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Nonsense. There's no shortage of researchers and scientists prepared to endure the isolation of undertaking projects in Antarctica. Mars will be a lot more interesting than that.
Anyone who visits Mars for a couple of years will have stories that trump anyone else's at the dining table. People will want to go there for the prestige and status that affords them. Also,the money will probably be v. good, just building up in your bank account back on Earth.
Later, Mars will have many facilities that will make it an attractive place to live.
Eventually terraformation will mean that people can walk out in the open on the surface with breathing apparatus.
Finally, with full terrformation Mars will be as fascinating as Earth.
Belter wrote:Only a handful of people can want to go to Mars and also be considered be sane. It will be about as much fun as being locked in a basement. Once the thrill of being among the first is gone, few people are going to want to go. And even fewer will be competent to go. Most people would spend most of the trip crying in their quarters wondering what they were thinking.
You watch too much science fiction. Maybe in 500 years.
As far as robots, I think we're reaching the point quickly where robots are going to be 90% of any mission. We will send robots that mine, robots that process, robots that manufacture, robots that print, robots that weld, robots that create other robots, robots that do nothing but grow plants. They will will create massive, sprawling habitats for hundreds of humans that can land all at once. Future space stations will be built by robots that slowly digest asteroids and replace them with giant habitable stations floating around the Sun as waypoints.
Only a handful of people can want to go to Mars and also be considered be sane. It will be about as much fun as being locked in a basement. Once the thrill of being among the first is gone, few people are going to want to go. And even fewer will be competent to go. Most people would spend most of the trip crying in their quarters wondering what they were thinking.
You can imagine the hull buy simply taking corrugated cardboard and forming it in an octagon. Then another layer that is set off with a few mm of spacing for a free vacuum between. This prevents too much heat transference from solar energy since space is a near perfect insulator. I think this would be too complicated to build without 3D printing, but it creates a wide array of options for cooling, for water recycling and storage, for radiation shielding etc. Remember that the intense heat on one side would be absorbed by processing water through an integrated solar still arrangement, and the water would condense and transfer heat to the dark side of module. Once the water has been processed in the spokes, it can be transferred via gravity to the outer rim modules which would use the water as a heat and radiation shield before it is used. I guess the only question is if there are some forms of radiation that can actually accumulate in the water that could be dangerous to ingest. I haven't looked into that.
No, the hull would be 3D printed on Earth. And, yes, the technology exists or is in development. There may still be issues with it. I'm trying to find the page, I think the most advanced one is in Finland or another Scandinavian country that can print over a large circumference. Some of it could be done with conventional welding, but the skin is actually designed to be water cooled and to transfer heat around the circumference. Much of the water would be stored in the skins of each subsection. Water is good radiation shielding as well, so with 3D printing, the hull is not just using water cooling and storage, but can help lower the radiation.
I've been working on a design for a space station in my head that uses 20m long quasi-octagonal sections that are 6m wide. These would be straight on the outside, but would have a gently curving floor on the inside. The idea is to construct these with industrial 3D printers out of aluminum or mix of metals in a way to maximize strength to weight ratio. The 2 floors would be stressed members, as would be ibnternal braces that distribute the force of the centrifugal effects. The 1G ring would contain 16 of these (work/living), with 16 more acting as spokes (hydroponics). Then a ring at .6G with 8 sections (aquaponics/filtration). Then 8 more spokes connecting to an assembly of 9 units (0G in the center and water storage units) attached like a large axle 18m-20 wide. I have two versions in my mind, one is 100m in diameter, the other is closer to 120m, using 24 modules additional modules spun sideways, acting as joints, which increases the diameter and slows the rotational speed a bit, as well as nearly doubling the size of the work space. At 100m, 1G is about 3.8 turns per minute. The first floor would be a continuous loop, the second floor couldn't be, but would be crews quarters, with each 2nd level holding about 20-30 crew members depending on layout, so around 300-400 crew members possible, with the main limit being sustainability. But the first level would have a large 2m wide and tall airlock between sections so people could walk between sections seamlessly. It would take about 75-80 launches, plus supplies. Sections could be automatically welded together after docking by integrated electron beam welders which only function in a vacuum. Pressure doors could be closed in the event of catastrophic air pressure loss in any given section. These could simply be light weight doors that are held in place by air pressure against rubber seals. All sections would have integrated maneuvering thrusters at each end to get them into place, but would then integrate into the entire section via network control in order to maneuver the entire station and spin it up to 1G. Each section would use a wireless mesh network system to connect it to the command center and each section would be essentially identical and contains the necessary air scrubbers, computer systems, thrusters to operate independently in case of some sort of large scale accident.
By far and away, I think the biggest issue I've seen with space station "designs" is that they all appear to be assembled in space from scratch. Most appear to take absolutely nothing about the logistics of getting the parts and assembling them. Just connecting two sections together in a way that avoids heavy docking apparatus and tiny holes to crawl between sections is hard enough, the ability to hand assemble a space station like building house is just not possible. The only way we can get to that level of construction is with robotics, industrial 3D space printers and near asteroid mining systems. My design is something that could actually be done now. In fact, each section is quite a bit smaller than the BFG which is 9m in diameter. The only thing that needs to be done is keep the weight down to a reasonable level, which I think can be done pretty easily using advanced 3D printing to make the unit from a single piece.
In fact, 3D printing allows the exterior of vertical spokes to contain a corrugated cross section that would allow the creation of high capacity solar stills integrated into the system. Toilet water would first be recycled through the hydroponics section, as would be the fish tanks in the .6G section. Then it would be filtered and used as shower water. Shower and drinking water would be recycled through the solar "skin" of the hydroponics sections, which would evaporate the water on the sun side, and condense it on the dark side, as many times as required to get pure water at the outlet. With the intense solar energy available, thousands of gallons could be recycled per day without any problem. Hydroponics would scrub the air with little to no need for air scrubbers. Water tanks would all hug the zero G section that would hold up to 800,000 gallons of water in very low G. Because the skins have a layer of corrugated skin, then a space for vacuum insulation, then another layer of corrugated skin, about 3-4" thick in total, any meteoroid would have to penetrate at least 6 layers of metal and water before breaching the hull. The corrugated structure is lightweight, but creates high strength and causes meteoroids to shatter and lose energy due to its ablative characteristics. Any puncture that causes water loss would simply have that water channel or channels shut off while repairs are done.