March 5th, 2004: Coming soon! Watch this page for a new feature on Project Prometheus, NASA's program for Nuclear power & propulsion.

This page presents various technologies currently being developed or discussed that have an impact on eventual human settlement and colonization of Mars.

In-Situ Resource Utilization
Also known as ISRU, this terms refers to the idea that you can use the chemical, mineral, and elemental resources already present on Mars to make useful things instead of having to bring them from Earth, thereby reducing mission cost and weight. The classic example is using the Martian atmosphere, which is composed mostly of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and a small amount of hydrogen (H₂) that you bring with you to make methane (CH₄), a great rocket fuel, and water (H₂O). This chemical process at first seems futuristic, but actually it's been used in industry since the late 1800s. But Mars has many resources to offer human explorers: the red dust on Mars is iron oxide, and can be used to make steel and other metals. Other chemical reactions can make oxygen, greenhouse gases (for use in terraforming), and even plastics. Mars already has everything that humans would need to begin a new branch of civilization.

Solar Power
Both robotic probes and human explorers on Mars need power, and the cheapest way is to use the sun's. Solar technology is already being used by most space missions, but new technologies are making solar cells cheaper, smaller, and more efficient.

Life Support Technologies
The goal of achieving 100% recycling of human waste water and organic material into fresh water and food is being researched by many people. Long missions and Martian colonization requires efficient life support systems and plants are always a part of this kind of system.

Nuclear Power & Propulsion
While some are leery of using Nuclear power in space -- witness the ongoing protests of the Cassini mission, which is carrying some plutonium to power the spacecraft. However, nuclear propulsion would reduce the transit time to Mars significantly, and nuclear power on the surface is much cheaper to power a large settlement than huge solar arrays.

Plus, the argument of not using nuclear power because of the radiation hazards is not really a valid one. Radiation abounds in space from the sun and cosmic sources. Using nuclear propulsion in space is like a drop in a bucket -- we're not actually "polluting" space. As long as the crew of a nuclear-powered spacecraft are adequately shielded (technology that's already used in nuclear reactors), they'll be fine. They face much more danger from solar events and cosmic rays anyway. Using it on the Martian surface is similar. Just locate the plant far away from the settlements (there's plenty of space available).

Other Forms of Propulsion
Nuclear propulsion is not the only way that humans can get to Mars faster than conventional chemical rockets. Other forms of propulsion are being discussed.

Solar Electric (Ion) Propulsion - The NASA Deep Space 1 probe recently proved that ion drives, which use gases that are electronically charged and constantly expelled from a thruster at 30 km/second, are a feasible means of travel in space. While ion propulsion has miniscule force when compared to conventional chemical propulsion, it is faster overall because it can be in operation for much longer periods of time -- days or even weeks as opposed to seconds and minutes.

Fusion propulsion has been proposed as a very fast method of travel. We know how fusion works, but we are just beginning to create stable fusion reactions that output more power than they consume to operate. Many experts say that in ten years, we will have viable fusion plants producing power, and then we can talk about using fusion for space travel. Fusion propulsion would operate at a fraction of the speed of light, but it would make missions to some of the closest star systems feasible.

Anti-matter propulsion - the holy grail. A matter - anti-matter reaction (which is used in Star Trek to propel the USS Enterprise) produces a great deal of energy because matter and anti-matter annihilate each other to produce an 100% mass-for-energy reaction. We are just beginning to design ways to create and store anti-matter, but at the individual molecule level. A spacecraft with an anti-matter drive would require pounds of anti-matter.