Information from Biosphere 2 would come in handy here. This step is actually comparatively easy and would provide a nice recreational environment on Mars if it were large enough, about the size of a tennis court.
Quote from: Alkan on 04/01/2018 02:24 amInformation from Biosphere 2 would come in handy here. This step is actually comparatively easy and would provide a nice recreational environment on Mars if it were large enough, about the size of a tennis court.Biosphere II really is not informative.Biosphere II was an aesthetic design, which incidentally sort-of-produced enough food on a truly massive area.You need pretty closely 3kW of electricity into good LED lights onto potatoes to feed a person, 6kW gives you a varied veggie diet, in around 100m^2.Perhaps a total of 10kW for food + oxygen.This is a tiny number compared to the amount of power you need for ISRU.
So, I'm interested in predicting some of the details of his colony. Each phase is looser and more speculative.Phase I: Fuel ProductionThe methane fuel will be created by the Sabatier reaction using CO2 and water.
What else is needed is food. It won't be self-sustaining for a long time, so I don't see greenhouses to grow food being particularly useful for some time. Rather, several years worth of food would be sent. 7300 pounds of food would feed a person for five years. It might be safer to send 10,000 pounds of probably pretty lousy space food. Send a crew of 8 people and you can send them with enough food, water and oxygen to survive the process of waiting for the fuel production to go home.
This is probably the primary goal of the first mission: set up solar panels to generate fuel with the Sabatier process. Some aspects of this would be easier than the space station: not having zero g means that stuff just doesn't float in the air freely.
Phase II: Increasing the Self-sustainability of the Base.... No micrometeorites, reduced cosmic radiation and a gravitational well make this relatively safe. Information from Biosphere 2 would come in handy here. This step is actually comparatively easy and would provide a nice recreational environment on Mars if it were large enough, about the size of a tennis court.
Quote from: Alkan on 04/01/2018 02:24 amSo, I'm interested in predicting some of the details of his colony. Each phase is looser and more speculative.Phase I: Fuel ProductionThe methane fuel will be created by the Sabatier reaction using CO2 and water. Welcome to the site. You're behind the curve here. Substantial Methane deposits have been found.
Quote from: john smith 19 on 04/01/2018 09:49 amQuote from: Alkan on 04/01/2018 02:24 amSo, I'm interested in predicting some of the details of his colony. Each phase is looser and more speculative.Phase I: Fuel ProductionThe methane fuel will be created by the Sabatier reaction using CO2 and water. Welcome to the site. You're behind the curve here. Substantial Methane deposits have been found. JS19: Methane deposits? I missed that.Are they usable? What form do they take? Do you have references?-----ABCD: Always Be Counting Down
I still say expirimental cancer research will be mars's biggest unofficial export for some time. You're on mars, you're not going to spend your whole stay in a bunker driving an RC rover. And when the radiation starts giving you lumps, volunteer for expirimental therapies.
I still say expirimental cancer research will be mars's biggest unofficial export for some time. You're on mars, you're not going to spend your whole stay in a bunker driving an RC rover.
And when the radiation starts giving you lumps, volunteer for expirimental therapies.
Quote from: meekGee on 04/01/2018 12:51 pmQuote from: john smith 19 on 04/01/2018 09:49 amQuote from: Alkan on 04/01/2018 02:24 amSo, I'm interested in predicting some of the details of his colony. Each phase is looser and more speculative.Phase I: Fuel ProductionThe methane fuel will be created by the Sabatier reaction using CO2 and water. Welcome to the site. You're behind the curve here. Substantial Methane deposits have been found. JS19: Methane deposits? I missed that.Are they usable? What form do they take? Do you have references?-----ABCD: Always Be Counting DownElon Musk literally said they're going to use CO2 at ITS presentation, so that comment about me being behind is kind of funny. It's probably easier to find a lot of water.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8unI6KHAocU?t=14m43sThe presentation on radiation on Mars was released before Elon Musk's Mars architecture was outlined. It will be an issue, though I don't think Elon Musk seems to think of it as such a big deal. It is a bigger deal than I think that Elon Musk thinks, but the risk of increased cancer is just going to be part of it.
Power is already solved compared to mining, though. Power is one of the only things that has already been demonstrated many times on Mars. Solar power in particular.But SpaceX has discussed power many times. There were comments about special lightweighted deployment using inflatables, plus there’s CG of huge fields of solar arrays. Power has been addressed WAY more than actual mining of water has.
The presentation on radiation on Mars was released before Elon Musk's Mars architecture was outlined. It will be an issue, though I don't think Elon Musk seems to think of it as such a big deal. It is a bigger deal than I think that Elon Musk thinks, but the risk of increased cancer is just going to be part of it.
Experimental therapies are not generally very effective, compared to existing ones.
Presentations on radiation on Mars have been given for decades, the situation has not changed much except that Mars Curiosity has validated that surface radiation levels are much less than deep space and solar events are effectively neutralized (compared to deep space).
Wrong. The equivalent to having the same radiation protection on Earth is about a 3metre layer of regolith.