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A million of Martians

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  • K Offline
    K Offline
    kalberts
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    Last Monday, the CP Daily News brought the link to Elon Musk Says He’ll Put A Million People on Mars By 2050[^]. This set me thinking: Recycling water is quite straightforward. Recycling oxygen not so. I do not have enough information to even estimate how may tons of oxygen a million humans require a day. (A ton is a million grams, one gram per person.) Can anyone put me on the right track? Next question: How many plants does it take to produce a ton of oxygen a day? Obviously, a huge pine tree will produce more than, say, a tomato plant. I guess that plants will have to double as both oxygen and food sources; there wouldn't be room of huge forests within that plastic bubble. Do food plants vary a lot in their oxygen prodction capabilities? With Mars being roughly speaking at 1.5 times the Earth's distance from the sun, solar radiation is at 40-45% of Earth levels; I guess that could affect the photosynthesis. When the type and required number of plants, of various kinds, have been determined, we could try to estimate how much water would be bound in these plants and their soil. Transporting that water from earth would be a major taks. So would be an effort to break it loose from the south pole ice-cap and transport it the 2500 km to equatorial land, melt it and heat it up to a temperature suitable for the plants. With no oxygen available, we can't use diesel trucks for transportation, or any tool requiring oxygen for cutting the ice. (We obviously could cover half of the Martian surface with solar cells to produce electricity for electrolyzing the south pole ice cap, rather than using the water for growing plants. That is certainly not in the "sustainable" group of alternatives - and how much solar panels would it require? I suspect that the panels would all have to be brought from Earth.) I really liked the kind of analysis made in The World Without Us[^] by Alan Wiesman, and wish that someone would make a similarly scientifically founded evaluation of the realism of a one million people Mars colony. Well, I suspect that it could easily end up more like Solar FREAKING Roadways, Are they REAL?[

    D Mike HankeyM R F L 16 Replies Last reply
    0
    • K kalberts

      Last Monday, the CP Daily News brought the link to Elon Musk Says He’ll Put A Million People on Mars By 2050[^]. This set me thinking: Recycling water is quite straightforward. Recycling oxygen not so. I do not have enough information to even estimate how may tons of oxygen a million humans require a day. (A ton is a million grams, one gram per person.) Can anyone put me on the right track? Next question: How many plants does it take to produce a ton of oxygen a day? Obviously, a huge pine tree will produce more than, say, a tomato plant. I guess that plants will have to double as both oxygen and food sources; there wouldn't be room of huge forests within that plastic bubble. Do food plants vary a lot in their oxygen prodction capabilities? With Mars being roughly speaking at 1.5 times the Earth's distance from the sun, solar radiation is at 40-45% of Earth levels; I guess that could affect the photosynthesis. When the type and required number of plants, of various kinds, have been determined, we could try to estimate how much water would be bound in these plants and their soil. Transporting that water from earth would be a major taks. So would be an effort to break it loose from the south pole ice-cap and transport it the 2500 km to equatorial land, melt it and heat it up to a temperature suitable for the plants. With no oxygen available, we can't use diesel trucks for transportation, or any tool requiring oxygen for cutting the ice. (We obviously could cover half of the Martian surface with solar cells to produce electricity for electrolyzing the south pole ice cap, rather than using the water for growing plants. That is certainly not in the "sustainable" group of alternatives - and how much solar panels would it require? I suspect that the panels would all have to be brought from Earth.) I really liked the kind of analysis made in The World Without Us[^] by Alan Wiesman, and wish that someone would make a similarly scientifically founded evaluation of the realism of a one million people Mars colony. Well, I suspect that it could easily end up more like Solar FREAKING Roadways, Are they REAL?[

      D Offline
      D Offline
      Daniel Pfeffer
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      The engineering required for long-term presence on Mars is much more than provision of food, water, air, and power. On Earth, the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere do a good job of protecting us. Mars has neither. The colonists would have to dig down to a depth of a few metres in order to protect themselves (and their crops) from radiation. We also have no idea how the radiation would affect the micro-biome that all of us carry around inside us. There are indications that quite a few diseases may be caused by the replacement in the gut of some benign bacteria by less benign varieties. All in all, I would be very surprised if humanity has any permanent colony on Mars in 2050, to say nothing of a million people.

      Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.

      K M 2 Replies Last reply
      0
      • K kalberts

        Last Monday, the CP Daily News brought the link to Elon Musk Says He’ll Put A Million People on Mars By 2050[^]. This set me thinking: Recycling water is quite straightforward. Recycling oxygen not so. I do not have enough information to even estimate how may tons of oxygen a million humans require a day. (A ton is a million grams, one gram per person.) Can anyone put me on the right track? Next question: How many plants does it take to produce a ton of oxygen a day? Obviously, a huge pine tree will produce more than, say, a tomato plant. I guess that plants will have to double as both oxygen and food sources; there wouldn't be room of huge forests within that plastic bubble. Do food plants vary a lot in their oxygen prodction capabilities? With Mars being roughly speaking at 1.5 times the Earth's distance from the sun, solar radiation is at 40-45% of Earth levels; I guess that could affect the photosynthesis. When the type and required number of plants, of various kinds, have been determined, we could try to estimate how much water would be bound in these plants and their soil. Transporting that water from earth would be a major taks. So would be an effort to break it loose from the south pole ice-cap and transport it the 2500 km to equatorial land, melt it and heat it up to a temperature suitable for the plants. With no oxygen available, we can't use diesel trucks for transportation, or any tool requiring oxygen for cutting the ice. (We obviously could cover half of the Martian surface with solar cells to produce electricity for electrolyzing the south pole ice cap, rather than using the water for growing plants. That is certainly not in the "sustainable" group of alternatives - and how much solar panels would it require? I suspect that the panels would all have to be brought from Earth.) I really liked the kind of analysis made in The World Without Us[^] by Alan Wiesman, and wish that someone would make a similarly scientifically founded evaluation of the realism of a one million people Mars colony. Well, I suspect that it could easily end up more like Solar FREAKING Roadways, Are they REAL?[

        Mike HankeyM Offline
        Mike HankeyM Offline
        Mike Hankey
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        The Native Martians will provide for and take care of them until they become self sufficient enough to take their land and exterminate them.

        It's been 6 months since I joined the gym and there's been no progress. I'm going there tomorrow in person to find out what's really going on! JaxCoder.com

        G 1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • K kalberts

          Last Monday, the CP Daily News brought the link to Elon Musk Says He’ll Put A Million People on Mars By 2050[^]. This set me thinking: Recycling water is quite straightforward. Recycling oxygen not so. I do not have enough information to even estimate how may tons of oxygen a million humans require a day. (A ton is a million grams, one gram per person.) Can anyone put me on the right track? Next question: How many plants does it take to produce a ton of oxygen a day? Obviously, a huge pine tree will produce more than, say, a tomato plant. I guess that plants will have to double as both oxygen and food sources; there wouldn't be room of huge forests within that plastic bubble. Do food plants vary a lot in their oxygen prodction capabilities? With Mars being roughly speaking at 1.5 times the Earth's distance from the sun, solar radiation is at 40-45% of Earth levels; I guess that could affect the photosynthesis. When the type and required number of plants, of various kinds, have been determined, we could try to estimate how much water would be bound in these plants and their soil. Transporting that water from earth would be a major taks. So would be an effort to break it loose from the south pole ice-cap and transport it the 2500 km to equatorial land, melt it and heat it up to a temperature suitable for the plants. With no oxygen available, we can't use diesel trucks for transportation, or any tool requiring oxygen for cutting the ice. (We obviously could cover half of the Martian surface with solar cells to produce electricity for electrolyzing the south pole ice cap, rather than using the water for growing plants. That is certainly not in the "sustainable" group of alternatives - and how much solar panels would it require? I suspect that the panels would all have to be brought from Earth.) I really liked the kind of analysis made in The World Without Us[^] by Alan Wiesman, and wish that someone would make a similarly scientifically founded evaluation of the realism of a one million people Mars colony. Well, I suspect that it could easily end up more like Solar FREAKING Roadways, Are they REAL?[

          R Offline
          R Offline
          Rob Philpott
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          Practicalities aside, I think it dubious that you'd find a million people willing to leave the lushness of Earth to die on a baron airless rock. It's not exactly Tahiti...

