the objective of living on Mars is becoming clearer

A crew of four researchers boarded the SAM (Lunar and Martian simulation base), the only living place on Earth that is completely pressurizedfor a week. “The point isn’t to pretend we’re on Mars, it’s to do scientific research”explain Bindhu Oommen, surgeon and mission commander. NASA plans a return to the Moon within a few years and the first steps on Mars at the end of Ithe 2030 decade. Elon Musk, boss of SpaceX, wantt go furthern bringing one million colonists on Mars by 2050 And by building domed cities.

Limits to this system

In 1991, eight men and women locked themselves during two years in a miniature planetBiosphere II, believed to be a prototype Mars colony. This mission showed the limits of the model: the crew split into two groups and the resources were exhausted faster than expected. “The oxygen level dropped so much that the crew had to import it from outside”remarks John Adams, Deputy Director of Biosphere II. Experts know that these types of settlements won’t technically be credible for another 150 or 200 years.