hi guys whoa that's loud slam to me so
how's maker faire so are you glad to see
you young guys anyway my name's Bruce
McKenzie and you can see the slides on
either side I'm with the Mars foundation
there's a number of related
organizations from our society a
National Space Society I recommend all
of them and what we're especially
working on is how to live in space
starting with Mars not how to go you
know not how to travel there not how to
explore we want to go live there okay
permanently and one of the key things is
how to build things when you get there
how to use the local materials to do
construction don't bring everything from
Earth you know go to Mars use the local
dirt etc and build houses and grow food
and live there and a whole bunch of
people have contributed to this
presentation some of them will be listed
as we go along our contact info is info
at Mars home org we also are bringing up
a new website Mars foundation org okay
we had a design team of volunteer
engineers who put together a design we
call the hillside settlement we've got a
hundred page report if anybody wants to
do some final editing and help us
publish it let me know and it goes into
a lot of detail on how you do
construction on Mars this particular
design was for 12 people to live there
they build a duplicate of that structure
every two years so every two years an
additional 12 people could arrive that
would be might be made mostly out of
fiberglass brick and a little bit of
plastic
and but even that is a little expensive
to send for people by the way it's very
expensive to get to Mars it's even more
expensive to come back from Mars but
it's cheaper than a lot of government
programs it's it's it could be afforded
by a few private individuals you know
it's going to happen the question is
when and how and who goes so anyway so
we're trying to cut the cost down you
rather than sending 12 people we were
working on the other designs that might
be made only a fiberglass and plastic
and you know we're trying to get it down
even lower price so here's another
proposal that we're currently working on
where you'd send about 10 modules and
then two people would land and live
there and build it up and then with help
from others and as soon as possible
additional people would go I don't have
time to go into details but the numbers
you see on the screen are the sequence
in which we deploy have a test to live
in workshops chemical processing etc
okay one of the key things as a
fabrication lab you know everybody's
seen 3d printers here right okay by the
way we have an exhibit table indoors in
the space area and we have a non-working
3d printer that you can touch it's so
badly broken you can play with it and
and we also have some sample materials
that you might make so come on inside
afterwards and see it but anyway you
could build a spacecraft that could land
on Mars one spacecraft would be the
habitat you live in another would be a
you know the greenhouse the waste
processing etc but one of them would be
a fabrication lab have a couple 3d
printers laser cutter etcetera and we're
working on using those to build
permanent structures on Mars
in this particular plan after you get
maybe the minimum bass down on the
surface try to assemble it with robots
the best you can then two people would
go to Mars orbit they test it out
remotely from Mars orbit controlling
robots that are walking around and when
they're ready they would descend the
Mars it might be another three people in
orbit helping them robotically and the
key thing about this is there'd be no
ascent craft that is no there'd be no
spacecraft on the surface they could
launch you to come back to earth because
that's about half the cost that what
about double the cost of the mission you
know half the cost of a round-trip
mission is just the spacecraft and the
fuel to get you home so we want to with
with you know reasonable minimal risk
get to people on the surface building
and save the cost of the return trip
this is very risky but there's you know
it's a good way to open up a new planet
to to live on okay so you might have a
couple people in orbit controlling the
robots one of them would be the size of
a person so you could remotely from
orbit walk around the base you know move
your hands and and and and look at what
the robot is looking at test out the
base get familiar with it and maybe up
in the picture I have an old 3d printer
maybe you might even try doing a little
bit of construction and assembly with
these robots I I think things will break
and and you won't be able to do it you
know completely and as soon as possible
a couple people would land maybe four
people but you know two or two to four
people would land fix all the broken
equipment and then start growing food in
manufacturing
a lot of people ask me how you could
make materials on mars making brick and
fiberglass is the same way you do on
earth you heat up the rock and center it
or extrude it and make little fibers you
can also grow plants and get a lot of
construction material from plants on
bamboo wood cotton linen you can get a
lot of oils from plants and use those as
raw materials but what you see here is
something that will actually make a
hydrocarbon you know and and start the
process of making plastics on Mars this
was built by high school students with
help from one of the parents and you can
electrolyze water oh there's there's big
