Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2014

ASTRONAUTICS Another issue overlooked by the designers of Mars One seems to be that relat- ing to the quan- tities of spare parts that the Martian outpost will need to re- main fully opera- tional over time. In this regard, the MIT analysts have calculated that within a few years the loads sent from Earth will be mostly consisting of spare parts, up the point of representing 60% or more of the total weight transported to the colony. This will mean more launches of cargo ships than currently envisaged and consequently more costs than those forecasted, a further problem to be added to the one regarding the phase of launches destined to the au- tomatic construction of the Martian settle- ment prior to the settlers arrival: accord- ing to Mars One only 6 Falcon Heavy type rockets −each capable of taking 12 tonnes of cargo into geostationary transfer orbit− will be sufficient, while according to MIT as many as 15 will be needed. analysis at the International Astronautical Congress held in Toronto from 29 Septem- ber to 3 October 2014. The critical points that they raise are neither few nor easily surmounted. One of those points relates to the idea of extracting ice from the Martian subsurface to transform it into water to use for food preparation, drinking, hygiene, irrigation, etc. Well, given that the current technolo- gies working on our planet are not directly exportable to Mars, it will therefore be nec- essary to develop others more appropriate for that environment (not to mention that we do not yet know precisely either the lo- cation or the consistency of the ice fields). T he spaces available to settlers will in- clude long seg- ments connected to the housing modules. The il- lustration below clearly shows the network of solar panels that will supply the colo- ny with all the energy it needs. [Bryan Versteeg/ Mars One]