 "Elon Musk wants a city on Mars in 20 years — a tough task. Will he use India-made ‘space bricks’?")
Previously, Elon Musk had said that he wanted a city on Mars by the end of the century. Now, he wants it in 20 years.
As of now, there is no sure-shot way of reaching Mars and there is no human habitation in space except for the International Space Station (ISS) and the Chinese space station.
Many countries and private companies are working on numerous space stations for a sustained presence in space. The United States has publicly stated that a permanent settlement on the Moon is just a matter of time. Under the Artemis programme, the United States will have a settlement on the Moon and use it as a stepping stone to Mars and beyond.
Even though there has not been a public declaration, the Firstpost understands that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has also held internal discussions about having a research station of sorts on the Moon once India lands astronauts there — the stated timeline is by 2040. That would make perfect sense as the ‘new space age’ is not about merely planting your flag on the Moon but plotting the next chapter in the human spacefaring journey.
Whether humans build a settlement on the Moon or Mars, they would need to address some fundamental questions: What kind of a life are they looking forward to? How are they going to sustain their presence? Are these settlements going to be self-sustaining or are we going to keep them fed from the Earth?
A more fundamental question may also be: Why do we even need settlements on Mars or Moon in the first place?
Why should we settle on Moon or Mars?
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe arguments for settling in space are two-fold. One, you would need to exploit space to support life on Earth as resources here become scarce. Two, you would need to expand beyond Earth to become multiplanetary to ensure the continuity of the human race in case something cataclysmic happened on Earth.
While the second argument may appear like stuff out of a science fiction plot, it’s not. Life has ended on Earth before. The dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid strike around 66 million years ago and a super-volcanic eruption in Southeast Asia around 75,000 years ago nearly ended the human race on the planet — the swathe of land from Malaysia to India was covered in 30 feet of ash.
It is only a matter of time before we become a multiplanetary race, says astrophysicist Somak Raychaudhury, adding that there are very practical reasons for us to be a multiplanetary race.
“We are overflowing the planet and our resources are getting scarce by the day. The critical minerals, such as lithium which is central to electric mobility, are finite whereas the need is increasing every day. From an environmental point of view, there is a very practical case for us to be multiplanetary. We would need to expand beyond Earth to fulfil Earth’s need for resources as well as to ensure our continuity,” says Raychaudhury, the Vice Chancellor of Ashoka University.
Physicist Michio Kaku argues that humans are the only species that is not helpless against natural extinction. He says that going multiplanetary is the human race’s way to avoid extension.
In his book ‘The Future of Humanity’, Kaku writes that 99.99 per cent of all species must await their extinction helplessly, but humans have a choice.
“Unlike all other life-forms on this planet, which must passively await their fate, we humans are the masters of our own destiny. Fortunately, we are now creating the tools that will defy the odds given to us by nature, so that we don’t become one of the 99.99 per cent of life-forms destined for extinction,” writes Kaku, referring to under-development techniques such as terraforming to make alien habitats habitable.
But is Musk’s timeline realistic?
Mars’ atmosphere has around 95 per cent carbon dioxide. There are no known water sources on the surface and the temperature range is between 20*C and -153*C.
Either you would live in enclosed spaces or underground settlements. Either way, what kind of a life are you looking at? Life on Mars, at least in the initial phase, will be completely different from the one we know on Earth. That’s why the idea of a ‘town’ is not feasible for now — even with Musk’s enthusiasm.
The first settlers on Mars would likely be supplied by Earth and the settlement would likely be a mere outpost that would take years to grow.
Colonising a planet like Mars would be a multi-generational effort that could take up to 100 to 200 years, says space scientist Chaitanya Giri.
“Humans can definitely be a multiplanetary race but it’s a long game. We cannot win this game in one lifetime. It will take multiple generations to build a self-sustaining ecosystem on any planet that we colonise. Until then, we’d need to sustain the colony from Earth and our success in colonisation would depend on whether we can sustain these efforts,” says Giri, a Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation’s (ORF) Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology.
The best shot is perhaps this: One generation —perhaps Musk’s— will pave the way for humans to reach Mars, another generation will constitute the first settlers, and yet another will be the first native residents of the planet.
Raychaudhury is much more optimistic. He says that a lot depends on how technology develops.
“Within our own lifespan, in just 50 years, we have seen technology evolve so much that what was science fiction 50 years back is now our everyday reality. If technological development keeps pace, then the stated timeline can very well be worked out. Elon Musk has been a trailblazer in spacefaring. The building of reusable rockets at SpaceX has been a game-changer. That way, we have already seen the emergence of technology that would enable us to be multi-planetary,” says Raychaudhury.
The life of first settlers on Mars
The life of first settlers will be hard and unenviable. They will start like prehistoric humans — figuring out how to live, grow food, and reproduce.
