2012/2013
CHRIS,
BART,
LOTTE EN
TRISTAN
ODYSSEUS CONTEST
Final report on the Odysseus Contest | Coach : Mrs. Torenvliet
Summary:
After our previous project, we started hearing rumours about a project in English. Our teachers
denied this rumour, claiming it would be a normal project. Well as it turned out, it we did get to do a
project in English. This was the first time we had to do a project in a different language than our own.
Thus it resulted in a challenge. In this project we had to solve a problem that was encountered when
researching a specific subject, such as how can we let a person survive on another planet than Earth?
Or what is the best way to offer an astronaut shelter? We ended up using the planet itself as the
solution and building a model.
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Table of Contents
Summary: ................................................................................................................................................ 2
Our subject .............................................................................................................................................. 4
Why we have chosen this subject ....................................................................................................... 4
What needs to be done ....................................................................................................................... 4
Investigating planets: .............................................................................................................................. 4
The circumstances ............................................................................................................................... 4
Requirements regarding planet choice: .................................................................................................. 6
Mars, the planet of choice .................................................................................................................. 7
The gravity on Mars:........................................................................................................................ 7
Escaping gravity of Mars: ................................................................................................................ 7
Some more miscellaneous information: ......................................................................................... 7
Challenges of mission to Mars ............................................................................................................ 8
Medical challenges .......................................................................................................................... 8
Critics on a mission to Mars ............................................................................................................ 9
Requirements regarding our idea: .......................................................................................................... 9
A few ideas ............................................................................................................................................ 10
Idea one ............................................................................................................................................. 10
Problems........................................................................................................................................ 10
Idea two ............................................................................................................................................. 10
Problems........................................................................................................................................ 10
Idea three .......................................................................................................................................... 10
Problems........................................................................................................................................ 10
Our idea ................................................................................................................................................. 11
Scientific proof .................................................................................................................................. 11
Visualizing our solution ......................................................................................................................... 12
The model.......................................................................................................................................... 12
Our opinions on this project.................................................................................................................. 12
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Our subject
Why we have chosen this subject
We have chosen the subject of co-evolution of life. We have chosen the subcategory: The design,
construction and maintenance of a life support environment at any desirable spatial scale, placed in a
spacecraft or in a solar system body (in Dutch: Het ontwerpen, construeren en onderhoud van een
life support omgeving op iedere gewilde ruimtelijke schaal, geplaatst in een ruimteschip of een
planeet in het zonnestelsel). This subject because we think that it’s interesting and we would like to
further improve our knowledge on this subject. We think it’s challenging because it has never been
done before. The new way of designing things (such as housing) also sounds like a challenge.
What needs to be done
So our subject is co-evolution of life and more specifically we’re going to ‘design, construct and
maintain a life support environment at any desirable spatial scale, placed in a spacecraft or in a solar
system body. What exactly needs to be done? We’re going to research possibilities to live on other
places than on Earth and solve problems that were encountered in previous attempts to do so.
Problems like an atmosphere that is not breathable or the lack of gravity when on a space station.
Well, we’re not saying we’ll actually solve those problems, but we’re going to give our best shot.
Investigating planets:
The circumstances
We did some research on a few planets in our solar system to look at the circumstances on these
planets. We want to know, if these planets are useable for our idea.
Explaining some terms used in the list below:
Escaping gravity: The speed at which an object will depart on a ballistic trajectory as if it were in freefall and it would not fall down or assume a closed orbit.
Mercury: Distance to sun between 46 en 70 million km, to earth 77 million km
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The temperature on Mercury is between -173⁰
en 427⁰ Celsius.
Gravity= 3.7 m/s2 (50 kilograms on Earth= 19
kilograms on Mercury)
Escaping Gravity: 4.3 km/s
Weight: 330,104,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg
Landscape: 74,797,000 Looks like moonscape
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Venus: Distance to the sun approximately 108 million km, distance to earth approximately 40
million km.
