MARTIAN INVASION
Adrian Berry on how
Earthlings could colonise the Red Planet
BLEAK Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic with its 150 mph winds, where it is dangerous to walk around unarmed for fear of polar bears, is hardly the most con- genial place in which to live for 18 months at a stretch. But starting next summer half a dozen people will be doing so to simulate the conditions facing an expedition to Mars. A group of space-travel enthusiasts called the Mars Society has raised some £200,000 from private sources to plant a base on the island because, in almost every respect, its surface most resembles that of the planet they hope mankind will one day colonise.
They may even succeed since the soci- ety, far from being a group of 'space nuts', consists of more than 1,500 scholars, scien- tists, engineers and employees of the space agency Nasa who are fascinated by the Red Planet, believing — and hoping that man is destined one day to turn it into a second Earth on which millions of peo- ple could live. Doing this, turning a dead world into a living one, said the society's president Dr Robert Zubrin, at its second annual meeting in Boulder, Colorado, `would be the noblest act that mankind may ever have performed'.
Devon Island, a frigid, uninhabited place slightly smaller than Scotland, seems ideal for the purpose. It looks and to some extent feels like Mars. It is just as cold in winter and not much warmer in summer. It has not seen rain for 50 years, and it has a huge asteroid impact crater 12 miles across, unchanged since a boulder from space smashed into the island 23 million years ago. (Mars has many thousands of such craters.) The island also has primor- dial cliffs, ice sheets and canyons, not, of course, matching the vast canyons of Mars, some of which are thousands of miles wide, but giving the general idea.
The six volunteer 'astronauts', justifying their existence by doing some genuine Arctic science, will try to live for more than a year exactly as real astronauts would live on Mars, experiencing winter and summer conditions in a three-storey habitat anchored to the permafrost. It is 28 feet wide and 34 feet high with a total floor area of 12,000 square feet. Connect- ed to the habitat by an airtight tunnel will be their 'garage', in which they will keep their roving vehicle on which to roam the island, just as their future counterparts will roam the Martian surface.
Going to Mars and ultimately establish- ing a civilisation there has been a dream of mankind ever since space probes discov- ered in 1969 and confirmed in 1976 that the planet, although incomparably beauti- ful, appeared to be lifeless. Nowhere to be found were the fabulous empires, evil wiz- ards and beautiful princesses portrayed in the Martian Chronicles of Edgar Rice Bur- roughs of Tarzan fame. The observed net- work of 'canals', supposed to have been built by the dying alien civilisation that inspired H.G. Wells's terrifying novel The War of the Worlds, was found to be an opti- cal illusion. Instead, there were dusty red lava plains with basins, indicating long- vanished lakes and oceans, the beds of ancient dried-up rivers, skies of light-pink from dust storms, a mountain three times higher than Everest with a base as wide as France, icy polar caps, and days and nights almost exactly the same length as ours.
There was every sign, in short, that once, billions of years ago, Mars was a lush, warm world, perhaps with widespread life, when it was in an orbit closer to the Sun. But something went wrong. Perhaps a giant asteroid struck it, flinging the planet out into regions of frigid cold. Although cur- rently lifeless, Mars tugs at the imagination more than any other planet. It contains all the necessary raw materials for future life.
Tou know all those nuts we saved last year? Well, apparently, we were given poor advice' In coming centuries, oxides locked up in its rocks and nitrates in its soil could be released to provide an atmosphere as breathable as Devon Island's. A greenhouse effect would be introduced, for what is undesirable on Earth would be life-giving on Mars. Carbon dioxide would be released into the atmosphere to trap the Sun's feeble heat — only a third as strong as Earth's sunshine — to create tolerable warmth. Not, indeed, warm enough to walk around in shirtsleeves, but at least with anorak and sweater and without breathing equipment.
The immediate prospect is for a manned voyage to Mars, perhaps within the next two decades. There are strong hopes of pri- vate funding, an important advantage since a private expedition could cost a fraction of one organised by Nasa, the spendthrift US space agency. Ten years ago, President Bush asked Nasa for a cost estimate for a Mars voyage. They came up with the incredible sum of $270 billion, which Congress promptly threw out. This official plan had all sorts of complicated and extravagant features, including an orbiting factory for constructing the Mars ship and the requirement that the ship should carry its fuel for the return trip. This would be as crazy as a man setting out on a motoring tour who doesn't believe in the existence of petrol stations and crams his boot and spare seats with canisters of fuel. There would be no room for luggage or passen- gers, and the overweight car would barely move.
Dr Zubrin responds that a far better way would be to 'travel light and live off the land'. In his plan, an unmanned spacecraft would arrive on Mars first, where it would make fuel from the carbon dioxide already present in the atmosphere. The manned ship would therefore be much lighter needing much less propellant on the out- ward journey, and the whole mission might cost no more than $20 billion.
Private companies might well sponsor it, further reducing its cost. Makers of electric cars (soon to be compulsory in California), steel firms, manufacturers of computers and electric fuel cells, of medical, photo- graphic and laboratory equipment, of agri- cultural systems, solar power and even soft drinks; many would love the chance to advertise: 'Our technology is so good it's going to Mars!'
The first astronauts would stay up there for 18 months as Mars passes round the far . side of the Sun. At some point it will be necessary to exchange the habitat for a sealed airtight dome in which crops could be grown. There is a proposal to breed a colony of rabbits. They could fertilise the soil and provide good food. If animals are to be introduced to another planet, it may be safer to use rabbits than the polar bears of Devon Island which can take off a man's head with one swipe of a paw.
The author is consulting editor (science) of the Daily Telegraph.
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