Question:
First thank you for your time and effort to help this project
along. Can you point me to sites that I can find general information
on surface climate, temps, seasons, gravity, etc. Also our
students are looking into subsurface living quarters what
are the best guess on material/soil make up to be found in
the first 1/4 mile?
Answer:
You should click on the “Mars” windowpane at mars2030.net
for info on Mars. We really have no idea what the subsurface
is like, unfortunately, so I suggest they assume that it is
about like the earth. Pretty tough digging, I’m afraid. See
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mep/themes/surface.html
and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/science/surface.html
for more surface information.
Question:
We have just started thinking about how we would start a community
on Mars. We know water and oxygen are not easily available
on Mars. We also know that people have stayed for along time
on Mir. Where can we get information on how long missions
get enough air and water? Do scientists think there are sources
of oxygen and water that will be able to be released on Mars?
Answer:
I’m not sure I understand your first question, but people
have lived for over a year on the Mir Space Station. I’m not
sure how many resupply trips were required to bring oxygen
and water up to let them survive that long. Try looking at:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/shuttle-mir/science/shuttmir/ud061697.htm
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/cgibin/texis.cgi/webinator/search/xml.txt
or http://www.pbs.org/saf/mars.html
I would guess that one supply trip can supply enough for
a few months. It would be a good experiment for you to calculate
how much air you take in with each breath, knowing that Oxygen
is about 20% of the air we breathe, and then figure out how
much oxygen you would need to last for the 6 months to a year
it would take you to get to Mars. There is oxygen in the atmosphere
of Mars, although it is bonded with Carbon in the form of
Carbon Dioxide (what plants breath in on earth, and then they
breath out oxygen.) There are ways of making Carbon Dioxide
into breathable oxygen and a test on the Mars Surveyor 2001
lander was supposed to try to do that. Because of the failure
of the Mars 1998 lander it looks like that mission will be
delayed. But you can find out about the experiment at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/2001/instruments/mip.html.
Also, there is oxygen in the rocks and soil ofMars in the
form of iron oxide (rust). We know that there is water in
the soil, but not how much. The Viking landers in 1976 detected
water, but their detectors couldn’t tell the amount. The Mars
98 lander was supposed to answer that question, but it was
lost so we may have to wait until 2001 or 2003 to find out.
You can get more information on where water might be underground
on Mars at:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mep/themes/water.html
Question:
Our culminating project for our Mars Millennium project includes
building a house on Mars. We would like to know if a house
could really be built on Mars, and if so, what materials would
we use? Whether habitats on Mars are realistic or not, what
would you recommend we use to build our Mars house? Thank
you!
Answer:
The easiest way to make a shelter on Mars would be to use
the rocks to build your house and then figure out some way
to seal it up so the air wouldn’t leak out. You also might
dig underground and cover the hole with a sealed-up roof.
You would want to include some windows to let in light, though.
Certainly you would have to have some machines to help with
construction and you’d have to bring along anything like plastic
that you would use to seal the inside of the house. You also
have to make some air to put inside your sealed-up house.
These questions are addressed in the video, “Windows on Mars”
which your school should be getting a copy of very soon. The
shelter might look something like the ones in the Antarctic.
See: http:/www.secretsoftheice.org/scientific/southpole.html
except there’s no snow on Mars except at the poles.
Question:
What type of government should be implemented on Mars?
Answer:
That is a question you should answer. What kind of government
does your group want? Do you want to have a captain like those
on Star Trek in a military power structure model? Do you want
to have a democracy? Or should you turn government over to
people who are especially trained in it, or would you like
to have another model that you think up yourselves? What do
you want the government to do? Do you need any at all or will
everyone just get along without any formal system?
Question:
Why couldn't we fly to Mars some day?
Answer:
We can, and your Mars team can help show how.
Question:
How do scientists discover black holes?
Answer:
See these web sites: http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/blackholes/teacher/sciencebackground.html
and http://amazingspace.stsci.edu/blackholes/teacher/sciencebackground.html#10
Question:
What is it like to travel in space?
Answer:
I don’t know because I’ve never been in space. But I have
seen pictures of the astronauts floating around in zero gravity.
It looks like fun!
Question:
Could people live on Mars if it had oxygen?