          Regards, Rob Philpott.

          J K D M D 6 Replies Last reply
          0
          • R Rob Philpott

            Practicalities aside, I think it dubious that you'd find a million people willing to leave the lushness of Earth to die on a baron airless rock. It's not exactly Tahiti...

            Regards, Rob Philpott.

            J Offline
            J Offline
            Johnny J
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            I was thinking about that. I propose we start building a list of preferred candidates for everybody to vote on! :doh: If we start with all politicians and all lawyers, we should be well on our way towards a million...

            Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
            Anonymous
            -----
            The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
            Winston Churchill, 1944
            -----
            Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
            Mark Twain

            D 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • R Rob Philpott

              Practicalities aside, I think it dubious that you'd find a million people willing to leave the lushness of Earth to die on a baron airless rock. It's not exactly Tahiti...

              Regards, Rob Philpott.

              K Offline
              K Offline
              kalberts
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              We had a discussion in the coffee corner about who we should urge to volunteer as settlers. I guess creating a list in this thread could lead to the thread being censored :-)

              D 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • D Daniel Pfeffer

                The engineering required for long-term presence on Mars is much more than provision of food, water, air, and power. On Earth, the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere do a good job of protecting us. Mars has neither. The colonists would have to dig down to a depth of a few metres in order to protect themselves (and their crops) from radiation. We also have no idea how the radiation would affect the micro-biome that all of us carry around inside us. There are indications that quite a few diseases may be caused by the replacement in the gut of some benign bacteria by less benign varieties. All in all, I would be very surprised if humanity has any permanent colony on Mars in 2050, to say nothing of a million people.

                Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.

                K Offline
                K Offline
                kalberts
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                Daniel Pfeffer wrote:

                The engineering required for long-term presence on Mars is much more than provision of food, water, air, and power.

                Certainly! That is why I wish someone with a similar broad scientific background (and as many contacts in the scientific community) as Alan Weisman would take on such a project. When I read The World Without Us, there were quite a few points I never had considered before. On Mars there must be ten times as many! It certainly would be fascinating read, but I guess it would be sort of depressing to a large number of SciFi fans.

                R 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • K kalberts

                  Last Monday, the CP Daily News brought the link to Elon Musk Says He’ll Put A Million People on Mars By 2050[^]. This set me thinking: Recycling water is quite straightforward. Recycling oxygen not so. I do not have enough information to even estimate how may tons of oxygen a million humans require a day. (A ton is a million grams, one gram per person.) Can anyone put me on the right track? Next question: How many plants does it take to produce a ton of oxygen a day? Obviously, a huge pine tree will produce more than, say, a tomato plant. I guess that plants will have to double as both oxygen and food sources; there wouldn't be room of huge forests within that plastic bubble. Do food plants vary a lot in their oxygen prodction capabilities? With Mars being roughly speaking at 1.5 times the Earth's distance from the sun, solar radiation is at 40-45% of Earth levels; I guess that could affect the photosynthesis. When the type and required number of plants, of various kinds, have been determined, we could try to estimate how much water would be bound in these plants and their soil. Transporting that water from earth would be a major taks. So would be an effort to break it loose from the south pole ice-cap and transport it the 2500 km to equatorial land, melt it and heat it up to a temperature suitable for the plants. With no oxygen available, we can't use diesel trucks for transportation, or any tool requiring oxygen for cutting the ice. (We obviously could cover half of the Martian surface with solar cells to produce electricity for electrolyzing the south pole ice cap, rather than using the water for growing plants. That is certainly not in the "sustainable" group of alternatives - and how much solar panels would it require? I suspect that the panels would all have to be brought from Earth.) I really liked the kind of analysis made in The World Without Us[^] by Alan Wiesman, and wish that someone would make a similarly scientifically founded evaluation of the realism of a one million people Mars colony. Well, I suspect that it could easily end up more like Solar FREAKING Roadways, Are they REAL?[

