What are some things men could do on the surface of mars?

[nhnifong]

Hopefully one day, humans will send a manned (and womanned!) mission to mars.

When that happens, what are they going to do on the surface? The most obvious things are collect rock samples and look for water ice and purify it into drinkable water.

What kinds of things might they do that require a uniquely human level of judgement?

[Joshington]

Play Rock Paper Scissors, I Spy, 20 Questions, a lot of things.

[falofonos]

Drive faster than 90 meters per hour

[metaphor]

Take nice pictures and videos.

Invent low-gravity sports.

Find unknown things.

Everything robots can do but about 1000 times faster (not exaggerating).

[NovaSilisko]

Explore martian caves and canyons. Caves are one of the cooler environments, since they're pretty protected from radiation. You could potentially seal one off and use it to build a habitat, even.

[stupid_chris]

Explore martian caves and canyons. Caves are one of the cooler environments, since they're pretty protected from radiation. You could potentially seal one off and use it to build a habitat, even.

Indeed, if we're gonna send people there, I think this is the most affordable and safe way of doing it. I think there's also a higher chance of finding water patches underground and in caves, and in the same stroke, very primitive (and old) forms of life.

[Spaceisbeautifulul]

Ispy on Mars? Oh hell yes.

Realistically, they would unload their stuffs, maybe set up the rover, explore caves, take samples, all that boring stuff.

I spy something that is red.

A rock? The ground?

Nope guess again!

[Brotoro]

Search for signs of life (currently existing or extinct).

[dharak1]

I like Nova's idea of using caves its somewhat similar to covering bases in lunar regolith to protect them. I could see them sending a rover to prepare a cave or something like that.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

I spy with my little, something that is red

Anyhow, if they bring telescopes, they can Earth Spot. I mean, that could be fun

The can also play golf and hopefully NASA/SpaceX will get a internet satalite into Mars Orbit capable of going to earth so they can communicate with us through video

[Nibb31]

You won't be having a video chat with anybody on Mars. There is a 15 minute round trip for the radio waves to go back and forth.

The cave idea is cool, but you would need some kind of custom built inflatable habitat that you could inflate inside the cave to make sure it's sealed. It would be hard to make something like that on Mars, so you would need to recon the caves, build the sealing/habitat equipment on Earth, and then send it Mars. It would take several years.

I think the first thing humans should be doing on Mars is ISRU and closed loop life support experiments, biology experiments. Basic stuff, that we should have done on the Moon first really...

Edited July 12, 2013 by Nibb31

[DerekL1963]

"Nuttin' to do on this planet but throw rocks at cans... and ya gotta bring your own cans".

[nhnifong]

I think they should bring thousands of different kinds of seeds, and the first order of business should be to erect a greenhouse, melt some water ice, and see what you can grow.

[KOCOUR]

First they should build base on moon, try what can do there, build up some extraterestrial experience, and then they maybe could start thinkink about mars.

[Winter Man]

The moon's an obvious first step, it being so much closer and all. 5 day resupply beats the hell out of waiting a year and a bit after a request (although Rickenbacker's customers would probably be quite at home). Order of business for Mars, once it's been tried out on the moon, is to grow food. Water can be recycled, as can air to a certain extent.

[Apollo1391]

NASA is planning a manned mars mission in 2023 and they will probably be doing science experiments and the occasional rock paper scissors for who can drive the rover

[Moon Goddess]

Explore martian caves and canyons. Caves are one of the cooler environments, since they're pretty protected from radiation. You could potentially seal one off and use it to build a habitat, even.

I think caves are the best reason for sending humans. Caveing is difficult by robots due to lack of radio signal.

I do love that Nova presents caves as the best reason for sending humans and yet won't give us caves in KSP

[Cesrate]

Build houses obviously.

[Moon Goddess]

The cave idea is cool, but you would need some kind of custom built inflatable habitat that you could inflate inside the cave to make sure it's sealed. It would be hard to make something like that on Mars, so you would need to recon the caves, build the sealing/habitat equipment on Earth, and then send it Mars. It would take several years.

Foam.

I've got some foam in a can that hardens like a brick, keeps air from leaking out of my house. I'm sure NASA can get some better foam. You have a inflatable seal, with a built in airlock, but it doesn't fill the cave chamber, you spray foam around it to seal up the gaps.

[WhiteWeasel]

I spy with my little, something that is red

Anyhow, if they bring telescopes, they can Earth Spot. I mean, that could be fun

The can also play golf and hopefully NASA/SpaceX will get a internet satalite into Mars Orbit capable of going to earth so they can communicate with us through video

Let's see, delay to and back from mars is 42 minutes at it's farthest, 6 at it's shortest [source], divide that by 60 = 2520 seconds, x 1000 (to get milliseconds) = OR 360 x 1000 = 360000-2520000 ping.

Sooo, no TF2 on mars

Edited July 12, 2013 by WhiteWeasel

[Scotius]

What MoonGoddes wrote. If you find suitable cave, you found yourself all the structure you need. Install an airlock, life support system, seal it airtight, pressurise everything and presto - you have a home away from home. Habitats hidden in caves would have additional advantage: temperature in caves is usually low, but also quite stable (if you're far enough from the surface. Rock is pretty good isolation, which is important when outside temperature can drop to the point it snows carbon dioxide

[Nibb31]

NASA is planning a manned mars mission in 2023 and they will probably be doing science experiments and the occasional rock paper scissors for who can drive the rover

No they are not.

[Nuke]

...and hopefully NASA/SpaceX will get a internet satalite into Mars Orbit capable of going to earth so they can communicate with us through video

the lag would be horrible. besides all your packets would time out before they can be routed. nasa has interplanetary communications protocols that would do the job but it wouldn't work like the internet we know. you would probibly enter a whole list of things to look for then like an hour later you would get a large chunk of data to browse through, and it may be longer depending on what kind of data rates we could get out of interplanetary communications.

Explore martian caves and canyons. Caves are one of the cooler environments, since they're pretty protected from radiation. You could potentially seal one off and use it to build a habitat, even.

im curious if there has been any attempt by nasa or anyone else to find and catalog extraterrestrial cave systems. cave habitation would actually work quite well. once you got the door sealed you are pretty much free to construct whatever you need on the inside of the cave using good old fashioned manual labor. much of the work will be in reinforcing the caves to be much more structurally sound. spray on concrete is really good at this, but you will probibly need to make it from local materials (or at least use local aggregate/water, and bring the cement).

ive also considered sending tunnel boring machines to other planets, but those require huge industrial complexes to operate, and its probibly sufficiently complicated of a machine where it would need to be manned.

Foam.

I've got some foam in a can that hardens like a brick, keeps air from leaking out of my house. I'm sure NASA can get some better foam. You have a inflatable seal, with a built in airlock, but it doesn't fill the cave chamber, you spray foam around it to seal up the gaps.

this is pretty clever, at least as a temporary seal until a more permanent one can be constructed. mix the foam with local aggregate and you have an even more robust airlock.

Edited July 12, 2013 by Nuke

[Flixxbeatz]

Wonder when is the return trip. As if there is a return trip...

[Kerbface]

Ispy on Mars? Oh hell yes.

Realistically, they would unload their stuffs, maybe set up the rover, explore caves, take samples, all that boring stuff.

I spy something that is red.

A rock? The ground?

Nope guess again!

"I spy with my little eye, something beginning with L."

"Life?!?"

"No."

"Aww..."