Answer:
Well, if it had about as much oxygen as the earth does, yes
they could live on the surface. But people could live in a
protective habitat even the way Mars is now. They could get
oxygen by processing the carbon dioxide atmosphere and storing
it in the habitat. There is an experiment on the Mars Surveyor
2001 lander (which will probably be postponed to 2003 because
of the Mars Polar Lander failure), which will see if this
can be done on Mars. See http://powerweb.lerc.nasa.gov/pvsee/publications/mars/MIP_LPSC.html
and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/2001/instruments/mip.html
Question:
How to convert the dry ice in Mars to be portable water?
Answer:
I think you mean potable, i.e. drinkable, water. You can't
convert dry ice, which is frozen carbon dioxide to water,
which is hydrogen and oxygen, but you probably could "cook"
it out of the soil by heating the soil. The Viking landers
found water in the soil in 1976, but they couldn't tell how
much. The Mars Surveyor 98 spacecraft was supposed to find
that out, with an instrument called the TEGA See: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/mvacs/instruments/tega.html)
, but it was lost. There may also be water deep underground,
which you could drill for, but that would be quite a task.
There is also a little bit of water in the atmosphere, but
probably the soil is the best place to get it initially. See
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/why.html
for a discussion of where water might be, also http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mep/themes/water.html
Question:
How will the space suits be protected against the very fine,
corrosive dust and how will persons outside as well as inside
be protected from the radiation?
Answer:
The space suits will have to be sealed to keep the air in,
so dust probably won't get in. However, dust tracked into
the habitat by the crew could be a big problem. This was true
on the Apollo missions on the moon from 1969-1971 (see "
The Last Man on the Moon" by Gene Cernan), but since
they were only a few days long it wasn't too big a deal. However,
if the Mars residents are there for many months to years they
will have to figure out how to clean off their suits before
entering the main habitat. We don't know that the dust is
corrosive, just that it is very fine. There is an experiment
called MECA on the 2001 lander (which will probably be postponed
that will attempt to figure out the chemical characteristics
of the dust. See: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/2001/lander/meca/index.html
Question:
What do you think of Richard Hoagland's work on the Cydonia
region?
Answer:
It's nonsense. The Mars Global Surveyor pictures clearly show
that the "Face on Mars" and other forms in the region are
merely eroded mountains. See http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/MENUS/cydonia_list.html
Question:
What kind of art events would a community on mars engage in?
Answer:
That's one of the questions you should figure out. What kind
of art does your team like to do? Can you do it all together?
Some teams are writing and playing an orchestra composition,
and some are doing murals. This is a question you might ask
Craig Woodson next month.
Question:
How do the mars landing crafts work?
Answer:
They fall into the atmosphere at several thousand kilometers
an hour. They are very blunt so the friction with the atmosphere
slows them down to a few hundred kilometers per hour, but
also heats them up, so they have to have a heat shield to
protect them. When they slow down enough, a parachute is deployed
to slow them some more. The two Vikings and the unsuccessful
Mars Polar Lander fired rocket engines to slow down and land
gently on the surface. Pathfinder used rockets plus airbags
to cushion the landing. See http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/mpf/edl/edl1.html,
and http://mars3.jpl.nasa.gov:80/msp98/lander/edl.html.
Question:
How can I be an astronaut?
Answer:
Study hard, stay in shape, and have at least one advanced
degree, or be a jet pilot. It's very competitive. Only one
out of several thousand applicants gets selected. See http://www.nasajobs.nasa.gov/jobs/astronauts/jsc-aso.htm
Question:
What components are contained in the polar icecaps on Mars?
Answer:
Dry ice, water ice, and dust. See http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mep/themes/water.html
Question:
What would people eat up on Mars?
Answer:
You should figure this out as part of your project. See the
Biosphere 2 site for some ideas, http://www.bio2.edu/
Question:
Will rubber disintegrate on the cold surface of Mars?
Answer:
Certainly it wouldn't stay elastic in the cold temperatures,
plus there may be chemicals in the surface that would break
it down chemically. That's why the Sojourner rover used aluminum
and steel wheels.
Question:
Has Olympus Mons ever erupted?
Answer:
A long time ago it erupted for a very long time and that's
how it got to be 90,000 feet high and 500 miles across. But
it probably hasn't erupted for millions of years. See http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mep/themes/volc.html
Question:
How does the low gravity of Mars affect the health of land
and water animals?