                  F Offline
                  F Offline
                  F ES Sitecore
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  Solve propulsion problem to allow us to get to Mars [ ] Solve renewable water problem [ ] Solve renewable oxygen problem [ ] Solve renewable energy problem [ ] Build Starbucks [ ] Transport people

                  K D 2 Replies Last reply
                  0
                  • K kalberts

                    Last Monday, the CP Daily News brought the link to Elon Musk Says He’ll Put A Million People on Mars By 2050[^]. This set me thinking: Recycling water is quite straightforward. Recycling oxygen not so. I do not have enough information to even estimate how may tons of oxygen a million humans require a day. (A ton is a million grams, one gram per person.) Can anyone put me on the right track? Next question: How many plants does it take to produce a ton of oxygen a day? Obviously, a huge pine tree will produce more than, say, a tomato plant. I guess that plants will have to double as both oxygen and food sources; there wouldn't be room of huge forests within that plastic bubble. Do food plants vary a lot in their oxygen prodction capabilities? With Mars being roughly speaking at 1.5 times the Earth's distance from the sun, solar radiation is at 40-45% of Earth levels; I guess that could affect the photosynthesis. When the type and required number of plants, of various kinds, have been determined, we could try to estimate how much water would be bound in these plants and their soil. Transporting that water from earth would be a major taks. So would be an effort to break it loose from the south pole ice-cap and transport it the 2500 km to equatorial land, melt it and heat it up to a temperature suitable for the plants. With no oxygen available, we can't use diesel trucks for transportation, or any tool requiring oxygen for cutting the ice. (We obviously could cover half of the Martian surface with solar cells to produce electricity for electrolyzing the south pole ice cap, rather than using the water for growing plants. That is certainly not in the "sustainable" group of alternatives - and how much solar panels would it require? I suspect that the panels would all have to be brought from Earth.) I really liked the kind of analysis made in The World Without Us[^] by Alan Wiesman, and wish that someone would make a similarly scientifically founded evaluation of the realism of a one million people Mars colony. Well, I suspect that it could easily end up more like Solar FREAKING Roadways, Are they REAL?[

                    L Offline
                    L Offline
                    Lost User
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    did he actually say they would be alive? scattering ashes in space was a thing for a while till the satellite makers complained that bumping into orbital detritus may affect their ability to um ...spy on the still living. why not dump that useless crap (and more) on a useless rock that only sci fi writers and clueless dreamers care about?

                    after many otherwise intelligent sounding suggestions that achieved nothing the nice folks at Technet said the only solution was to low level format my hard disk then reinstall my signature. Sadly, this still didn't fix the issue!

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • K kalberts

                      Last Monday, the CP Daily News brought the link to Elon Musk Says He’ll Put A Million People on Mars By 2050[^]. This set me thinking: Recycling water is quite straightforward. Recycling oxygen not so. I do not have enough information to even estimate how may tons of oxygen a million humans require a day. (A ton is a million grams, one gram per person.) Can anyone put me on the right track? Next question: How many plants does it take to produce a ton of oxygen a day? Obviously, a huge pine tree will produce more than, say, a tomato plant. I guess that plants will have to double as both oxygen and food sources; there wouldn't be room of huge forests within that plastic bubble. Do food plants vary a lot in their oxygen prodction capabilities? With Mars being roughly speaking at 1.5 times the Earth's distance from the sun, solar radiation is at 40-45% of Earth levels; I guess that could affect the photosynthesis. When the type and required number of plants, of various kinds, have been determined, we could try to estimate how much water would be bound in these plants and their soil. Transporting that water from earth would be a major taks. So would be an effort to break it loose from the south pole ice-cap and transport it the 2500 km to equatorial land, melt it and heat it up to a temperature suitable for the plants. With no oxygen available, we can't use diesel trucks for transportation, or any tool requiring oxygen for cutting the ice. (We obviously could cover half of the Martian surface with solar cells to produce electricity for electrolyzing the south pole ice cap, rather than using the water for growing plants. That is certainly not in the "sustainable" group of alternatives - and how much solar panels would it require? I suspect that the panels would all have to be brought from Earth.) I really liked the kind of analysis made in The World Without Us[^] by Alan Wiesman, and wish that someone would make a similarly scientifically founded evaluation of the realism of a one million people Mars colony. Well, I suspect that it could easily end up more like Solar FREAKING Roadways, Are they REAL?[

