Total surface area of Mars: 144,370,000 km²
28.4% as much surface area as Earth
Earth land area: 148,940,000 km²
96.93% as much land area as Earth
Earth land area includes glaciers, deserts, Arctic islands and Antarctica. Mars surface area includes glaciers, and both polar ice caps.
If Mars were to be terraformed, that would melt ice of glaciers, frozen lakes, and both polar ice caps. That would flood low areas including Hellas Basin and ancient ocean basin in northern hemisphere. Hellas Basin is 2,200 to 2,300 km². Northern ocean basin is 30% to 36% of Mars surface area. Mars doesn't have enough ice to fill ocean basin to depth it once had 3.7 billion years ago, but enough to cover the ocean basin floor. Ocean basin is prime location for Mars settlement. Terraforming would flood all such locations.
Mars Government
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tahanson43206
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Re: Mars Government
This post is reserved for an index to posts that might be contributed by NewMars members.
This topic ** should ** provide inspiration for thoughtful posts here, as it has done in the past.
Index:
(th)
This topic ** should ** provide inspiration for thoughtful posts here, as it has done in the past.
Index:
(th)
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RobertDyck
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Fri Apr 19, 2024 9:18 pm
Mars Government
A new member recently attended a meeting of the local chapter of the Mars Society. Local meetings have become small. My sister attended, and the "new member" was her husband. Although I've given Mars presentations at a local science fiction convention every year since 2002, and he attended those, apparently he had not heard of my ideas. He thought my ideas controversial. There's an entire threat in the old "New Mars" forum, but I'll post here.
First how: Settlement will be done in phases. First send a human science mission based on Mars Direct. There are various modifications, but the details are not important. The Mars Direct habitat was originally designed for 4 astronauts, because NASA wanted 4. A NASA study in 1965 of how to modify Apollo hardware for Mars designed a Command and Service Module (CSM) for 4. When Mars Direct was first pitched to NASA in June 1990, those NASA personnel who worked on Apollo were elated! They loved it! But younger personnel who never worked on Apollo but did work on Shuttle wanted a larger crew. Shuttle was able to carry 7 crew, so they wanted 7 crew. Again, an assumption based on what they're used to, not any practical reason. The Mars Direct hab could easily be modified for 6 crew. MDRS in Utah is already designed for crew of 6.
The launch vehicle would be as powerful as a Saturn V, but built form Space Shuttle parts; called Ares. SLS block 2 today basically is Ares. The hab would be the same diameter as the core stage, which would be the same diameter as the Shuttle External Tank. SLS core stage today is also that same diameter. Does it have to be 8.4 meter outside diameter? No, that was just convenient. If SpaceX Starship is used as the launch vehicle, it has 9 metre diameter, payload diameter inside the fairing will be something smaller. Falcon 9 standard fairing is 5.2m outside diameter, payload can be 4.572m (Wikipedia). Assuming the same margin, Starship with 9m outside diameter should accommodate a payload 8.372m. That's practically the same.
An exploration crew of 6 would leave behind the hab. A second science mission to the same location would deliver another hab. Two more missions could deliver construction crew to build a Mars Homestead style permanent base, designed for 12 crew. Mars Homestead is far more spacious with a small apartment for each crew member. The base would be built with in situ resources. Once that is complete, the crew would then build a larger base for 100 settlers. Only once habitation and life support for 100 crew are ready would a SpaceX Starship deliver 100 settlers. Their task would be to build a larger base for 1,000 settlers. When that is complete, the Large Ship would arrive with 1,000 settlers.
Mars Direct habitats are one-way. A small Earth Return Vehicle returns crew. Exact design for Mars Direct ERV is a debate for elsewhere. Starship is designed to be able to return to Earth, but requires refilling (fuel and oxidizer). At least one Starship will remain on Mars to act as a shuttle. The Large Ship will travel from Earth orbit to Mars orbit and back. Starship will shuttle passengers from Mars orbit to the surface. One reason my brother-in-law emphasized return, was the the Large Ship will return mostly empty, so could be used to deliver goods from Mars to Earth. Hmm, interesting.
A major point of this is to make Mars profitable. Government will never provide enough money for Mars settlement. Government will provide a trickle for small exploration, such as an unmanned rover once per decade or so. Once Mars is profitable, a great deal of investment money is available. Due to cost of transportation, I do not believe any raw materials will ever be profitable. However, transporting settlers can. One reason to go to Mars is to get away from government. For this to work, Mars must be free of government overreach. Each passenger will pay a ticket price so high that he/she will pay their entire life savings. The corporation that operates the Large Ship will establish a city on Mars where in situ resource will be harvested, and used to make everything necessary to maintain and operate the Ship. That includes replacement parts for maintenance and repair, propellant, and food. The corporate city must have pressurized greenhouses to grow not only enough food for the Mars settlement, but enough to supply the Ship. Mars must produce propellant for the SpaceX Starship used as a shuttle. Whether propellant for the Large Ship is transported from Mars surface or harvested from one of Mars small moons is a detail to be worked out by engineers. A propellant depot must be built in Earth orbit to refuel the ship for the next trip to Mars. Whether that propellant comes from one of Mars moons or an asteroid orbiting the Sun in near-Earth orbit is also a detail to be worked out by engineers. The point is for operation of the Ship to be supplied by the space economy, while ticket prices are paid in Earth currency. Once established, the corporation will recover its investment. Once investment is recovered, transporting settlers will be highly profitable.
One side operation will be mining metal asteroids. This will initially be near-Earth asteroids, which orbit the Sun closer to Earth than either Venus or Mars. There are such asteroids roughly 1km (0.62 mile) diameter. Only 4% of asteroids are metal. Metal asteroids are mostly iron, with a significant nickel, and some cobalt. Typical is 95% iron-nickel-cobalt with 5-25% nickel. Trace elements include gold, silver, platinum, and platinum group metals. In molten metals, gold and silver tend to stick to iron, while platinum group metals stick to nickel. Metal asteroids are believed to have formed in the core of a planetesimal that broke apart, one large enough for gravity to differentiate heavy elements from light. Probably a dwarf planet that broke up during early formation of the solar system. I consider meteorites that fall to Earth to be a reasonable sample of near-Earth-objects. Metal meteorites show ones with more iron and less nickel have more gold and silver, while those with more nickel have more platinum group metals. These precious metals can be transported to Earth for sale. Ferrous metals will stay in space to be used for construction, such as construction of the Large Ship.
The Moon can also be mined by unmanned equipment. Radio communication from the Moon is 1.25 to 1.35 seconds one-way. That's quickly enough for tele-operation; equipment on the Moon operated by personnel on Earth. Surface of the Moon is lighter material, similar to the surface of Earth. Aluminum can be harvested on the Moon, both for aluminum alloys and aluminum-oxynitride (ALON) as strong transparent material for windows. Windows resistant to meteoroid impacts.
Transporting industrial metals (steel, aluminum) from space to Earth will never be economically profitable. Those metals will stay in space for construction of big things that stay in space. Precious metals will be delivered to Earth via capsule made from space resources: nickel-chrome alloy heat shield and back shell. No parachute, no guidance rockets. Just drop the capsule as a piece of metal and tell people to stay out of the way. The aeroshell will crack open upon impact with ground, and precious metal bars will get bent and/or dented on impact, but that's Ok. The nickel-chrome alloy can be sold as metal as well. Metal asteroids have very little chrome, almost none. But chrome is a significant minor element on the Moon, mostly as silicate minerals.
Government
This is the important part. And the part that has generated controversy.
I propose one federal government for Mars. The planet will not be divided among multiple small countries. One reason is we don't want war. With multiple countries, we always have war. A major responsibility of the federal government is to prevent war. The federal government will have a land title office that sells land. If someone wants to establish homestead, they may purchase a plot of land. I suggest one square kilometre as the basic homestead. In western Canada, land was divided into "sections", where a section is 1 mile x 1 mile. A homestead was a quarter section = 160 acres; 1/2 mile x 1/2 mile. A plot of land 1km x 1km = 100 hectares = 247.10 acres. That's significantly larger. Sections in western Canada has a road right-of-way reserved on each 1 mile boundary. Even if no road was built, a right-of-way was reserved where a road could be built. Doing the same on 1km boundaries would cut a little from the homestead.
If someone wants to build a town with 100 people, the most land they could purchase would be for a town of 100 people. If they want to build a city of 10,000 people, they can purchase as much land as a city of 10,000 people. If the city grows, it can purchase more land. But if a parcel of land is already owned, the city cannot expropriate. If a city grows to 1 million people, it can own only as much land as a city of 1 million people. Exactly how big is that? Look at cities on Earth. The point is if someone wants to declare their city has jurisdiction over as much land as a state or a county, the answer is no. A hard "NO".
Laws for the federal government will be deliberately minimal: thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, other than that you're pretty much on your own. Of course once lawyers get involved there will be detail: theft, robbery, armed robbery, extortion, embezzlement, etc. Assault, battery, attempted murder, etc.
