...almost impossible today on earth, but without lawyers simple on mars. Be sure to watch video. Note construction about a third of the way in. I proposed something very similar for mars. You start with a 10x10x40 m trench. You cover it the same way they do in the video with a curved metal (iron is 15% of mars dust) surface covered with dirt (rather than snow.) Then you finish the inside. You weld metal rather than nail wood (well, until the wood has been grown which does not take that long with the right type of wood.)
I'm convinced. Thirteenth colonist on first landing should be Siberian Husky pup named Lucky. If you're looking at the scale of this being done by the army in Iceland and thinking we could never do this on mars, then you're looking at it the wrong way.
The difference is that a dozen colonists with two tractors in the first 26 months will not be able to do this to the same scale. But that does not matter. What matters is that they will be able to do what they will be able to do. Which is, create comfortable habitats that allow even more shirtsleeve work to be done. This is why four colonists is too few. I see a dozen as a minimum followed by multiple dozens on the second and subsequent landings.
2 comments:
Camp Century illustrates one very possible means of colonizing Mars; build under the northern ice cap. With nuclear power, cutting caverns is easy. It'd also mean abundant water close at hand - far from certain elsewhere without test drilling.
The huge unknown; how much does Martian polar ice move? If it's rather active, like Greenland, this won't work due to ice movements. If it's as stable as it's *guessed* to be, it's feasible.
Arizona CJ
Thinking like a martian watching a snowblower I'm thinking... "wow, look at all that water."
Ice is structurally strong enough, but not an ice shelf which is almost always flowing. So I see most construction in dirt rather than ice.
I think they will be very efficient at trenching, covering and sealing in a short amount of time so they can take their time doing construction inside without suits.
Post a Comment