                      R Offline
                      R Offline
                      Rick York
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      If you are into science fiction books I highly recommend reading the Mars series of books by Kim Stanley Robinson. It is about the process of terraforming and settling Mars. The trilogy of books takes place over several hundred years and is quite fascinating. The books are titled Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars. Highly recommended!

                      "They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"

                      Richard DeemingR K 2 Replies Last reply
                      0
                      • K kalberts

                        Last Monday, the CP Daily News brought the link to Elon Musk Says He’ll Put A Million People on Mars By 2050[^]. This set me thinking: Recycling water is quite straightforward. Recycling oxygen not so. I do not have enough information to even estimate how may tons of oxygen a million humans require a day. (A ton is a million grams, one gram per person.) Can anyone put me on the right track? Next question: How many plants does it take to produce a ton of oxygen a day? Obviously, a huge pine tree will produce more than, say, a tomato plant. I guess that plants will have to double as both oxygen and food sources; there wouldn't be room of huge forests within that plastic bubble. Do food plants vary a lot in their oxygen prodction capabilities? With Mars being roughly speaking at 1.5 times the Earth's distance from the sun, solar radiation is at 40-45% of Earth levels; I guess that could affect the photosynthesis. When the type and required number of plants, of various kinds, have been determined, we could try to estimate how much water would be bound in these plants and their soil. Transporting that water from earth would be a major taks. So would be an effort to break it loose from the south pole ice-cap and transport it the 2500 km to equatorial land, melt it and heat it up to a temperature suitable for the plants. With no oxygen available, we can't use diesel trucks for transportation, or any tool requiring oxygen for cutting the ice. (We obviously could cover half of the Martian surface with solar cells to produce electricity for electrolyzing the south pole ice cap, rather than using the water for growing plants. That is certainly not in the "sustainable" group of alternatives - and how much solar panels would it require? I suspect that the panels would all have to be brought from Earth.) I really liked the kind of analysis made in The World Without Us[^] by Alan Wiesman, and wish that someone would make a similarly scientifically founded evaluation of the realism of a one million people Mars colony. Well, I suspect that it could easily end up more like Solar FREAKING Roadways, Are they REAL?[

                        T Offline
                        T Offline
                        Tomas Takac
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        One person is seven or eight trees’ worth in terms of oxygen. But distance from the Sun will definitely be a factor here. Martian polar caps are mostly CO2, no luck here. Maybe there is some frozen water underground. Or you can get some water from comets if you can make them crash on Mars. Sun will be our only energy source so electricity will power everything.

                        K 2 Replies Last reply
                        0
                        • R Rick York

                          If you are into science fiction books I highly recommend reading the Mars series of books by Kim Stanley Robinson. It is about the process of terraforming and settling Mars. The trilogy of books takes place over several hundred years and is quite fascinating. The books are titled Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars. Highly recommended!

                          "They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"

                          Richard DeemingR Offline
                          Richard DeemingR Offline
                          Richard Deeming
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          Rick York wrote:

                          Red Mars

                          OK...

                          Rick York wrote:

                          Green Bars

                          I'd have thought "Green Mars" would have been a better title. But OK...

                          Rick York wrote:

                          and Blue Blue

                          OK, now it's just getting silly. :laugh:


                          "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

                          "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined" - Homer

                          L 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • F F ES Sitecore

                            Solve propulsion problem to allow us to get to Mars [ ] Solve renewable water problem [ ] Solve renewable oxygen problem [ ] Solve renewable energy problem [ ] Build Starbucks [ ] Transport people

                            K Offline
                            K Offline
                            kalberts
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            I wonder how he will space these activities in time from now until 2050. And what would happen if Starbucks is bankrupt before they get to that point?

