Mission to Mars:

There are many reasons for us to have a colony on Mars

Climate change could cause Earth to become inhospitable, additionally, the Earth is susceptable to things such as large asteroids, which could wipe out the human race

So moving to Mars would be a way to ensure the human race survives

The mission would take 8 months to get to mars.

Only ⅓ of trips to mars have been successful.

The atmosphere is 96% CO2 meaning that it is impossible for humans to breath there.

Average temp -81 degree fahrenheit.

We would have high-tech space suits to keep us warm and have oxygen because the atmosphere is extremely thin and difficult to breath in.

Seasons and years are twice as long on Mars as they are on earth.

The soil on earth contains 60% water, and lots of craters on Mars have a sheet of water-ice in them. There is a large amount of water and glaciers under the surface of Mars.

A machine is being developed at the University of Washington that acts like a reverse fuel cell which takes in the atmosphere and pumps out oxygen so that humans would be able to breath.

We will used hydroponics to grow food but we do need running water on the surface to produce enough food. This means that at least initially most of our food will be dried and exported from the earth.

We would have to live underground because there is too much solar radiation from cosmic rays at night. However, the materials on mars are very good for making bricks. This means we can combine them with polymer and make very thick walls.

We might be able to live in underground caves or lava tubes.

On both poles, there is a very thick layer of carbon dioxide and dry ice. If we heat it up, we can create a thicker atmosphere which makes it more feasible to breath and function more like earth.