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Temperature 462 degrees Celsius
Gravity=8.87 m/s2 (on earth 50 kg = 45,5 kg on Venus)
Escaping gravity: 10,3 km/s
Weight: 4.8673 x 1024 kg
Landscape: A lot of volcanism, 460,234,317 km2
Earth: Distance to the sun approximately 150 million km
Temperature at least -88 at max 58 degrees Celsius
Gravity= 9.80665 m/s2
Escaping gravity: 11,2 km/s
Weight: 5.9722 x 1024 kg
Landscape: There are all kinds of landscapes, high mountains and deep
sees
510,064,472 km2
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Mars: Distance to the sun approximately 250 million km, to earth 60 million km
Temperature at least -87, at max -5 degrees Celsius
Gravity= 3.71 m/s2 (50 kg on earth= 16 kg on mars)
Escaping gravity : 5,0 km/s
Weight: 641.693.000.000.000.000.000.000 kg
Landscape: Rocky with mountains and sand, Looks like Death Valley. 144,371,391 km2
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Saturn: Distance to the sun approximately 1.432 million km, to earth 1,215 million km
Temperature approximately -178 degrees Celsius
Gravity= 10.4* m/s2 (50 pounds on earth= 53,5 on Saturn)
Escaping Gravity: 35,6 km/s
Weight: 568.319.000.000.000.000.000.000.000 kg
Landscape: 42,612,133,285 km2 gas and liquid, no solid ground.
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Requirements regarding planet choice:
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The planet must be reachable. If it really takes years to get there, it will be too hard to get
assistance from Earth, if the need arises.
The planet mustn’t be to cold. If the planet is to cold, we might not be able to adept a
structure to it. It will be dangerous as the blood of the astronauts might freeze (as an
example).
The planet mustn’t be too hot. If the planet is too hot, we once again might not be able to
adept our structure to it. If so, the astronauts bodies might overheat.
There mustn’t be too much radiation. If the radiation is to intense, we might not be able to
block all the radiation. The astronauts could get radiation poisoning which is very dangerous
of course.
There mustn’t be too much wind. If there’s too much wind, it will be hard to land a
spacecraft there and building a structure isn’t very easy either.
There must be gravity but not too much. If there’s too much gravity, the astronauts bodies
will not be able to handle it, so they would be compressed. If there’s not enough, the
astronauts will not have a liveable space everything will just float away which is not very
useful if you’re trying to colonize a planet.
There must be an atmosphere. This will block radiation and if there’s an atmosphere there
will be gasses in it that may be useable.
There must be water . Almost no planet has water on the surface. But it nearly is a
requirement as bringing in water from Earth for the astronauts and their equipment is not
easy.
It mustn’t be a gas planet. If there’s no solid ground,, we will not be able to build or do
anything on that planet.
There must be food or at least we need to be able to get our hands on food. Bringing food to
Mars is very hard and very costly.
There must be some but not too much pressure. If there’s no pressure the pressure inside
the bodies of the astronauts would cause them to explode, but if there’s too much, the
astronauts would get compressed.
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Mars, the planet of choice
The planet where we want to install our life support system is Mars. We have chosen Mars because
this planet has an atmosphere (not suitable for liquid water), the time cycle is about the same as on
earth, the temperatures range between -87 ˚ tot -5˚ which is acceptable and there are traces of
water.
So far there have been a few missions to Mars, the most recent one being Curiosity. Curiosity was
send to Mars to search for micro-organisms (and conditions for the existence of them) and to
investigate rocks for signs of former life.
The gravity on Mars:
Metric: 3.71 m/s2
So, if you weigh 50 kg on Earth, you would weigh 19 kg on Mars.
Escaping gravity of Mars:
5,0 km/s Earth is 11,2 km/s
Some more miscellaneous information:
-Length of days: 1.026 Earth days a year
- Temperature: -87 tot -5 °C
- Kind of ground: Mostly rocks and sand, it has the same structure as volcanoes.
-Through research we have found out that although Mars has no magnetic field, that there are a few
places where there is magnetism .
In 2008 there was a mission to Mars and we discovered that there are large amounts of ice, that is
also a good reason to choose for Mars because we could melt that ice and use it as water. Because of
the atmosphere we might have the possibility to grow vegetables.
