Mars Colony in 20 Years ?

[Hum]

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (AP) -- All companies set goals, but newly formed 4Frontiers Corp. is eyeing some expansive horizons. The company's mission: to open a small human settlement on Mars within 20 years or so.

Sure, it may sound far-fetched. And the company's initial plans are a lot more terrestrial than ethereal, like developing a 25,000-square-foot replica of a Mars settlement here on Earth, then charging tourists admission.

But the people behind the venture are quite serious -- as serious as the $25 million they want to raise from investors.

CEO Mark Homnick, a former manager for Intel Corp. who has registered 4Frontiers in Florida, says he has already raised "a couple million" from people he won't name. He hopes for an initial public offering within five years.

That still leaves a lot of questions: Why should people live on Mars? And if it's going to be done, should a private enterprise engage in what would be one of humanity's defining moments?

Homnick and his co-founders -- a longtime Mars aficionado named Bruce Mackenzie and a 25-year-old Massachusetts Institute of Technology master's student, Joseph Palaia -- are ready with several answers.

First, they contend, humankind needs a new frontier to explore, with all the intellectual and engineering challenges that homesteading Mars would present.

Also, who knows the fate of our humble Earth? Will we meet an early end at the hands of an asteroid, warfare, disease or some other catastrophe?

In that case, we'd sure be glad civilization had been preserved by some colonists on Mars -- and perhaps elsewhere in the galaxy, if all goes well on the Red Planet. That broader vision of space settlement gives 4Frontiers its name: the frontiers being the Earth, the moon, Mars and the asteroids.

"It's the nature of life -- life tries to expand and tries to adapt," Mackenzie says. "If there's a forest fire in one valley, then all of the organisms in the next valley will slowly creep over the ridge and repopulate that valley. Any species that don't do it eventually die out." Going to space, he believes, is as if "all of earth's life, acting together, is trying to get into the next valley. And the only way we can do it is by building rockets."

Mackenzie, a software developer, has devoted much of his energy to a nonprofit group called the Mars Foundation, which aims to advance knowledge about how to colonize the planet. But he decided a private venture like 4Frontiers also would be necessary, to drive things forward.

Indeed, space is no longer solely the province of earnest astronauts with crew cuts and government-issued uniforms.

It would take months to get to Mars. Once there, you couldn't kick off your shoes and dig your toes into the sand. Life would transpire in an enclosed space with pumped-in air (unless Martian settlers could pull off the even more speculative feat of "terraforming" the planet by changing its toxic atmosphere.) Venturing outside would require sealed suits.

To begin, 4Frontiers plans to gather patents and engineering ideas that would enable a small crew to land on Mars with home-building materials and the manufacturing capability to keep adding on.

The hot topics would include ways to miniaturize key industrial processes -- like making plastic or steel -- and methods for exploiting Martian resources, such as the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, iron in the dirt or the water bound up in Martian ice.

As the company gains expertise, it expects to sell consulting services to aerospace companies or NASA. It envisions getting work designing Mars sets for movies and Mars rides for amusement parks.

Meanwhile, it plans to construct a mock-up of its Mars home and begin selling tickets to it by 2007. Potential sites in Colorado, Florida and New Mexico are being considered.

The company's business plan estimates these varied projects would bring in $34 million in revenue in 2010 -- including $7 million in gate receipts at the tourist site.

Homnick says 4Frontiers would probably "stay incremental" through the early 2010s, perhaps getting involved in robotic surveys of Mars or asteroid mining.

However, projects like that -- and perhaps even settling Mars might require some clarity in space law.

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty declared that the "exploration and use" of outer space and celestial bodies "shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interest of all countries." While that's not exactly the traditional language of private enterprise, some space scholars say it leaves room for commercial projects.

(A 1979 Moon Treaty was more explicit, holding that bodies in the solar system should not become the property of any nation, organization or person. But most countries, including the United States, China and Russia, never ratified it.)

Considering all the possible complications, Mackenzie says 4Frontiers' real success might come simply from getting the public pumped about living on Mars. In turn, that could make Washington eager to fund a settlement.

Even if that doesn't happen, he is sure that people eventually will live on Mars -- and perhaps scores of other places in space.

source:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/09/19/r...c.ap/index.html

[Cheshire Cat]

interesting read

however i think that it reads much like one of those spam emails from nigerian royalty asking for money

[vincent]

Well if it is in an enclosed environment then its a possibility. Terraforming Mars would require an international effort, one that i don't see happening anytime soon. Also that atmosphere would have to be sustained, i believe because of two things, Mars is 1.52 AU (astronomical units, 1AU = distance from the sun to earth) So it is naturally a colder planet, we can heat it up by ways of introducing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere to maintain a reasonal global temperature.

Secondly, Mars has a lower gravity than that of Earth.

Where did the atmosphere go?

    * Presumably it started out something like Venus.

    * Put most of CO2 in rocks (using rainfall), as on Earth.

    * Then the weaker gravity of Mars wasn't able to hold the rest of the atmosphere.

          o Ultraviolet light helps by breaking up molecules so that they are light enough to escape.

    * Not enough volcanos to replenish the atmosphere.

          o No plate tectonics.

[killmaster84]

I want to live on mars :ninja:

[Hum]

I don't see how they'll solve the Mars radiation problem. :unsure: