Practicing for Mars here on Earth

Before we get to Mars, we're going to have to practice. And develop radical leaps in technology, but also practice. A Mars mission will be utterly unlike anything attempted by humanity. We're talking about a group of settlers, maybe as few as an initial team of four, traveling over a hundred million miles away from home to a literally alien environment, one that is so hostile to life that nothing lives there, and turn it into a home.

And they're going to have to do it alone.

Besides the enormous technical hurdles of such an undertaking, there's also the human element. And four people get along for years at a time in a tightly confined, high-stress environment? I mean, let's say you like your coworkers. Maybe you even go out for drinks every other Friday. Now imagine after a hard, stressful day at work…you have to have dinner with them. And then sleep next to them. And you can't even step outside because the planet you're on is actively trying to KILL YOU.

This very real human problem motivates the design of what are called Mars analogs. These are missions based on Earth (because we have no other options) usually in some remote or somewhat inhospitable location. And we take a team of people, run them through rigorous psychological compatibility tests, and seal them up for months at a time to see how everything goes.

And, to make these analogs as realistic as possible, we don't just let them sit there and play X-box. We give them tasks to do; tasks that resemble what they might have to do on a real Mars mission. Go out and explore this area and bring back something interesting. Go fix that leaking valve in the tank outside. Go build that new housing structure. And so on.

Heck, if you want to radio home, there's going to be a delay of several minutes before mission control will get back to you, to mimic the realistic communication delays to Mars.

For example, there's the Mars Desert Research Station, operated by the Mars Society and situated near Hanksville, Utah. Man, if there's a place on Earth that looks a lot like Mars, it's Hanksville, Utah. Researchers spend rotations of up to a few months at the station. It's so rigorous that when participants want to step outside, they have to put on a bulky and heavy space suit. The point of this experiment is to see how well people can work together in Mars-like conditions. And it's also to develop…tactics, ideas, workarounds.

Working on Mars is not like working on Earth. The environment is 100% hostile 100% of the time. There are almost no natural resources to take advantage of. Every single task, from maintaining the greenhouse to going on an expedition, is slow, arduous, and dangerous. We need lived experience in that kind of environment, with detailed logs of what ideas and solutions worked and which didn't work, to guide future astronaut crews.

Another experiment, SAM, for Space Analog for the moon and Mars, takes it one step further. Built and run by my good friend Kai Staats, it's about as close to the real deal you can get on Earth. It's a fully sealed environment. To enter, you have to pass through an airlock. When you're inside, you're breathing recycled air and drinking recycled water.

Crew rotations last for up to a few months, and they can only bring in new materials through "resupply" missions. There's even a Mars yard where they can simulate field work both by themselves and with the help of robotic rovers.

It's on Earth that we're gaining the valuable experience to go to Mars, exist on Mars, and thrive on Mars.