ice deposits in a few places on Mars so
Mars is does not have trains running by
to drown at you out it's very quiet on
Mars the air is so thin you can't really
hear too well outdoors okay so so Mars
has thin air it's very cold but because
the air is thin it doesn't show you too
much the air is mostly carbon dioxide a
little bit of nitrogen you need for
fertilizer and I mentioned ice deposits
and you got dirt somewhat similar to
earth dirt okay but you can mind the ice
and take the water electrolyze it to run
electricity through the water and you
separate it out hydrogen and oxygen okay
and this this thing if you can see that
cursor moving there's an input where you
put where you put in hydrogen here and
Martian air here containing carbon
dioxide and they are combined with a
catalyst right here and it makes methane
methane is a hydrocarbon natural gas is
is what you know is methane also cows
produce methane
and then the so what also produces water
this is spontaneous you don't have to
set it on fire I don't have time for
questions until the end sorry okay and
so the methane and water that you
produce come in here here you chill it
and you condense out the water and then
you recycle the water to make more
hydrogen and you're left with methane
methane can be used for rocket fuel it
steps like this or how you make plastic
okay and as I said this was constructed
by high school kids it doesn't take
rocket science science okay plastics are
a little harder Frank Crossman put
together a fair bit of information on
how to make various kinds of plastics
let me just show that I won't try to
describe it to you but if you see right
here styrene abs is a is similar to
styrene and is one of the things you see
in the in the 3d printers ethylene can
be used to make polyethylene for milk
bottles here's polyester resin that we
use for gluing together the fiberglass
ok I'm getting to 3d printers so so
anyway the big stuff you'd make out a
fiberglass the small stuff you'd make on
3d printers
I'll get the loans but in a minute but
but we're connected with the lulzbot
company that makes 3d printers and
here's a picture of part of their
factory they have about 40 3d printers
running continuously making parts for
more 3d printers and one thing we want
to do is send a couple 3d printers to
Mars and make more 3d printers just like
they do in this the Colorado factory
okay by the way the for that for the
medium-sized stuff if you want to make
furniture kitchen cupboards on tables
and chairs it wouldn't really be cost
effective to use a 3d printer they're
just too slow to make very large objects
so what you might do is extrude sheets
of plastic and use a laser cutter to cut
out the patterns so rather than ordering
furniture from ikea you would order the
cad plans from ikea or some you know
somebody on earth they would email you
the cab plans it would cut out your ikea
of shapes and then you'll assemble your
furniture but the plastics has to be
made there don't bring it from Earth for
green houses but they're probably the
most important thing you can make is
growing food and and so you want as many
green houses it doesn't rain on Mars at
least not in the past two billion years
so you got it irrigate so so you so
you'd want to produce plastics out of
the air or out of plant products and
make pipes and then all your fittings
and your vows would be fun made from 3d
printers so these are two or four people
on the surface would spend most of their
time repairing equipment and growing
food you can also make useful things
around the kitchen I have a little salt
shaker that you'd make I have an
impeller that might go in a pump so so
picture most of the things for your
kitchen would not be brought from Earth
they'd be made after you get there
and as soon as possible these few people
would stock would build extra
greenhouses stockpile as much food as
possible bootstrap there you know they
were there manufacturing equipment and
when they have a few years supply of
extra food initially they bring food
from Earth but as soon as possible
they'd start stockpiling food they grow
there then more people can arrive using
the only bringing themselves maybe a
suitcase of clothing personal effects
chances are a lot of the first people
who arrived would be scientists the
first four would probably be
construction engineers but then you'd
have more and more scientists arrived
after you have a small scientific base
then you need everybody it basically
becomes a small town all walks of life
okay I should have mentioned this
earlier we have a 3d printer it's a
lulzbot a 0 1 0 1 it is located in
Hawaii at a pretend mar settlement a
Mars habitat so there's a program to do
dietary and psychological studies at
this Mars habitat if you see the okay
this green structure this is what the
habitat looks like it holds six people
it really exists the crew is there for
four months at a time on this lava field
in Hawaii they're in isolation in this
winter we are planning to have various
tests and demos using the 3d printer to
repair things and build things there and
one of the reasons I'm here today is to
ask for your help in making suggestions
if you were on Mars what would you build
if you got a 3d printer on Mars what
would you make what be useful a doctor
you print a 3d doctor okay I have a
cartoon of someone who says no he's not
my boyfriend I printed them on a 3d
printer okay one question quick
