/sci/ - Science & Math

Most conceptions of an effort to colonize mars require modular habitats to be constructed on the planet's surface. Each module must be delivered by a lander, then moved off of it by robot and attached to the rest of the habitat.

We've never done this. It's how we constructed the ISS, but that was in zero G. delivering modules into a gravity well and then needing powered equipment to lift and move them around, eventually mating them to each other is something we've simply never tried to do.

What I propose is that we simulate this mission in the ocean. Modules will be delivered via slow descend aboard replica landers, using ducted prop thrusters instead of retro rockets, but using the same software and principles involved in landing habitat modules on the surface of Mars.

The landers and modules will be ballasted such that they weigh exactly what they would on Mars, adjusting for the strength of the thrusters of course, and they will be assembled by robots nearly identical to the ones we plan to use on Mars (but designed for subsea use.)

Once the habitat is constructed, a crew of aquanauts will live in it for one year, performing EVAs, gathering samples and so on, with power provided by a nuclear reactor aboard one of the landers (as per Mars semi direct) which will also provide oxygen, hydrogen and desalinated water from nuclear powered hydrolysis the same way modern submarines do. The crew will be cut off from the surface and without any kind of support for the duration of the mission, reliant on dehydrated food stores and whatever they can grow in the hydroponics module.

Would /sci/ support this?