Nasa outlines plan to create colony on Mars by 2030s

Nasa has outlined its plan to create a colony on Mars by the 2030s as its strives to spread humans throughout the solar system.

Comparing the idea to the European colonisation of the Americas, Nasa said it wanted to create settlements on the Red Planet that could operate independently of Earth.

Robots will be sent into deep space to capture an asteroid and put it into orbit around the moonsoastronautscanexplore it and experience spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit. This, it is hoped, will prepare them for the three-year journey to Mars and also help scientists to work out how the journey can be completed safely.

“We are on a journey to Mars. In the next few decades, Nasa will take steps toward establishing a sustainable human presence beyond Earth, not just to visit but to stay,” it said in a report released yesterday. However, it stressed there was still much to be done “to close the remaining gaps and ensure we have the ability to get to Mars, land safely, live and work productively, and return”.

“When the first pioneers ventured to North America, they found familiar resources in the new land and adapted to their environment,” Nasa said. “Future pioneers of Mars will have to adapt to a more foreign, hostile environment. We will need new technologies to transform local resources into water, fuel, air and building materials. Nasa’s current investments in exploration capabilities and the decisions being made today are crucial to achieving our common goal: extending human presence into the solar system and to the surface of Mars.”

The low gravity of deep space can cause humans significant problems, such as atrophied muscles. And the Martian colonists could be hit by “infrequent, but potentially deadly, solar particle events”. Theywould also be under“constant exposure to galactic cosmic rays”, which weaken the immune system and increase the risk of cancer.

“We know these challenges are solvable and have a strategy in place for maturing the capabilities to address them as we expand human presence into deep space,” Nasa said.

A private, non-profit company based in the Netherlands is also planning to go to the planet. The Mars One project hopes to create a human settlement by 2027.