hard for everything
there's a breakdown anything
okay yeah yeah so she's saying you'd
stockpile parts for everything well you
only stock pile extra parts for the
critical stuff so once you get about
three or four 3d printers then you don't
really worry about one of them breaking
because you got some spares but yes
anything that is life critical that you
don't have a spare of you'd start making
spares as soon as you arrive okay so on
anyway this is the inside of the Mars
habitat and they only go out wearing
pretend spacesuits and so we're looking
for ideas of how to use that 3d printer
to build something useful if nobody
comes up with ID well tell me afterwards
but you know we can we'll start building
a greenhouse okay um we would like to
extend this on to traveling exhibits and
museum things so so you could make a
pretend Mars habitat out of that trailer
and tour the country we're advising to
student groups at worcester polytechnic
institute in worcester massachusetts one
of them is working on activities to go
into museum the others working on a on
the settlement plan itself and the goal
is basically a growing settlement okay
and eventually people you know people
will spend the rest of their lives there
hopefully and end up having families
growing more and more food building more
structures for people to live in and
taking off I think that's my last slide
yes so um and at some point it would be
a small manufacturing city and then you
can start manufacturing preassembled
modular units that could then be trucked
to other places on Mars so you might
have a you know a geology or a mining
camp somewhere you'd have a spaceport
somewhere and you'd have this initial
manufacturing
I can take about five minutes for
question no 10 minutes for questions yes
how do you get oxygen on Mars okay the
atmosphere is carbon dioxide it's too
thin debris that's about 1% of the
pressure we're breathing now it's so
ninety-five percent carbon dioxide and
after you get a greenhouse up and
running you just slowly pump the outside
air into the greenhouse and the plants
will make oxygen for you and they also
make food and building materials like
bamboo and you know linen paper okay now
initially you have to separate the
oxygen by some other means my my
preferred method is you heat it really
hot either in a solar furnace or with a
nuclear reactor and if you get it hot
enough the co2 will disassociate it'll
make oxygen and carbon monoxide and that
is dangerous and poisonous you want to
keep it outside but you can breathe the
oxygen you can use it for rocket fuel
and i should say they were there are
materials that are called molecular sibs
that can separate it so you heat it and
you separate it now the you're going to
have waste carbon monoxide I want to
mention what you do with that if you
just kind of bubble that through the
soil the carbon monoxide will pull off
some hot some iron atoms and it'll form
what's called iron carbonyl it's a gas
and this gas carries the iron away from
the soil you can you can pump it into a
mold cool it and it will deposit iron
inside the mold so you can actually mold
iron objects without ever going through
an iron you know blast furnace
any other questions no just a minute
she's next but but but but questions
about gas so that's how you make oxygen
it's about three percent nitrogen and
about two percent are gone the nitrogen
is good for making fertilizer or the
microbes in the soil will make nitrates
like like soybeans and peanuts have
microbes that will make the soil more
fertile and then you can also breathe
the oxygen the nitrogen and argon is
mixing gas yes
yeah yeah okay so the question is
cleanliness on Mars I think they have
the same standard for everywhere on Mars
but they have different okay yeah I
think what you're referring to is
microbe contamination we don't want to
send microbes to Mars first then go look
for life on Mars and find our own
microbes and yes it's almost impossible
for people to live in anywhere without
leaving microbes around so what you know
what you would do is first look for
microbes with automated sterilized
probes however the reason we're
interested in Mars is as another place
to live to expand civilization you know
the same reason we expanded out of
Africa throughout the world and sooner
or later there'll be people there it is
it should be possible to tell the
difference between a Martian microbe and
a earth micro by doing DNA analysis or
just chemical analysis there is also an
interesting proposal that well well if
if Mars ever had life it was probably
billions of years ago when they were
rivers flowing on Mars and there might
have been microbes that evolved some of
them might have even been blast off the
earth by an asteroid come to earth
evolved into us so it's possible we have
descended from Mars microbes
but it is so cold and so dry on Mars now
that if any microbes survive they had to
be kind of as spores or cysts you know
they're dormant and they're going to die
out sooner or later they've probably
already died out their only hope is for
us to go find them and give them the
same environment they had in the early
Mars history so they can revive again so
that is debatable but that's an
interesting proposal but but the answer
is yes as soon as people open an airlock
door there's microjet and there's it's
almost impossible to stop that yes
what kind of okay the question is what
