Report on the e-mails - Dec. 2nd and 3rd
By
Ana Cristina Camargo
Translation
by Cristiana
Questions that arose in this step:
1. In relation to a nuclear reactor, we would need uranium right? Is there uranium on Mars or would we have to take it from Earth?
2. A simple question: can't we somehow use geothermal energy? After all, from what I read, volcanoes are abundant on Mars... some are even bigger than the biggest ones on Earth.
3. I don't think we need to have money in the colony on Mars. Now, what about commerce?
4. What about punishments? In a colony of 100 people, each member is important. We can't go around arresting anyone.
5. Besides Thiago's lens system to melt water, wouldn't it be an advantage to use microwave, like Pinda said, from electricity (no matter how it was generated... solar, nuclear, wind...), for the days when the Sun isn't very helpful?
6. Would the fact that the people on Mars would have different professions influence their rights and responsibilities as Martian citizens? Also taking into consideration that most (or a great deal) of the laws would be organized over there?
7. How would people produce their food? Would they be herbivores? Creating their own garden... over there... or carnivores... raising cattle... in a simple and peaceful life? I don't think so right? I think they should have industrialized food ... and how are they going to produce that? In industries... or take it from Earth?
8. Won't there be money?.. what happens in the beginning if people want an utensil... from each other... will they rob... or exchange... as it was... in the beginning of the civilization? And will everybody work to sustain the colony... don't you think it will generate more conflict?
9. Are the volcanoes in Mars still in activity?
10. Is it only in the poles that there is water? When will the Mars Polar Lander confirm? That would be very useful for us.
11. What I think with relationship to other energy... did you check about microwaves ...I wonder if it would arrive there with the same intensity?
12. How will we take the weather vanes for there? In the ship or will the people build there? What size will they be?
Answers to some of the questions related to the first report
1. Eskimos: about the Eskimos, inside the igloos, I heard about how the temperature inside is fairly high (around 25 - 30 degrees Centigrade).
2. The atmosphere in Mars is basically CO2. But there are other frozen gases in the soil, if I'm not mistaken.
Energy Sources - discussions, research and reflections
- Solar Energy:
1. Another problem with the solar panels are the frequent sandstorms on Mars. Even if they are not as bad as on Earth, they pollute the atmosphere a lot, and little light would pass on to the photo-electric cells.
2. Solar: photo voltage cells (the ones that convert irradiation to electric energy) made of silicon, one of the most abundant materials, but the installation is expensive. º A possible solution to the lack of light problem would be the construction of concave mirrors (like it is done in the deserts) where there is more radiation, for the condensation of light, that can focus water, air, or anything else that needs to be warmed up.
3. From what I saw, when the Sun is shining strongly, a solar cell of 10X10 cm can generate 10 watts, if the Sun is low or covered by clouds, the amount of energy drops by half, now, to obtain 3.2 GW, converting 3.200.000 Watts if the Sun is "good" : 3.200.000/10 = 320,000 solar cells. If the Sun is not "good" : 640,000 solar cells, each cell occupying 10 square meters = 640,000 X 10 = 6.400.000 m².
4. A reactor that exists in the Mojave Desert, in California, produces around 350 mega watts. That is half of what a medium nuclear power plant can produce. Though this potential could be increased if they used photo voltage cells that transform the energy received directly into electric energy. But there is a small problem, the kilo watt per hour generated by these photo voltage cells would cost around $30 besides the maintenance and acquisition costs. But it is important to remember that they don't bring any risks to the colonists.
5. I was thinking... it will be difficult to reconcile a power plant that captures solar energy (like some of you want) with a colony located in the polar region of Mars (like others are talking about)? Because the polar regions go through long periods of total darkness (since I suppose the poles must be similar to Earth's). Therefore, the location of the colony (wherever that may be) won't please Greeks and Trojans, and we will have to review the solar energy as a better option.
- Hydrogen
1. As for the Hydrogen, one "Fuel Cell" of Hydrogen can generate up to 3 MW.
- Nuclear Energy:
1. A nuclear power plant such as Angra I = 626MW. Cost of building Angra = 1,2 billion dollars. Besides it's installation costs being extremely high, the power plant lasts approximately only 25 years.