Answer:
Well, the land doesn’t care and there is no surface water
on Mars, so you mainly have to worry about the plants and
animals. We really don’t know how 3/8 gravity affects them
because so far we’ve only experienced 1 gravity (on earth),
1/6 gravity (on the Moon), and zero gravity (in orbit around
earth). In zero gravity people have to exercise a lot because
their muscles and bones aren’t working against gravity, so
they get weak. Calcium is leached out of their bones, which
makes them fragile. When astronauts and cosmonauts have been
in space for a long time and haven’t exercised enough, they
have trouble walking when they get back to earth. People have
not spent enough time on the moon (only a few days at a time)
to know what the effect of 1/6 gravity is on them. Some experiments
with plants and animals in orbit have shown that problems
can be created by zero gravity (for instance, plants don’t
know which way to grow!) but we don’t know what effect 3/8
gravity would have. Experiments on the space station, when
it is finished, should help us find out.
Question:
Can we use compost as a means of fertilizer?
Answer:
Certainly if you put all your food waste into a composting
container it would be available as fertilizer. It will be
important to recycle everything you take to Mars because there
is no natural source of food or fertilizer there. This will
include human waste!
Question:
Donna , Do you know if Mars has a liquid core and if it does-
a magnetic field?
Answer:
No, and no. The core has pretty well been established to be
solid (Mars is a small planet and it probably used to have
a liquid core, but it cooled down). There is no planetary
magnetic field but there are indications that it used to have
one (probably when it had a liquid core). These are small
magnetic “anomalies” that were detected on the surface by
the Mars Global Surveyor magnetometer. See http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mep/themes/interior.html
for more information.
Question:
In all the artist's renderings of Mars habitats that I have
seen, the outside of the habitat is white or a very light
color. It seems to me that, in order to absorb the maximum
energy from the Sun, it should be a dark color. Am I missing
something?
Answer:
You are correct, dark material would be better for absorbing
solar radiation. I think the artists just used white because
it was prettier. Actually, we usually use gold material for
our solar powered landers (see the Pathfinder home page and
look at the rover pictures) because it absorbs heat very well.
Question:
Can we generate artificial gravity? If not, how will this
affect the health of humans? How much physical activity will
a person need a day to maintain a level of fitness? what is
the most efficient way of generating energy? What are the
drawbacks? If we were born on Mars, would we be able to tolerate
Earth's gravity? How long would it take to get to mars, normal
and light speed? If we were born on Mars, would we be able
to tolerate Earth's gravity? How long would it take to get
to mars, normal and light speed? How are people going to breathe
and communicate on their way to Mars?
Answer:
My, goodness – these are the sorts of questions YOU are supposed
to be doing research on to design your colony on Mars! I have
been told that an astronaut in zero gravity needs to exercise
at least two hours a day to stay in shape. Artificial gravity
could be induced by spinning a space ship on the way to Mars,
but that would mean you’d have to have a very large ship.
(Rent the movie “2001” to see a space station with artificial
gravity – it’s really big). The most efficient way of generating
energy on Mars is with nuclear power, but there are many drawbacks
to that because some people are afraid that if a rocket carrying
nuclear material were to blow up it would contaminate the
earth. Also, nuclear power is very expensive. It was used
on the Viking landers in 1976, but solar energy is used on
all our current robotic spacecraft (like Pathfinder, Mars
Global Surveyor, and the Sojourner rover). The trouble with
solar energy is that it’s only there during the daytime and
energy has to be stored at night. Also, since Mars is much
farther from the Sun than the Earth is, you need more solar
array area to generate power than you would on the Earth.
It takes between six months and a year to get to Mars now.
We can’t go at the speed of light, but you can figure out
how long it would take to go about 100 million miles at the
speed of light. People will breathe and communicate the way
they do on the space shuttle. They will carry their oxygen
and communicate by radio.
Question:
Have you received any signals from the mars polar lander?
And if you have then what signals are they?
Answer:
No, we’ve never received any signals from the Polar Lander.
There was a faint hope that a faint signal heard by the Stanford
large antenna was Polar Lander, but that was never repeated
and was probably actually from a source somewhere on Earth.
