]

Wouldn't a circular underground base, especially the construction of the outer wall, be much easier to construct?

This could be done roboticly. Circular excavating the regolith and "3D printing" the wall while excavating downwards. Still some genius has to figure out with what substance to mix the Martian regolith, to be able to form a airtight composite wall, able to be 'printed'.

[NSEP]

1 minute ago, Gkirmathal said:

Wouldn't a circular underground base, especially the construction of the outer wall, be much easier to construct?

This could be done roboticly. Circular excavating the regolith and "3D printing" the wall while excavating downwards. Still some genius has to figure out with what substance to mix the Martian regolith, to be able to form a airtight composite wall, able to be 'printed'.

I dont really think so, 3D printing the walls is not the best idea, it is complicated, slow and expensive, i chose for human way because all you need is a shovel and a pickaxe, i dont know if it is faster because it is harder to work in a near-vacuum, but it is deffinitly cheaper and way less complicated. But hey maybe it is easier and better.

I also thought of Martian ''Mudbricks'' and a Cement like substance. It would be alot cheaper to build with because with those materials, you do not have to take all the materials with you. I might do some research on that.

[Gkirmathal]

Just now, NSEP said:

I dont really think so, 3D printing the walls is not the best idea, it is complicated, slow and expensive, i chose for human way because all you need is a shovel and a pickaxe, i dont know if it is faster because it is harder to work in a near-vacuum, but it is deffinitly cheaper and way less complicated. But hey maybe it is easier and better.

I also thought of Martian ''Mudbricks'' and a Cement like substance. It would be alot cheaper to build with because with those materials, you do not have to take all the materials with you. I might do some research on that.

Well out wall 'printing' could be printed bricks as well, their just need to an chemical invention to make that concrete/cement like substance.

The thought behind my reply was that there is a limit to surface rad exposure on EVA's and the dangers of manual labor in a construction environment. Robotically excavating a downward cylindrical 'hole' is relatively easy via remote operation.

That new Nat Geo show Mission to Mars uses old Martian lava tubes, in which a colony is set up, which would be a better short term solution. Then we won't be forced to burrow underground, like was done in the Red Mars book series.

[NSEP]

The colony will be located at the blue belt near the North Pole, but not AT the North Pole, Its harder to work out there, since it is colder, and much denser, it is harder to break through and to work with. The light blue spots near the equator might also be suitable, but it has more craters and less water, yet it is warmer.

[NSEP]

2 minutes ago, Gkirmathal said:

Well out wall 'printing' could be printed bricks as well, their just need to an chemical invention to make that concrete/cement like substance.

The thought behind my reply was that there is a limit to surface rad exposure on EVA's and the dangers of manual labor in a construction environment. Robotically excavating a downward cylindrical 'hole' is relatively easy via remote operation.

That new Nat Geo show Mission to Mars uses old Martian lava tubes, in which a colony is set up, which would be a better short term solution. Then we won't be forced to burrow underground, like was done in the Red Mars book series.

I am currently finding out a way to make building materials on Mars. But just putting stuff into multiple molds sounds easier than printing bricks to me.

I get it now. But i like it more primitive, because if you want to expand your colony outwards and create something like an entire country, you would need more resupply missions for more robots, (you can reuse them, but if you want to hold millions of peeps, you need alot of 3D printer robots) that is also why i am thinking of Mars bricks instead of using fiberglass plates. And i am also thinking of a way to make cheap and easy to produce spacesuits that you can make out of all the resources you have on Mars (and plants like rubber trees can reproduce, so they could be usefull too), so everyone can EVA.

Lava tubes could be usefull, if they are near the landing site, it would be ok, but they could collapse, and adding struts is harder, since the walls of a lava tube are uneven and deformed. I dont know how you could make that stable.

[DDE]

Would you need radiators on Mars, though? You have a pretty cold planet as a heat sink.

Also, bees? You sure? It's not the first choice of in-situ waste processing research. Most people are content with algae and sushi.

[YNM]

2 hours ago, Gkirmathal said:

Wouldn't a circular underground base, especially the construction of the outer wall, be much easier to construct?

This could be done roboticly. Circular excavating the regolith and "3D printing" the wall while excavating downwards. Still some genius has to figure out with what substance to mix the Martian regolith, to be able to form a airtight composite wall, able to be 'printed'.

So basically send over a TBM ?

Edited October 22, 2016 by YNM

[NSEP]

1 hour ago, DDE said:

Would you need radiators on Mars, though? You have a pretty cold planet as a heat sink.

Also, bees? You sure? It's not the first choice of in-situ waste processing research. Most people are content with algae and sushi.

You could use Mars as a heat sink, but im not sure how that would work out, im pretty sure the underground Mars base can get above body temperature without radiators.

Yep, bees. Honey can be usefull for sugar and honeycomb can be used for other products. You could also BBQ them, maybe, i dont really know. Thats why i chose bees instead of Algae, they produce more usefull things.

[DDE]

Just now, NSEP said:

Thats why i chose bees instead of Algae, they produce more usefull things.