Cities will be allowed to establish their own laws. Each city will essentially be a city-state. However, towns/cities will not be allowed to possess weapons of war. They will be allowed a police force, but no weapons of war. Individuals will have the same restriction. To make it simple: whatever a private individual is allowed to own in the United States right now will be allowed on Mars. That means no tanks, fighter jets, cannons, mortars, missiles, or full-automatic firearms. One exception: Mars will not allow bump-stocks. That's a loop-hole for a fully automatic firearm. If a city wants to impose further restrictions, such as ban on privately owned firearms, they will be allowed to do so. However, a city law will only have jurisdiction within city territory. If someone purchases land from a city, they will be within jurisdiction of that city. Of an individual purchases land from the federal government, then no city or municipality will have jurisdiction over that homestead. An individual in a homestead will only be subject to federal laws, so will be allowed to possess all the same weapons as police.
If one city decides to go to war against another city, the federal government will intervene. Cities will not be allowed to have a military, but the federal government will. If a city wants to send their police force to invade another city, the federal government will intervene with an actual army, possessing actual military weaponry. The federal military will tell the forces of the two cities to knock it off and go home.
One detail: the federal government will not require driver's license. And no restriction on drinking and driving, or driving while high. However, this is a planet with no breathable atmosphere, and no AAA. If someone crashes their rover into a crater somewhere, their spacesuit better have enough life support to be able to walk home. So those who drive while intoxicated will eliminate themselves. However, cities are expected to impose driver's licensing and drinking-and-driving laws. If someone crashes a rover into a pressurized habitat, it could depressurize the habitat killing those inside.
Taxes: no federal taxes on individuals or small business. No income tax, no sales tax, no import/export duties, nothing. Large corporations will be required to pay something; for sake of simplicity, define "large" as 1,000 employees or more. Cities will be allowed to impose whatever taxes they want. If cities get too draconian, expect citizens to leave that city for somewhere else.
This will mean no schools for homesteads, although cities could establish school boards and impose school tax. Homesteads could home-school their children with modern computers.
In order for the economy to operate without tax, that means no healthcare system. It means an American style system where healthcare is charged. I expect corporations will offer employee benefits with a comprehensive healthcare plan. Cities may as well.
Another detail: new arrivals will arrive at the city established by the corporation that operates the Large Ship. The arrivals port will have extensive advertising to entice new arrivals to work for the Corporation. If someone spent their entire life savings on a ticket, with nothing left to purchase equipment to build a homestead, then they could get a job. The Corporation would offer free apartment, free utilities, free healthcare, free meals at the company cafeteria but only for company employees. With all that free stuff, salary will be relatively low. If you want to eat at home, you can buy groceries. Can you save enough to build a homestead? All tools, equipment and supplies for a homestead available at the company store.
The city built by the Corporation will be the capital. City police for the capital city will double as federal police, but only federal laws apply outside city limits.
Yes, this does mean cities on Mars will be city-states, with the sole exception they will not be allowed a military. Expect different cities to establish different government with different styles and different rules.
First how: Settlement will be done in phases. First send a human science mission based on Mars Direct. There are various modifications, but the details are not important. The Mars Direct habitat was originally designed for 4 astronauts, because NASA wanted 4. A NASA study in 1965 of how to modify Apollo hardware for Mars designed a Command and Service Module (CSM) for 4. When Mars Direct was first pitched to NASA in June 1990, those NASA personnel who worked on Apollo were elated! They loved it! But younger personnel who never worked on Apollo but did work on Shuttle wanted a larger crew. Shuttle was able to carry 7 crew, so they wanted 7 crew. Again, an assumption based on what they're used to, not any practical reason. The Mars Direct hab could easily be modified for 6 crew. MDRS in Utah is already designed for crew of 6.
The launch vehicle would be as powerful as a Saturn V, but built form Space Shuttle parts; called Ares. SLS block 2 today basically is Ares. The hab would be the same diameter as the core stage, which would be the same diameter as the Shuttle External Tank. SLS core stage today is also that same diameter. Does it have to be 8.4 meter outside diameter? No, that was just convenient. If SpaceX Starship is used as the launch vehicle, it has 9 metre diameter, payload diameter inside the fairing will be something smaller. Falcon 9 standard fairing is 5.2m outside diameter, payload can be 4.572m (Wikipedia). Assuming the same margin, Starship with 9m outside diameter should accommodate a payload 8.372m. That's practically the same.
An exploration crew of 6 would leave behind the hab. A second science mission to the same location would deliver another hab. Two more missions could deliver construction crew to build a Mars Homestead style permanent base, designed for 12 crew. Mars Homestead is far more spacious with a small apartment for each crew member. The base would be built with in situ resources. Once that is complete, the crew would then build a larger base for 100 settlers. Only once habitation and life support for 100 crew are ready would a SpaceX Starship deliver 100 settlers. Their task would be to build a larger base for 1,000 settlers. When that is complete, the Large Ship would arrive with 1,000 settlers.
Mars Direct habitats are one-way. A small Earth Return Vehicle returns crew. Exact design for Mars Direct ERV is a debate for elsewhere. Starship is designed to be able to return to Earth, but requires refilling (fuel and oxidizer). At least one Starship will remain on Mars to act as a shuttle. The Large Ship will travel from Earth orbit to Mars orbit and back. Starship will shuttle passengers from Mars orbit to the surface. One reason my brother-in-law emphasized return, was the the Large Ship will return mostly empty, so could be used to deliver goods from Mars to Earth. Hmm, interesting.
A major point of this is to make Mars profitable. Government will never provide enough money for Mars settlement. Government will provide a trickle for small exploration, such as an unmanned rover once per decade or so. Once Mars is profitable, a great deal of investment money is available. Due to cost of transportation, I do not believe any raw materials will ever be profitable. However, transporting settlers can. One reason to go to Mars is to get away from government. For this to work, Mars must be free of government overreach. Each passenger will pay a ticket price so high that he/she will pay their entire life savings. The corporation that operates the Large Ship will establish a city on Mars where in situ resource will be harvested, and used to make everything necessary to maintain and operate the Ship. That includes replacement parts for maintenance and repair, propellant, and food. The corporate city must have pressurized greenhouses to grow not only enough food for the Mars settlement, but enough to supply the Ship. Mars must produce propellant for the SpaceX Starship used as a shuttle. Whether propellant for the Large Ship is transported from Mars surface or harvested from one of Mars small moons is a detail to be worked out by engineers. A propellant depot must be built in Earth orbit to refuel the ship for the next trip to Mars. Whether that propellant comes from one of Mars moons or an asteroid orbiting the Sun in near-Earth orbit is also a detail to be worked out by engineers. The point is for operation of the Ship to be supplied by the space economy, while ticket prices are paid in Earth currency. Once established, the corporation will recover its investment. Once investment is recovered, transporting settlers will be highly profitable.
One side operation will be mining metal asteroids. This will initially be near-Earth asteroids, which orbit the Sun closer to Earth than either Venus or Mars. There are such asteroids roughly 1km (0.62 mile) diameter. Only 4% of asteroids are metal. Metal asteroids are mostly iron, with a significant nickel, and some cobalt. Typical is 95% iron-nickel-cobalt with 5-25% nickel. Trace elements include gold, silver, platinum, and platinum group metals. In molten metals, gold and silver tend to stick to iron, while platinum group metals stick to nickel. Metal asteroids are believed to have formed in the core of a planetesimal that broke apart, one large enough for gravity to differentiate heavy elements from light. Probably a dwarf planet that broke up during early formation of the solar system. I consider meteorites that fall to Earth to be a reasonable sample of near-Earth-objects. Metal meteorites show ones with more iron and less nickel have more gold and silver, while those with more nickel have more platinum group metals. These precious metals can be transported to Earth for sale. Ferrous metals will stay in space to be used for construction, such as construction of the Large Ship.
The Moon can also be mined by unmanned equipment. Radio communication from the Moon is 1.25 to 1.35 seconds one-way. That's quickly enough for tele-operation; equipment on the Moon operated by personnel on Earth. Surface of the Moon is lighter material, similar to the surface of Earth. Aluminum can be harvested on the Moon, both for aluminum alloys and aluminum-oxynitride (ALON) as strong transparent material for windows. Windows resistant to meteoroid impacts.
Transporting industrial metals (steel, aluminum) from space to Earth will never be economically profitable. Those metals will stay in space for construction of big things that stay in space. Precious metals will be delivered to Earth via capsule made from space resources: nickel-chrome alloy heat shield and back shell. No parachute, no guidance rockets. Just drop the capsule as a piece of metal and tell people to stay out of the way. The aeroshell will crack open upon impact with ground, and precious metal bars will get bent and/or dented on impact, but that's Ok. The nickel-chrome alloy can be sold as metal as well. Metal asteroids have very little chrome, almost none. But chrome is a significant minor element on the Moon, mostly as silicate minerals.
Government
This is the important part. And the part that has generated controversy.
