Colonizing Mars | StarTalk

So let's go piece by piece. One-way mission with people who would just agree to go one way, and he sends supplies in advance. There's going to set up Hab modules. I've got an image of what his Hab modules would look like on Mars. I think we can put it up on the screen. Let's check it out. That seems like a really fun place to live.

So that's like 2,000 square feet for four people. I think that's like, you know, I guess a regular size house, almost in the suburb sort. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay, forever, forever, right? Well, until you build another one of those.

So I asked Bass what are his plans for actually making this happen. Yeah, let's check it out. A very important benefit of the permanent settlement aspect is that the size of the hardware you need to land is only slightly bigger than such systems as the Curiosity Rover. So we are building on a payload mass of roughly 3,000 kilos of useful cargo to the surf, excluding the landing system itself.

So 3,000 kilos, that's a few people plus food and drink. Exactly. And the Curiosity Rover was only 900 kilos, but it was landing at about 2 km altitude above the Martian zero, and we will be landing at about minus four to make sure that we have as much as possible benefit of the atmosphere, as much as possible time to slow down.

Okay, so what you're saying is... I didn't know this, in fact, that the elevation where they landed Curiosity, the air density of the air was relatively thin, correct? Compared with lower-level areas. And if you go lower, you can bring more stuff. You have... you can use more air to support your landing, correct? To give you lift as you descend. Exactly.

Okay, and therefore bring more stuff. Bring more stuff, which is very important because every kilo you send to Mars is very expensive. So if you can maximize what you can bring, and so finding a place in a low elevation in the right latitude for solar and water.

So as far north as possible for water, but as far south as possible, of course, for the sun. You got Mars in your office? I don't unfortunately. Well, you're not getting this.

So, so you're thinking of landing in a place not too close to the poles, maybe too cold and not enough sunlight, correct? Closer to the equator, but not on the equator because you think there might not be water there or less water?

Yeah, there's a lot of research going on on that at the moment, and we think that the best place is probably between 40 and 45 degrees north latitude. That's where New York City is; we're at 41 degrees north latitude, so your day will be very comparable to the day in New York City. Sign me up.