Research on the feasibility of Mars colonization

Abstract

Nowadays, the planning on manned mission to Mars from NASA and other institutions have brought interest to Mars again. People wonder if Mars can be the first colony of humanity. To provide an insight to this question, this essay focus on various prospective to discuss whether it is possible for humans to colonize Mars now, or perhaps in the near future. The essay first identifies essential technology needed for a success Mars colonization. Then, examine the past researches to check whether current technology can meet the requirements for Mars colonization. The research finds that the transportation between Earth and Mars is not hard to do, but the efficiency is extremely low by now. Building space stations as intermediates and developing recyclable rocket may help on this problem. When building a settlement on Mars, the life support system will not be a big issue because there are already functional technologies to produce oxygen and plant food on Mars, while water can be extracted from ice sheets on Mars. Meanwhile, requirement for energy can be easily solved by relying on solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy and nuclear energy. Reconstructing Martian environment is not hard when it comes to altering the atmosphere, but is constructing an artificial magnetosphere is currently unpractical. Mars colonization is still not feasible now, but might be possible within one or two decades.