I propose one federal government for Mars. The planet will not be divided among multiple small countries. One reason is we don't want war. With multiple countries, we always have war. A major responsibility of the federal government is to prevent war. The federal government will have a land title office that sells land. If someone wants to establish homestead, they may purchase a plot of land. I suggest one square kilometre as the basic homestead. In western Canada, land was divided into "sections", where a section is 1 mile x 1 mile. A homestead was a quarter section = 160 acres; 1/2 mile x 1/2 mile. A plot of land 1km x 1km = 100 hectares = 247.10 acres. That's significantly larger. Sections in western Canada has a road right-of-way reserved on each 1 mile boundary. Even if no road was built, a right-of-way was reserved where a road could be built. Doing the same on 1km boundaries would cut a little from the homestead.
If someone wants to build a town with 100 people, the most land they could purchase would be for a town of 100 people. If they want to build a city of 10,000 people, they can purchase as much land as a city of 10,000 people. If the city grows, it can purchase more land. But if a parcel of land is already owned, the city cannot expropriate. If a city grows to 1 million people, it can own only as much land as a city of 1 million people. Exactly how big is that? Look at cities on Earth. The point is if someone wants to declare their city has jurisdiction over as much land as a state or a county, the answer is no. A hard "NO".
Laws for the federal government will be deliberately minimal: thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, other than that you're pretty much on your own. Of course once lawyers get involved there will be detail: theft, robbery, armed robbery, extortion, embezzlement, etc. Assault, battery, attempted murder, etc.
Cities will be allowed to establish their own laws. Each city will essentially be a city-state. However, towns/cities will not be allowed to possess weapons of war. They will be allowed a police force, but no weapons of war. Individuals will have the same restriction. To make it simple: whatever a private individual is allowed to own in the United States right now will be allowed on Mars. That means no tanks, fighter jets, cannons, mortars, missiles, or full-automatic firearms. One exception: Mars will not allow bump-stocks. That's a loop-hole for a fully automatic firearm. If a city wants to impose further restrictions, such as ban on privately owned firearms, they will be allowed to do so. However, a city law will only have jurisdiction within city territory. If someone purchases land from a city, they will be within jurisdiction of that city. Of an individual purchases land from the federal government, then no city or municipality will have jurisdiction over that homestead. An individual in a homestead will only be subject to federal laws, so will be allowed to possess all the same weapons as police.
If one city decides to go to war against another city, the federal government will intervene. Cities will not be allowed to have a military, but the federal government will. If a city wants to send their police force to invade another city, the federal government will intervene with an actual army, possessing actual military weaponry. The federal military will tell the forces of the two cities to knock it off and go home.
One detail: the federal government will not require driver's license. And no restriction on drinking and driving, or driving while high. However, this is a planet with no breathable atmosphere, and no AAA. If someone crashes their rover into a crater somewhere, their spacesuit better have enough life support to be able to walk home. So those who drive while intoxicated will eliminate themselves. However, cities are expected to impose driver's licensing and drinking-and-driving laws. If someone crashes a rover into a pressurized habitat, it could depressurize the habitat killing those inside.
Taxes: no federal taxes on individuals or small business. No income tax, no sales tax, no import/export duties, nothing. Large corporations will be required to pay something; for sake of simplicity, define "large" as 1,000 employees or more. Cities will be allowed to impose whatever taxes they want. If cities get too draconian, expect citizens to leave that city for somewhere else.
This will mean no schools for homesteads, although cities could establish school boards and impose school tax. Homesteads could home-school their children with modern computers.
In order for the economy to operate without tax, that means no healthcare system. It means an American style system where healthcare is charged. I expect corporations will offer employee benefits with a comprehensive healthcare plan. Cities may as well.
Another detail: new arrivals will arrive at the city established by the corporation that operates the Large Ship. The arrivals port will have extensive advertising to entice new arrivals to work for the Corporation. If someone spent their entire life savings on a ticket, with nothing left to purchase equipment to build a homestead, then they could get a job. The Corporation would offer free apartment, free utilities, free healthcare, free meals at the company cafeteria but only for company employees. With all that free stuff, salary will be relatively low. If you want to eat at home, you can buy groceries. Can you save enough to build a homestead? All tools, equipment and supplies for a homestead available at the company store.
The city built by the Corporation will be the capital. City police for the capital city will double as federal police, but only federal laws apply outside city limits.
Yes, this does mean cities on Mars will be city-states, with the sole exception they will not be allowed a military. Expect different cities to establish different government with different styles and different rules.