2. According to my research, the nuclear power plants work in the following manner: there is the nuclear reactor, that has to be submerged in water for two reasons. The first is so that it doesn't overheat and start a chain reaction. The second is to protect everything surrounding it against radiation. This water, which in turn becomes radioactive due to it's contact with the reactor, stays inside a pipe. Part of this pipe is used to heat the water that will move the generator. Since the pipe is made of material that is resistant to radioactivity, the water in the generator is not contaminated. Another part of the pipe has to be cooled to avoid overheating the reactor (in Angra I, the serpentine cools down in the ocean). This means that there is a large amount of water that becomes radioactive. If there's even a tiny leak in the pipe, besides contaminating the whole area, the reactor might overheat and we will have a BOMB, and not a nuclear power plant. (like what happened in Chernobyl). Well, I don't know what the potential is in Joules of a nuclear power plant, but I don't think it would be enough. As for the energy produced, the Uranium 235 (the isotope used in nuclear reactors) produces 2.5 million times more energy than the same amount of coal. 1 ton of Uranium 235 produces 1.5 GW for 1.5 years. So, if you do the math, we would have to take a lot of Uranium to last at least ten years.
3.
This
site has good arguments for and against using nuclear energy...
http://www.cannon.net/~gonyeau/nuclear/index.htm
4. The nuclear power plant, this I'm not sure of, but from what I read, it would generate energy at 25 KV, but this is uncertain.
5. I think the idea of a nuclear power plant should be discarded... as all are saying, there is a series of risks that have to be taken if we adopt such an energy source on Mars...
- Wind Energy
1. Wind energy can produce 10% of the total amount of energy in Brazil, taking into consideration that the air is less rarefied than in Mars, but the winds are not so fast.
2. The nuclear energy... ok... most of what is said can even be... a myth... but the risk exists... and we can't afford to risk it... to the point... of losing all our work if the reactor blows... I think one of the alternatives would be wind energy!!
- Geothermal Energy
1. Geothermal energy is already used a lot: 30% of the total energy in El Salvador, 15% in the Philippines: and not too expensive to install.
- Microwave
1. Really, microwave could be a way out! But, to create them, we would need another energy source (electricity or gas). As to transporting them, I know their intensity can be increased, if we induce them to, through installations. The problem is that besides being difficult to build these installations and probably too expensive (they would be loose in the Universe), most of the energy would disperse midway, since it only reflects from metallic surfaces. Unless we had a way of condensing them, but, the way I see it, it would be ideal if we could find a way to produce energy from Martian resources...
2. I've been thinking some more and saw that this system of producing energy on Earth and sending it by microwaves would face the same problems as telecommunications, the difference in the planet's rotations. Which makes it impossible.
- Fusion Energy
1. Fusion would be the best alternative to obtain a lot of energy and clean energy. But, with current technology it's still not possible, at least not in a controlled manner.
2. We found out that in order to melt 100 tons of ice we need 3.2 GW. But one ton of ice per person is too much water. If we could burn 1 ton of ice per day we would spend 32 MW. Adding the amount of energy to maintain the colony (temperature, computers, light, etc..)... guessing low... we should spend +/- some 100 MW... I think we would need some 30 Hydrogen reactors for that....
New things in the organization of the colony
A . Location of the colony:
1. What if we divide the colony in two parts? One close to one of the poles and the other near the equator. That way, the one close to the equator can use the solar energy and the one close to the pole can use the solar energy and obtain water.
B. The economic question
1. I still defend communism in the colony. Everything belongs to everybody, and everybody should work to sustain the whole colony. Each one would be a gear in a not so large system. The idea of having commerce could generate conflict amongst the colonists.
2. I don't think money is so important. Since there will be only 100 people and the colony is independent from the rest of the world, I think we could do some type of communism, where each colonist receives a daily quote of supplies (water, food, electricity,...). That way there would be no social differences...
3. I think it's neat not to have money! But, it would be difficult to develop commerce without it. I think we can ban it from the colony... take away the goal of profit would be an important step to avoid divergences and even monopolies. That would have to result in exchanges (exchange "food paste" for underwear) and 'little wars' to see 'who has the most essential products'. To my view, all the types of consumption should be organized and distributed equally. It wouldn't be difficult to do that with only 100 people...
4. I'm against commerce, because first you don't know if subsistence is possible, much less having extras. There is no room for capitalism on Mars.
C. The Laws
1. I think the laws should be made.... by people here on Earth... and instilled in the colonist's heads... then they would have no trouble making them... just executing them...
2. That's the problem... the people who made the laws here on Earth have no idea of the type of situations the colonists will face on Mars, so, how will they predict what can happen? What if the colonists disagreed with the laws made here? Most of them would have political interests involved, something that would not happen there...
