MARS: Our future on the Red Planet

GIOVE SPACE

MARS

Our future on the Red Planet

with over 40 full-color illustrations

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All rights reserved

Copyright © 2022 Giove Space

Copyright © 2023 Graviton Books

CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

Why travel to Mars?

What is Mars like compared to Earth?

Atmosphere

Water

Moons

Landscape

Is there life on Mars?

Why did Mars lose its atmosphere?

Let's travel to Mars

Do you still want to go to Mars?

A Spacecraft for travelling to Mars

Types of fuel

Landing on Mars

Is it possible to simulate a flight to Mars?

Preparatory visits to the manned trip

We finally reached land… Martian land!

Our future on the Red Planet

Materials

Crops

Perchlorate: our friend and our enemy

Creating an ecosystem to sustain life on Mars

Terraforming Mars

Protecting Mars against harmful radiation

Transmuting water and air

Importing resources from afar

What about the natives?

Martian Cities

Recommended Readings

Comparative Data Earth – Mars

Image Credits

FOREWORD

For several decades the exploration and conquest of space has been an unavoidable topic in the scientific programs of developed countries. Nowadays, large companies have joined the space race, in particular those of tycoons such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson, who have large projects in development and invest huge amounts of money to achieve their goals. Every day we read news about space missions with various purposes, both scientific and commercial. Among the many developments are space tourism, the development of the internet from space, satellite navigation, deeper knowledge about planets and galaxies, and the program to create a permanent base on the Moon, to name just a few.

Among the topics to which more interest and money is devoted, stands of course the exploration and conquest of Mars. Today we know that Mars is the closest planet to Earth that could harbour life like our own, and that's why we dedicate this book to Mars. Using accessible language and without using mathematical formulas, the essential details that science has discovered about the red planet are explained, as well as the plans to establish a permanent human presence on its distant soil.

Giove Space is formed by a group of experts and enthusiasts of space science, and its purpose is the teaching and dissemination of space projects. Our goal with this publication is to offer a concise and entertaining manual to help the understanding of such an important topic which, we have no doubt, will be increasingly relevant in the years to come. We invite you to join us on this journey of discovery.

The Giove Space Team

www.giovespace.com

INTRODUCTION

Why travel to Mars?

Since the prehistoric era in which he left his native Africa, humans have always travelled. For what reason? Looking for areas richer in food, or more peaceful, or perhaps without so many natural catastrophes... looking for a place that a priori shelters a better future for his children. As he conquered, man learned to employ the habitat of each new area for his profit: he managed to harvest his food, create his clothes with the elements he had at hand and protect his house against the instabilities of the climate.

Gradually humans occupied virtually all habitable areas of the continents. Then began the sedentary lifestyle that we still have, where most people are born and die in the same place. However, the will to travel has never ceased: we all move in some way or another. Most people enjoy a purely touristic trip, or travel for work or for personal reasons; but there are also those who venture into the unknown, in the search for wealth or looking for challenges that are not without danger, even without an imperative need to force them to move.

We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard said the former president of the United States J.F. Kennedy in 1962 when he started the Apollo Program, whose objective was to travel to Earth’s natural satellite. It was the time of the Cold War, which had created a kind of competition with the U.S.S.R on all possible fronts. The so-called space race was a technological, political, and psychological challenge, and the prize was to be the best, to be the first. Just as it happened then with the lunar project, today the desire to reach Mars is not only a challenge, but also a search for transcendence: to extend into new domains,