stamp bulletin - Australia Post Shop

Is the idea of humans settling on Mars too fantastic
to consider?
On the contrary, many scientists and engineers
consider Mars a logical destination for future
space expeditions both crewed and uncrewed.
Right now there are no active programmes
with the goal of landing humans on Mars.
However many researchers are working on
proposals for crewed expeditions to Mars
within twenty years or so.
Much of the research is looking for ways
to reduce the costs of such a mission and are
trying to identify opportunities to use local
Martian resources.
Using local resources helps solve one of
the major dilemmas that confronts any
space mission, the cost (effort) of moving
great weights from Earth’s surface to low
Earth orbit. Although this part of space
travel is relatively easy and quick, it is also
the most demanding in terms of effort.
Cost, in time and dollars, is just one of the
concerns that our imaginary settlers will
have to resolve.
Despite their exotic destination, their
concerns are remarkably similar to those any
of us might face moving to a new (terrestrial)
neighbourhood.
6
Stamp pack
Facts are the foundation for the artist’s imagined
solutions to the settlers’ worries:
Cost (in time and dollars) to move
The Mars based ‘skimmers’ can use locally
produced fuel, so the transport ship doesn’t
have to bring fuel from earth. Astronauts can
take advantage of the lower (~1/3 Earth’s)
gravity and ‘freefall’ to the Martian surface,
slowed only by a personal thruster device.
Availability of basic goods and services
Everything the settlers need to survive and
prosper must either be transported to Mars
from Earth, or made on Mars from local
resources. Local production frees space on the
transport ships for more valuable cargo, such as
instruments and equipment that would be
beyond the settlers capacity for some time.
Our settlers are growing their own food and
reclaiming liquid water from frozen or trapped
sources. They can also react carbon dioxide
(CO 2 ), which is abundant in the atmosphere,
with hydrogen, producing water, oxygen and
methane (for fuel and to use as a raw material
for synthesising organic compounds).
In the kelp rods the settlers are using CO 2 ,
sunlight, water and the kelp and other algae to
produce oxygen. As well as being an excellent
fuel, oxygen can be used to enrich the atmosphere
and make it more suitable for human habitation.