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • K kalberts

                              Daniel Pfeffer wrote:

                              The engineering required for long-term presence on Mars is much more than provision of food, water, air, and power.

                              Certainly! That is why I wish someone with a similar broad scientific background (and as many contacts in the scientific community) as Alan Weisman would take on such a project. When I read The World Without Us, there were quite a few points I never had considered before. On Mars there must be ten times as many! It certainly would be fascinating read, but I guess it would be sort of depressing to a large number of SciFi fans.

                              R Offline
                              R Offline
                              raddevus
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              Check out Biosphere 2 - Wikipedia[^]. That's where they basically attempted to do this right here on good ol' Earth and failed quite spectacularly. Creating a biosphere is extremely difficult (a massive understatement).

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • Richard DeemingR Richard Deeming

                                Rick York wrote:

                                Red Mars

                                OK...

                                Rick York wrote:

                                Green Bars

                                I'd have thought "Green Mars" would have been a better title. But OK...

                                Rick York wrote:

                                and Blue Blue

                                OK, now it's just getting silly. :laugh:


                                "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

                                L Offline
                                L Offline
                                Lost User
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                green bars? where they serve alcoholic health drinks and smoothies? kale liqueur with cauliflower on the rocks please sir ... make it a double smoothie!

                                after many otherwise intelligent sounding suggestions that achieved nothing the nice folks at Technet said the only solution was to low level format my hard disk then reinstall my signature. Sadly, this still didn't fix the issue!

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • R Rick York

                                  If you are into science fiction books I highly recommend reading the Mars series of books by Kim Stanley Robinson. It is about the process of terraforming and settling Mars. The trilogy of books takes place over several hundred years and is quite fascinating. The books are titled Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars. Highly recommended!

                                  "They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"

                                  K Offline
                                  K Offline
                                  kalberts
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #16

                                  I do read a fair amount of SciFi, but consider them science fiction. The author is free to ignore any law of nature, any technical problems, and may assume whatever issue "solved two thousand years ago". Most (high quality) SciFi does not aim to solve practical issues, but to create a setting for discussing a large set of other, usually non-technical issues. So while I might pick up that Mars series (I am not familiar with it), what I am curious about this time is the Science part rather than the Fiction part.

                                  R D 2 Replies Last reply
                                  0
                                  • T Tomas Takac

                                    One person is seven or eight trees’ worth in terms of oxygen. But distance from the Sun will definitely be a factor here. Martian polar caps are mostly CO2, no luck here. Maybe there is some frozen water underground. Or you can get some water from comets if you can make them crash on Mars. Sun will be our only energy source so electricity will power everything.

                                    K Offline
                                    K Offline
                                    kalberts
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    Tomas Takac wrote:

                                    Martian polar caps are mostly CO2, no luck here.

                                    Scientists may not have reached an agreement, or your sources may be outdated, or Wikipedias sources may be outdated: Wikipedia states, in the introduction to the "Mars" article: "The two polar ice caps appear to be made largely of water". This is so far from my own field of expertise that I will file both alternatives under "Some say this, some say that".

