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With the way things are looking in space exploration these days,
it’s not impossible to believe that in the future,
we’ll send humans to live on Mars.
If we do, I’m sure it will be amazing —
people will feel inspired, and we’ll learn
so much about the solar system.
But those aren’t the only things we would get out of this.
To live, sleep, eat, and breathe on Mars,
these astronauts will need some of the
very best tech we can dream up —
but as a bonus, that tech could actually help us
tackle challenges on Earth, too.
Here are three ways that living on Mars
could also improve our lives here at home.
One thing future explorers will need is
molecular oxygen, or O2.
After all, the Martian atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide,
which is very different from what we can breathe.
Astronauts will need some way to create
a habitable atmosphere.
And the cool thing is, the tech they might use to do that
could help us fight climate change here on Earth.
To breathe on Mars, most engineers agree
that the best solution isn’t to haul gigantic
canisters of oxygen from Earth.
So instead, they’re looking at ways to turn some of
the CO2 in the Martian atmosphere into O2.
And that’s… harder than it sounds. CO2
is a pretty stable molecule, and generally,
you have to put in energy of some kind to
persuade it to give up its oxygen atoms.
But we have found some ways to do it.
One way is to use electricity to split CO2
into carbon monoxide and oxygen.
And that method is scheduled to be tested
as part of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission,
in an experiment known as MOXIE.
But another method was published in 2019
in the journal Nature Communications,
and it uses even more extreme chemistry.
In this study, the authors smashed
CO2 molecules into gold foil.
CO2 molecules are normally shaped like a straight line,
with the oxygens at either end.
But this method bent them out of shape.
That brought the two oxygens closer together
and made it easier for them to react to form
O2 and an atom of carbon.
The yield was pretty poor, with only around
1% of the CO2 molecules producing proper O2.
But hey, this strategy is in its early days.
This kind of science would be game-changing
for future Martians, but here on Earth,
CO2 is more of a problem than a resource.
We’re adding more of it to our atmosphere every day,
and it’s warming the planet —
something we can’t afford to ignore.
So removing excess CO2 from our atmosphere
is a long-term priority for scientists.
And reactions like the ones they might
use on Mars could help with that.
After all, things like MOXIE or that
gold foil reaction don’t just make O2.
They also destroy carbon dioxide.
And the authors of the 2019 study have
suggested their method could be applied on Earth
to get some of that extra CO2 out of our atmosphere!
The next thing astronauts will need to live on Mars
is some good, clean soil — both for potentially growing food,
and just for general day-to-day safety.
The biggest problem here is that scientists
believe Martian soil is full of a chemical
called perchlorate, which is toxic to humans.
It interferes with the thyroid gland,
which normally regulates our metabolisms.
So in the short term, it would be necessary
to protect astronauts from direct exposure to Martian dust,
since they could track it into their habitat
whenever they ventured out to explore.
And over longer time scales, any crops grown
in that dirt could pick up perchlorate,
meaning they’d be at risk of getting people sick.
But perchlorate isn’t just a problem on Mars.
Here at home, it can also contaminate our drinking water.
So figuring out how to clean soil on the Red Planet
wouldn’t just be good for astronauts —
it would be important for everyone.
Right now, there are some ways to chemically
degrade perchlorate in groundwater,
but it can be hard to get perchlorate
to react with cleaning agents.
So the solutions proposed for Mars could be really useful.
So far, some research groups have proposed we could
clean Martian soil by growing certain bacteria in it.
These microbes produce enzymes that could
break down perchlorate into less-toxic chlorite.
And as a byproduct, the process would also give off molecular oxygen — which is a nice
bonus.
In fact, in a 2013 article, scientists proposed
we could even incorporate these enzymes
into a portable emergency oxygen system
that astronauts could use on the fly.
They’d just have to scoop up some dirt,
mix it with water and some of the enzymes,
and let their suit feed them fresh O2.
So not only would we get cleaner soil
and a simpler way to treat groundwater
on Earth, but we’d also get an
emergency oxygen mechanism.
Finally, if we’re going to stay on Mars
for any significant length of time,
we’ll need to build habitats.
Because at some point, we’ll probably
run out of room in our spacecraft.
On Mars, traditional building materials
like concrete and steel bars probably
won’t be an option, since they’re not exactly
abundant there and are way too heavy
and expensive to launch on rockets.
So engineers are turning to other solutions.
And on Earth, those ideas could help us
build more sustainable buildings and
decrease the impact we have on
our beautiful, green planet.
Recently, NASA challenged engineers to
come up with a way to 3-D print whole buildings on Mars.
And in May 2019, they awarded half a million dollars
to the winner of that challenge,
a company called AI SpaceFactory.
Their design uses a telescoping 3-D printer arm
mounted on a rover.
It can build entire structures autonomously,
and it uses materials that can be found
or made on the Red Planet.
Specifically, the design calls for basalt
derived from Martian rocks mixed with PLA,
a kind of plastic that can be made from plants —
plants that would be grown on Mars.
In NASA’s competition, a one-third scale model
of the habitat withstood a battery of tests for
things like durability and water leakage.
But the company behind this technology
also intends to deploy it closer to home.
See, basalt and PLA are readily available on Earth.
Basalt is just a kind of rock, and PLA is a form
of plastic that’s actually compostable.
So, according to AI SpaceFactory,
this technology can produce totally recyclable homes.
And they’re already crowdfunding efforts to build some.
It might not seem like we need something
like this on Earth, but the reality is,
the concrete and steel industries produce
a lot of waste, and those materials
aren’t exactly reusable.
It would be a lot nicer for our planet
if we could make our houses and
buildings out of something that
could ultimately be recycled.
At the end of the day, it will take clever strategies
like these and many more to help astronauts
live and work on Mars.
But from fighting climate change to building
more sustainable homes, they have a lot to offer
the rest of us here at home as well.
And it’s never too early for the next generation
of engineers to start learning to innovate and
build tech just like this.
And LEGO City Space wants to help with that!
These sets were inspired by real tech challenges
like the ones we talked about today.
50 years ago, we went to the Moon,
and the explosion of innovation that accompanied
that giant leap was unparalleled.
What will we make when we go to Mars?
There’s no way to know yet --
all the more reason to inspire our young
future engineers to get playing and creating.
We used kits like the Space Research & Development
People pack, Rover Testing Drive, and the Lunar Space
station set to help make this video.
Click the link in the description to start building
your next interplanetary adventure with
LEGO City Space. Let’s go!
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