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July 27th, 2016
Taming a resource-rich Mars can assure that future inhabitants live long and prosper. This image taken by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover: Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1301, April 3, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
A NASA technical memorandum has taken a detailed look at the prospect of putting in place a sustainable colony of people on the Red Planet. Such a settlement can be safe, affordable, and nurture independence of residents on Mars from Earth.
The document is titled Frontier In-Situ Resource Utilization for Enabling Sustained Human Presence on Mars, authored by Robert Moses and Dennis Bushnell of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
Massive resources
“There are massive resources on Mars obtainable from the atmosphere and extracted from the regolith which are capable of supporting human colonization,” the report explains. Using Martian resources, existing technologies could supply water, oxygen, fuel, and building materials, they write, “to relax the dependence on Earth during the buildup of a colony on Mars.”
Early pioneering of Mars is expected to provide a gateway for developing the means to sustain a colony of people.
Credit: NASA/Pat Rawlings
Check out my new Space.com story on this important and wide-ranging paper. Go to:
Mars Colonists Must ꞌLive Off the Landꞌ: NASA Report
July 27, 2016/07:30am ET
Posted in Space News