                                    T 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • K kalberts

                                      Last Monday, the CP Daily News brought the link to Elon Musk Says He’ll Put A Million People on Mars By 2050[^]. This set me thinking: Recycling water is quite straightforward. Recycling oxygen not so. I do not have enough information to even estimate how may tons of oxygen a million humans require a day. (A ton is a million grams, one gram per person.) Can anyone put me on the right track? Next question: How many plants does it take to produce a ton of oxygen a day? Obviously, a huge pine tree will produce more than, say, a tomato plant. I guess that plants will have to double as both oxygen and food sources; there wouldn't be room of huge forests within that plastic bubble. Do food plants vary a lot in their oxygen prodction capabilities? With Mars being roughly speaking at 1.5 times the Earth's distance from the sun, solar radiation is at 40-45% of Earth levels; I guess that could affect the photosynthesis. When the type and required number of plants, of various kinds, have been determined, we could try to estimate how much water would be bound in these plants and their soil. Transporting that water from earth would be a major taks. So would be an effort to break it loose from the south pole ice-cap and transport it the 2500 km to equatorial land, melt it and heat it up to a temperature suitable for the plants. With no oxygen available, we can't use diesel trucks for transportation, or any tool requiring oxygen for cutting the ice. (We obviously could cover half of the Martian surface with solar cells to produce electricity for electrolyzing the south pole ice cap, rather than using the water for growing plants. That is certainly not in the "sustainable" group of alternatives - and how much solar panels would it require? I suspect that the panels would all have to be brought from Earth.) I really liked the kind of analysis made in The World Without Us[^] by Alan Wiesman, and wish that someone would make a similarly scientifically founded evaluation of the realism of a one million people Mars colony. Well, I suspect that it could easily end up more like Solar FREAKING Roadways, Are they REAL?[

                                      M Offline
                                      M Offline
                                      Mark_Wallace
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      Fred Pohl's Man Plus covered most of the problems, years decades ago.

                                      I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                                      K 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • T Tomas Takac

                                        One person is seven or eight trees’ worth in terms of oxygen. But distance from the Sun will definitely be a factor here. Martian polar caps are mostly CO2, no luck here. Maybe there is some frozen water underground. Or you can get some water from comets if you can make them crash on Mars. Sun will be our only energy source so electricity will power everything.

                                        K Offline
                                        K Offline
                                        kalberts
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #19

                                        Tomas Takac wrote:

                                        One person is seven or eight trees’ worth in terms of oxygen.

                                        Thanks! That directly answers one of my intial questions. Of course this is only a microscopic fractions of the questions that must be answered to build a Mars colony - but on the other hand, the answer has a great value here on earth as well!)

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                                        • K kalberts

                                          Last Monday, the CP Daily News brought the link to Elon Musk Says He’ll Put A Million People on Mars By 2050[^]. This set me thinking: Recycling water is quite straightforward. Recycling oxygen not so. I do not have enough information to even estimate how may tons of oxygen a million humans require a day. (A ton is a million grams, one gram per person.) Can anyone put me on the right track? Next question: How many plants does it take to produce a ton of oxygen a day? Obviously, a huge pine tree will produce more than, say, a tomato plant. I guess that plants will have to double as both oxygen and food sources; there wouldn't be room of huge forests within that plastic bubble. Do food plants vary a lot in their oxygen prodction capabilities? With Mars being roughly speaking at 1.5 times the Earth's distance from the sun, solar radiation is at 40-45% of Earth levels; I guess that could affect the photosynthesis. When the type and required number of plants, of various kinds, have been determined, we could try to estimate how much water would be bound in these plants and their soil. Transporting that water from earth would be a major taks. So would be an effort to break it loose from the south pole ice-cap and transport it the 2500 km to equatorial land, melt it and heat it up to a temperature suitable for the plants. With no oxygen available, we can't use diesel trucks for transportation, or any tool requiring oxygen for cutting the ice. (We obviously could cover half of the Martian surface with solar cells to produce electricity for electrolyzing the south pole ice cap, rather than using the water for growing plants. That is certainly not in the "sustainable" group of alternatives - and how much solar panels would it require? I suspect that the panels would all have to be brought from Earth.) I really liked the kind of analysis made in The World Without Us[^] by Alan Wiesman, and wish that someone would make a similarly scientifically founded evaluation of the realism of a one million people Mars colony. Well, I suspect that it could easily end up more like Solar FREAKING Roadways, Are they REAL?[

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                                          Dave Kreskowiak
                                          wrote on last edited by
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                                          Ever notice how there's entire flock of people who fawn over every word Elon says without thinking about what he's saying? Yeah, this is one of those cases. All marketing. No substance.

                                          Asking questions is a skill CodeProject Forum Guidelines Google: C# How to debug code Seriously, go read these articles.
                                          Dave Kreskowiak

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