Research

Below are some of the resources and inspiration for Menu for Mars Supper Club.

Conditions on Mars

Overview: http://www.universetoday.com/87300/conditions-on-mars/

Comparison of Mars and Earth: http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/mars111.php

Basic facts about Mars:

1. COLD. Mars is much colder than Earth with a mean surface temperature between 186 and 268 K (−87 °C and −5 °C). The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was −93.2 °C, in Antarctica.

2. EXTREMELY LOW ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
Mars, outside habitation: 6-10 mbar = -40.145 F / -40.081 C boiling point
Mars, inside habitation, estimated to be 300-1000 mbar, so: 300 mbar = 152.174 F / 66.763 C boiling point and 1000 mbar = 211.362 F / 99.646 C boiling point
Earth, sea level: 1,013.25 mbar = 212.009 F / 100.005 C boiling point
Earth, Everest Base Camp: 178.686 F / 81.492 C
In other words, your blood will boil if you go outside without a pressurized spacesuit. Habitable structures on Mars would need to be pressurized like spacecraft.

3. TOXIC AIR, E.G. CARBON DIOXIDE. Martian air has a partial pressure of CO2 of 7.1 mbar, compared to .31 mbar on Earth. CO2 poisoning in humans begins at about 1 mbar. For plants, CO2 much above 1.5 mbar is toxic. Martian air is completely toxic to both plants and animals.

4. LESS SUNLIGHT BUT MORE UV RADIATION. Less sunlight (further from the sun) but due to the relative lack of a magnetosphere and the thin atmosphere, Mars has extreme amounts of ultraviolet radiation.

6. GRAVITY. 38% of Earth’s gravity. It is not known if Martian gravity would have similar health effects such as muscle loss and bone demineralization found in the microgravity of near-earth orbit, nor is much known what effects 38% gravity would have on growing food.

7. SEASONS. Mars has an axial tilt of 25.19°, similar to Earth’s 23.44°. As a result, Mars has season much like Earth, though they last nearly twice as long because the Martian year is about 1.88 Earth years.

8. DISTANCE. It takes 128-333 days to get to Mars from Earth, communication transmissions are delayed 3-22 minutes.

9. DUST. Toxic, tiny, clings to everything electrostatically, likely to be an issue with air filters, water purifiers, etc. Mars also has enormous dust storms.

Mars Colonization plans

History of Mars exploration: http://www.space.com/16575-mars-exploration-robot-red-planet-missions-infographic.html

Independent analysis of the Mars One mission: http://strategic.mit.edu/mars-one-analysis.php Note some of the analysis involves food:

Carrying all food from Earth is more efficient than growing food on Mars, because the mass of equipment required to grow crops exceeds that of bringing the food along.
If all food is sourced from plants, excessive oxygen will need to be managed. While there is technology available on Earth to handle this, no such technology has been developed for spaceflight. This issue is removed if food is transported from Earth rather than grown locally.