It may be comparable to what historian Yuval Noah Harari calls ‘Agricultural Revolution’ — the moment in history around 10,000 years back when humans took to farming and life changed fundamentally. From a migratory race, humans began settling and a long phase of backbreaking labour began.
In his book ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind’, Noah Harari writes: “From sunrise to sunset humans sowed seeds, watered plants, plucked weeds from the ground and led sheep to prime pastures. This work, they thought, would provide them with more fruit, grain and meat…The body of homo sapiens had not evolved for such tasks. It was adapted to climbing apple trees and running after gazelles, not to clearing rocks and carrying water buckets. Human spines, knees, necks and arches paid the price.”
Imagine such labour in spacesuits in domed settlements out of a sci-fi film and you would get glimpses of the life of the first settlers on Mars. This is how they would likely pave the way for future generation of settlers to become proper residents of a new planet.
The first wave of settlers would likely be subject experts who would establish first domed communities, terraform the planet if need be, create an atmosphere if such technology comes up, and figure out farming — and that would take up much of their lives.
‘Life’ would be much different from what we know on Earth. There would be no strolls through the neighbourhood — there is no air. There will be no long drives as you would initially live in small settlements and would need space suits. You will not procreate as having babies in an alien world would not be prescribed.
Life would change so fundamentally that you would need to change your very nature and stop thinking as Earthlings entirely. You would need to think as Martians. In his book ‘The Case for Mars’, Robert Zubrin writes that only those explorers and settlers thrived throughout history who laboured to study, learn, and adopt the survival and travel methods of the natives.
Zubrin writes: “There is a lesson in all of this for space exploration. There are no Martians, yet. But if there are to be, let us ask ourselves some questions. How will they travel? Will they import their rocket fuel from Earth? How about their oxygen? Where will their water come from, their food? How will they survive? There can only be one answer: When on Mars, do as the Martians will do.”
But how can you make Mars habitable?
Even though Mars is barren with no visible water on the surface, it’s an exciting place as there are many possibilities on the planet. For one, the planet has an atmosphere and there are ways to make it fit for humans.
The feasible plans include modifying the climate and radical ways include Musk’s idea of exploding nuclear bombs there to heat the planet. Such an approach to modify a planet’s climate to your liking is called ‘terraforming’.
Explaining the feasible approach, space engineering expert Matteo Ceriotti told this writer last year that climate change may be triggered on Mars to make it suitable for humans.
“In the case of Mars, where an atmosphere already exists, there are studies that have hinted that it may be possible to trigger some sort of balance point in its climate by inducing more heat. The climate of Mars is in a certain equilibrium at the moment, so it does not change. It’s stuck in a temperature range of a maximum of around 20*C to -153*C with a very low density atmosphere and high carbon dioxide. It is possible to change it. By adding energy into particular places, it’s possible to trigger changes and arrive at a different equilibrium with a different kind of atmosphere that’s suitable for human habitation,” said Ceriotti, Senior Lecturer in Space Systems Engineering at the School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow.
While there are no oceans of water on Mars, there are strong indications of streams and water being there under the surface. There are also indications that water may be trapped in the permafrost of Mars or inside large subterranean reservoirs.
An Indian project shows the way for Mars habitation
A project at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, has sought to answer one of the very basic questions of spacefaring: How will humans build houses and other buildings on Moon or Mars?
Throughout history, settlers have always used local resources to build houses and the same should be replicated in space — but that’s challenging. So far, modules have been taken from Earth and assembled or deployed in space. This may work for short stays but is not sustainable if you plan to settle there.
It is neither practical nor economically sustainable to take prefabricated structures from Earth to Moon or Mars during space colonisation and the only solution is to use local resources to make settlements, says Aloke Kumar, an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IISc Bengaluru.
Kumar and colleagues have developed ‘space bricks’ using simulants of Martian and lunar soils. Whenever humans colonise Mars or the Moon, such space bricks should literally be the building blocks of the new chapter of human civilisation.
“The idea is the in-situ utilisation of resources to build those settlements on Mars or Moon. It will not be 100 per cent local manufacturing initially as you would need to take inflatable equipment from Earth to make bricks. But the brick-making will still happen there which will allow much more flexibility in building housing or research stations in space. Otherwise, if you take only prefabricated structures from Earth to Mars, then you may only build small settlements as you cannot transport large prefabricated structures all the way to Mars,” says Kumar.
While the approach is not unique as some Western players are also working on similar ‘space bricks’, the Indian approach is much more affordable. Western bricks could cost up to $8,000 per kilogram whereas Indian bricks would cost a fraction of that.
Kumar tells Firstpost, “We are in touch with private space industry players regarding the project. They have shown good interest. They acknowledge that if humans have to be multiplanetary, then houses and other buildings on other planets would have to be built locally using local resources. That’s where our brickmaking technique becomes critical.”
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