Radiation is deadly from 150 millisievert, the radiation on Mars is not deadly (about the same as on
ISS)
Composition atmosphere: (CO2) 95,32%;(N2) 2,7%;(Ar) 1,6%;(O2) 0,13%;(CO) 0,07%; (water vapor)
0,03%; (NOx) 0,01%; there are traces of Ne,Kr,Xe,O3 and CH4.
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Challenges of mission to Mars
Medical challenges
If we’re going to send people to Mars, we want to know what problems they might experience (onde
they’re on Mars itself, not the flight to Mars). It’s possible that new problems may arise after the
mission.
1. Being exposed to radiation on Mars, may have a negative impact on the health of the
astronauts. Mars does not have a magnetic field as strong as Earth’s so the radiation isn’t
blocked like on Earth.
2. Being exposed to the low gravity of Mars may have a negative impact on the muscles of the
astronauts. Because the gravity is lower, the astronauts weigh less thus their body’s muscles
weaken.
3. The low light environment may result in damage to the eyes of astronauts.
4. Astronauts may get home sick from being away from Earth so long.
5. Spending a lot of time in a cramped space may have effects on the mental health
6. Being sick on Mars is dangerous because there obviously is no healthcare on Mars and
maybe (you never know) there might be a virus on Mars.
There are all kinds of problems that we have to solve before we can send a manned mission
to Mars.
We think that we have the solution for some of these problems, the others we hope are
being solved by the great minds of today.
The problem with the gravity we would like to combine with the energy problem. Our
solution for both is to install some home trainers so that the cosmonauts can keep
themselves in shape and with that they will excite energy.
For the light-problem we would like to make some holes in the cave and then protect
ourselves by covering the holes with a translucent material.
For the psychical problems we think there’s no need for a solution because the astronauts
will form a small community which we think will be enough.
The problem of a small space will be solved when our idea will be executed, because the
cave will have enough space to walk around.
We have no solutions for the medical problem, but we think that with the techniques of
today scientists will be able to make some kind of drones which could deliver small medical
packages.
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Critics on a mission to Mars
Not everyone is happy with a mission to Mars, people like scientist and environmentalists.
A mission to Mars costs loads of money and in comparison with an unmanned mission yields almost
no results.
Spending millions of dollars on a mission to Mars is a little hard to explain, when people on Earth are
starving. The US spend a billion dollars on a mission to Mars and in Africa people are starving. I think
it’s not hard to understand that people have moral problems with this.
A lot of greenhouse gasses enter the atmosphere and of course environmentalists have problems
with this.
Requirements regarding our idea:
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There must be oxygen or at least some, because it is yet another thing we would need to
bring in from Earth and that’s not easy and very costly.
It must be weatherproof. Things like dust storms on Mars must not be able to destroy our
structure
It must be able to resist the radiation. We expect there to be some more radiation on other
planets than on Earth. We don’t want it to interfere with our astronauts or any tests they
might be running.
There must be gravity. This would make living there much more pleasant and we will be
easier for the astronauts to get used to Earth again.
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A few ideas
We have a couple of ideas about how we want to colonise Mars. We will choose one of our ideas as
our main idea and present it as the result of our project.
Idea one
Something filter like, for astronauts to sustain their needs for oxygen. This would look like a tank that
an astronaut carries on his or her back (I’m talking about a tank as in a water tank, not the tank used
in the army). It would contain a few plants that would turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, thus
resulting in a never ending supply of oxygen, or in theory it would be a never ending supply.
Problems
The problem is that the plants in the tank, will probably not be able to sustain a person with oxygen,
you would need to make a huge tank which would not be carry able. You would also need to look
after the plants contained in the tank, giving them water and nutrition’s and there’s not a lot of that
on Mars.
Idea two
A dome on Mars, which would support life. It would be something like a bio dome except it is made
for humans, not plants (and it’s on Mars, not Earth). Plants would also need to grow in this dome to
sustain life.
Problems
This would be really costly way more than our budget. The dome needs to be on Mars, so we’ll have
to construct it there which would be incredibly hard or we would have to construct it here on Earth
and move it to Mars (also very very hard). It is still doubtful that the oxygen produced would be
enough to sustain a person and water is still hard to come by too and both the plants and the people
living there would need water.