3. I agree with the fact that the laws should be made on Mars. But I think they should be at least thought of here on Earth. So that the colonists don't land on Mars in a state of Anarchy...
4. About the laws, I think that before they go to Mars the colonists could meet with more people here on Earth and discuss the laws, because all the colonists should agree with these laws....
5. I think that the laws should be discussed and made after they already are there, because the environment will be very different from here, so it will be hard to make up the laws based on imagination. The way I see it, it would be convenient to make a previous organization on Earth, as if they were already on Mars, in a short term, to have an idea of how they would live together, establishing the basic necessary laws. The details (which would be hard to remember on Earth) could be discussed over there, because they would have a more realistic notion of what they would need and what rules they should follow.
D. Transportation
1. Teletransport really could be an alternative, but, the way I see it, it would be more 'realistic' if we only count on the current technology... even supposing that they REALLY did teletransport an atom, we can't be sure that they would be capable of transporting 100 people... It's possible to have some predictions based on what has already happened with the technological advance (and is happening), but what if they still can't do it in 2030? Where would we be?
2. As for transportation, we should have something like teletransportation. The scientists already were able to teletransport, if I'm not mistaken, an electron. Of course there is still a long way to go before transporting an organism but even so it would be a good means of going from Earth to Mars or from one point to the other of the colony....
3. Scientists were able, through a crystal to divide a PHOTON in 2. After they had divided it in 2, they noticed that whatever they did with PHOTON 1, the same exact thing happened with photon 2. No matter how far they were from each other. This would be a beginning of a beginning of a teletransport. Being that the scientist themselves were not able to explain the phenomena, I think we are still very far from teletransporting someone somewhere.
E. Atmospherical conditions and temperature on Mars
1. The solution will probably be to combine all forms of energy. But I still think that even if we did want to colonize the whole planet, we will need to add CFC's to the atmosphere. That way we will have an ideal atmosphere for plants (there are frozen nitrogenated compounds in the soil , and a lot, almost 100% of CO2 in the atmosphere currently). Even so we would need a dome, because we can't breathe CO2 (or can we?). But this way we would increase the planet's temperature enough to survive and create plants that wouldn't need to be inside the dome.
F. The Political question
1. I was thinking. In my opinion we, here on Earth, don't have conditions to decide these things. Socialism, capitalism, fundamentalism is the heritage of terrestrial characteristics, that will be totally on Mars. They never will have a true capitalism, because where would the blue collared workers be and where would they work? Not even true communism (in my opinion that's the closest to the Martian system we have here on Earth). We will have to invent a government system that, just like on Earth, is based on local characteristics. The difference is that now the characteristics are Martian and since we don't know what can happen there, we will only determine the system of government, commerce, money and other things when we get there.
G- The people who colonize Mars
1. What I suggest is that we think of the inhabitants of the colony as people born there, and not as Spartan soldiers (like Airton says) that were trained for that.
2. In my opinion, #NO# human being could stand the conditions of the colony, as good as they may be, for the rest of their lives. Unless they were born there. Just as Pavlov's little dog drooled when it heard the bell, these children would be conditioned to the colony's conditions. This may seem unethical, because that child did not ask to be born on Mars. But they didn't ask to be born on Earth either! I think it would be neat to create a new race. Then ETs would really exist. It would be interesting to create new people!!!!
3. The people that were prepared since childhood will generate the colony more than others. The only people who will be able to adapt 100% to living there are the people who are born there.
H- The Food
1. I suggest a type of food that has all the necessary nutrients. That is, a human ration. It's easier to carry, store and etc.
General Evaluation of the process
Comparing the first report with the second, we observed that the quantity of information brought by students increased, and more critical analysis on their part as well (especially relating to energy source and to the general organization of the colony), and increase in the imaginary in relation to imagining the future, specifically concerning transportation.
There is a significant preoccupation in the group related to the JUSTICE aspect of the colony. Many students point to the fact that it is important that all the 100 humans on Mars should have access to the same goods and rights, and that the colony should be autonomous in relation to Earth (laws, general organization...).
On the other hand, you should observe that there are many types of information without the reference or source (sites, books, magazines...), a fact expected at this level of work, but that should be talked about with the students to show them how important it is for discussions to be based on theoretical foundations and reliable resources.
In this stage of the project, some students are already making their choices in relation to which theme they want to study further, and we expect that after that they will start providing information that's presented in a more scientifically correct manner.
Ana Cristina Camargo (Evaluation)
This document was based on the analysis of emails exchanged between students on December 2 and 3, 1999.