Surviving the Red Planet: Preparing the Visiting Geologist to Live and Work on Mars

Abstract

Compared to the Earth's cradle for humanity, Mars is a unique environment. It has a very low pressure atmosphere composed almost completely of carbon dioxide, about half the incident solar energy seen at Earth, an insignificant magnetic field where a large percentage of solar and cosmic radiation bathes the surface of the planet, and it has no water at the surface. Freezing is warm day on Mars. Not a very hospitable place for future exploration crews to live for as long as a year and a half. In the face of the obvious list of challenges, the first explorers will need to utilize Martian resources to maintain a habitable environment. With the surface exposed to solar and galactic radiation, some form of protected central facility will be required. Experience from the extended duration missions aboard the International Space Station will provide a portion of the countermeasures technology but a more fundamental technique will need to be employed by the surface geologists on Mars. Maintaining a biosphere supporting human life will also be a huge challenge. We take for granted the systems that support us here and, as a result, our knowledge of just how these systems interact to keep our biosphere functioning is incomplete. Martian geologists will need to create and sustain their own biosphere (soil, water, air, and living systems) and fully understand how it works. The presence of subsurface ice in recoverable quantities will supply not only metabolic needs but a source of oxygen for atmospheric conditioning and a potential source for rocket engines and fuel cells. The challenge will be to find minable resources. To do that an exploration system very similar to that commonly used here on Earth in hydrocarbon exploration will need to be developed to find these resources. Will the presence of minable water define the location of the future facility? If so, the resource distribution will need to be assessed prior to sending the teams. This paper will present some possible answers to these problems. Though there have been a number of what have been termed Martian analog experiences, none can fully expose the research teams to the true Martian environment. One of the few places that can get close will be on the Moon. For this, and other reasons, an extension of the lunar research program begun in the Apollo heroic phase of exploration needs to be an international space priority.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90216 ©2015 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Denver, CO., May 31 - June 3, 2015