Idea three
Mars is known to have caves, so we thought we could install an airlock in a cave and then make the
cave support life. By giving it pressure equal to Earth and putting some more oxygen in it. We would
still require plants or some kind of filter to have oxygen. This idea would be easier, because it
requires less buildings to make it work.
Problems
While it requires less buildings it still needs some. The airlock needs to be construct here on Earth or
on Mars. Both are still difficult as working in the low gravity environment of Mars is difficult, but
moving the entire thing to Mars isn’t much easier. This idea is still costly. Water and oxygen are still
hard to come by. A cave could also collapse burying the inhabitants and the equipment inside.
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Our idea
Through research we have found out that if you would want to colonise a planet, your best chance of
doing that is by taking a small space which you can terraform. One of our first idea’s was to make
some kind of bubble on Mars in which you could make your own ecosystem. Unfortunately we came
to the conclusion that it would be almost impossible. That’s why we started to do research about
what could be possible, then we came to our final idea: Terraforming a cave. We came to this
conclusion when we were searching on the internet and found out that if wanted to create your own
ecosystem, a cave would be a good place to do that because of the following reasons: if you take a
deep enough cave you would not have to think of an idea for protection of a big area, because the
only ‘open area’ would be the entrance of the cave, which you can lock down by using an airlock. The
circumstances in a cave are way more moderate then on the surface of Mars and because of the fact
that you could expand your ‘home’ if the expedition goes well.
Scientific proof
There are no plate tectonics on Mars and that’s why we are able to colonise a cave, some scientists
believe that there used to be plate tectonics (That’s why there are volcano’s) but no proof has been
found. They think that convection currents (underground magma streams) have started the process
but that they were not strong enough to keep it going.
The cave we wanted to use was found by students of the Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood
(California). It’s a cave with the following dimensions (this is where we base our designs on): 160 x
190 x 115m.
For the oxygen we base our idea on trees, our idea was to plant trees in the cave, which we want to
make possible by terraforming. A beech that is a hundred years old with foliage that can produce
1.5000m2 a year, which is enough for about ten people. We think that if you take a few small trees
with you that can produce oxygen for about five people (which seems to be enough for a first
expedition). We think this is possible because there has already been research on this subject en
some scientists think, that in the near future, it will be possible.
For the food supply we wanted to give the astronauts a lot of long lasting food and canned goods to
take with them. We would prepare this food with a little electric gas stove (for energy source see
energy). Also there is the possibility to take astronaut food with us, what also can be cooked with the
gas stove
For the energy problem we had in mind to install a couple of ‘home trainers’ and that the astronauts
can do there exercises on those trainers. (Which is necessary to keep them healthy, because of the
low gravity. The low gravity affects the muscles and makes those muscles weaker, because their legs
need to be less strong when comparing to Earth. That would mean on return to Earth, they would
need to learn to walk again. We could also install some sort of generator to the trainers to excite
energy.
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Visualizing our solution
To explain our idea, we need a model. The model is going to simulate the surface of Mars. There will
be a cave that we will close of using an airlock.
The model
We made a model this project, to visualize our idea and as aid to explain our idea to others. We used
a piece of cardboard with a hole in it. This is our makeshift Martian landscape. Beneath the
cardboard (the piece visible through the hole) is a little gate. This is our airlock, it’s made from wood
and plexiglass.
Our opinions on this project
After finishing this project, we evaluated what exactly happened. It was a little rough around the
edges, as our task was incredibly big. That’s partially our own fault, as we picked the subject of
colonizing another planet. Scientists having been trying to do this for decades and now we were
supposed to think of something that could work in the space of just six or seven weeks! Yes, this is a
challenge and as said before, challenges are fun, but maybe the challenge’s too big for us.
Nevertheless, we tried our best to come up with something that could work. In spite of all this, it still
was an enjoyable project, as it was really out of the ordinary. Solving a problem in space is not
something we have done before and it was relatively fun to think about space age technology.
We would like to thank our teachers/ coaches and the Odysseus Contest staff for this project.
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