kind of people would want to go to Mars
and maybe never come back okay some of
our proposals allow it will send an
ascent craft for the first crew only and
when the first crew fig figures it's
completely safe then another crew can
come and either the first or second crew
can come back and short notice but not
both okay yeah all right so so so we're
running the Mars Foundation and we are
working on these technical plans there
was another proposal for 100 year
starship there was another proposal for
asking for volunteers this was about
three years ago there was a blogger in
South Korea who made a mistake and
confused all three of those programs and
he said the Mars sound ation is asking
for volunteers for a one-way trip in the
Korean blog and we got about 300
applicants in one weekend and the you
know Susan who was receiving the mail
says we're being spammed turned it off
get me off this address and I said no
we're not being spammed these guys are
genuine but every South Korean who wrote
us couldn't write English well and in
English is almost a second language in
Korea at least South Korea so for
everyone who wrote us in broken English
there must have been three or four who
went to our website says you know one
could read well and says don't know
there's some mistake so so we could have
gotten you know a few hundred applicants
in one weekend
well okay okay just mean i'll give you
another example and then get to your
question the Mars one organization has
asked for volunteers to go to Mars they
have a website out you can click on it
you can pay an application fee and what
they want to do is select people to go
to Mars on a one-way trip form them into
teams and then run these teams through
training and testing as a reality TV
show so they so so if you want to go to
Mars and you want to have all your
training televised that's the way to do
it ok and they got 200,000 applicants
who clicked the apply button but they
refuse to say how many actually paid the
application fee less than 3,000 actually
pay the application fee and also
publicize their video so so there's
enough applicants as far as who would
want to do by the way we're working on a
much more detailed technical plan that
they do but they're working on on how to
fund it so I'm hoping that this will be
complementary ok so as far as what kind
of people it's the same reason people
have left home throughout history you
know people from Ireland you know when
the potatoes you know were failing went
to North America to earn a living so
more people could come some people
emigrate for religious reasons some just
for excitement by the way I think you
would be much safer even the first crew
on Mars would be much safer than
explorers were a few hundred years ago
you know they were going out in really
rickety sailing ships dependent on the
weather they were they were eating food
that that was you know not well
preserved they were trying to live off
the land a lot of early explorers didn't
come back and I think that which I think
we are better prepared to settle Mars
than almost any time in the past so for
example you need to have a pressurized
habitat we've been building pressurized
air planes you know for 50 years now but
by the way my father was one of the last
people to fly unpressurized airplanes at
high altitude in World War two and then
they as soon as possible went to
pressurized air planes and there's just
lots of similar examples but you know
would you like to go down in history
comparable to the jamestown settlers or
the Plymouth Plantation or as the people
who stayed back in Europe and sent them
over so there's no shortage of
volunteers but I don't expect the
majority of people to want to go one
minute ok do one or two questions yes
okay terraforming the short answer is no
okay but terraforming means to make a
place more like Earth and there are
proposals to go to Mars and change the
climate you know spread black suit over
the polar ice caps melt them there's
been a lot of study and disagreement
about terraforming the people that I
think have done the most work on it
think that we'll never get Mars all the
way to be like Earth where you can walk
around you with short sleeve shirts and
breathe the air so you will have to wear
protective clothing but maybe you could
get by with just you know you know like
what you're wearing and you know you
know a fall weather coat and breathing
from an oxygen mask with a backpack that
separates out oxygen from the air the
reason for this is Mars probably has
what's called a bistable climate it can
be stable in two conditions right now
it's very very cold and very dry and the
air is very thin there's a lot of carbon
dioxide and water frozen in the soil and
in the ice cast if you melt it all that
the air would get thicker you'd have a
greenhouse effect you'd have global
warming but it probably still wouldn't
get you all the way up to what we would
like but you could make it a lot warmer
and once you get it warmer there'll be
enough carbon dioxide in the air that it
should stay warm so it's either cold and
dry or you know cold dry and thin or
somewhat warmer wetter and in thicker
atmosphere I'm out of time
I can take questions over there you know
all the next speaker is getting ready
and then I'm going to go into a table
indoors but but send us an email at info
at Mars home org so I or info with
Morris foundation either one I enjoyed
it guys