I think they can't hold a stinger to a 3D printer. Plus I'm not sure how much plants you'll need to get the system working. Open-air plants.

[Bill Phil]

5 hours ago, Shania_L said:

That would be because the northern hemisphere is the (ancient) ocean bed and is at a lower 'altitude' than the continental southern hemisphere. This means incoming spacecraft have more atmosphere to work with before the ground comes up to meet you. IIRC only northern hemisphere (or in bays of the ocean which crossed into southern hemisphere) landings have ever been attempted.

Yeah. I think they have attempted a few... Mars 2 and 3 are estimated to be 45 degrees South. (both had failures, Mars 2 crashed). Mars 6 made an attempt about 24 degrees South, also crashed.

[NSEP]

43 minutes ago, DDE said:

I think they can't hold a stinger to a 3D printer. Plus I'm not sure how much plants you'll need to get the system working. Open-air plants.

Thats because they are not going to be near any 3D printers, bees always stay near their hive. I also dont know how much plants you will need, but you can put plants in a tighter space if you want alot of them.

[DerekL1963]

29 minutes ago, NSEP said:

bees always stay near their hive.

o.0   No they don't, they venture all over the place searching for food.  They're also going to be very tricky to ship as you have to ship a complete functioning colony, feeding it and maintaining it during transit.  Algae can be shipped as a simply starter culture, frozen or freeze dried.  (And you can carry multiple starter cultures in a very small volume, handy if something goes pear shaped.)

And unless you have a considerable amount of flowers for them to feed from, you're going to have to supplement them with a sugar syrup.   And if you're going to harvest their honey, you're going to have to replace the honey with sugar syrup or ensure 365 days of flowering plants in excess of their basic needs.

[NSEP]

4 minutes ago, DerekL1963 said:

o.0   No they don't, they venture all over the place searching for food.  They're also going to be very tricky to ship as you have to ship a complete functioning colony, feeding it and maintaining it during transit.  Algae can be shipped as a simply starter culture, frozen or freeze dried.  (And you can carry multiple starter cultures in a very small volume, handy if something goes pear shaped.)

And unless you have a considerable amount of flowers for them to feed from, you're going to have to supplement them with a sugar syrup.   And if you're going to harvest their honey, you're going to have to replace the honey with sugar syrup or ensure 365 days of flowering plants in excess of their basic needs.

 But they dont go near the machinery at least. Where there are no flowers, thats what i kind of meant. Doors could keep them out of the way. Thanks for the info though!

Edited October 22, 2016 by NSEP

[DDE]

50 minutes ago, NSEP said:

I also dont know how much plants you will need, but you can put plants in a tighter space if you want alot of them.

No, you can't. And that's one of the many reasons full-size plants are inferior to algae in our case.

[NSEP]

2 minutes ago, DDE said:

No, you can't. And that's one of the many reasons full-size plants are inferior to algae in our case.

Im not a biologist.

[DDE]

Just now, NSEP said:

Im not a biologist.

 

[Shania_L]

The regolith bricks sounds like a decent concept (based on no actual knowledge of the subject), would you even need to form them into discrete bricks though? you could just mix regolith with water and extrude it through a nozzle, in the low pressure/temperature the liquid water in the mud would instantly freeze or boil off and leave you with a hard dry wall.

If you have a decent water extraction process, I really hope you have a decent water extraction process, you can build yourself structures with seriously thick walls, the mud walls will not be reliably airtight so you could then simply spray on a plastic/whatever coating on the inside.

Bees inside a small enclosed area... I do not want to be in there if the hive gets knocked over!! You would need a very large area of green plants, for food and for air purification. Honey would be a very welcome luxuary product as you would essentially be living a vegan existance on Mars, but as previously said they might be more trouble than they are worth to maintain.

[NSEP]

Just now, Shania_L said:

The regolith bricks sounds like a decent concept (based on no actual knowledge of the subject), would you even need to form them into discrete bricks though? you could just mix regolith with water and extrude it through a nozzle, in the low pressure/temperature the liquid water in the mud would instantly freeze or boil off and leave you with a hard dry wall.

If you have a decent water extraction process, I really hope you have a decent water extraction process, you can build yourself structures with seriously thick walls, the mud walls will not be reliably airtight so you could then simply spray on a plastic/whatever coating on the inside.

Bees inside a small enclosed area... I do not want to be in there if the hive gets knocked over!! You would need a very large area of green plants, for food and for air purification. Honey would be a very welcome luxuary product as you would essentially be living a vegan existance on Mars, but as previously said they might be more trouble than they are worth to maintain.

Im thinking of those regolith bricks now, they shouldnt be that hard to make. And you could have a funnel thing, maybe that is a better idea.

There should also be a way to remove the bubbles and gaps from the mud walls to make it more airtight. Im not 100% sure about that though.

Im deleting the bee idea now, i failed with that one.

 

 

Removed the bees!

[Emperor of the Titan Squid]

What about growing plants in an aboveground geodesic dome? Would that provide enough sunlight on Mars?