Space Suit
This is required for humans to go outside of the boundaries of their shuttle and pod in the vacuum of outer space. Without air pressure and freezing temperatures, we cannot survive in Space without this highly essential suit.
- Water and Human waste Reclaiming: Inside the space suit all bodily fluids are saved to later be recycled into potable water for consumption. It is more difficult than reclaiming air as far more impurities have gone into the water. A space suit will collect all bodily fluids, sweat, pee, feces, e.t.c, and stores it inside the suit to be recycled at the shuttle or station.
- Pressurizer: A system is used to measure the pressure inside a space suit and releases particles to keep that at the proper pressure for a human body to survive inside.
- Oxygen Tank: Due to the lack of pressure in outer space, there is no oxygen particles floating around. Thanks to this each person who does a space walk must have an oxygen tank to supply them with fresh air. This oxygen is stored in a canister that is denser than regular air so as to store more inside it.
- Water Containers: Each suit contains all the needs of a person inside of them, exempting calories and nutrients from this, including water. The water is stored inside a tank and is connected to a straw that the astronaut can drink from when he needs. The water is from the recycled water back on the space station.
- Air conditioner/Heater: Space is an extremely dangerous environment, the lack of pressure is a part of this equation, however the lack of particles to protect you from solar radiation and to store heat around you creates a situation with very high and low temperatures. You might be a kindve one moment while shivering the next. As such the suit must protect you from these extremes. It does this in two ways, one: it has extreme grade insulation to preserve all heat or cold as to keep your body in that temperature sweet spot. And two: it has a liquid coolant system that brings cold water in tubes around your body to whisk away heat before being brought back to a cooling pack.
- Enclosed: The suit must be perfectly airtight as to not let any particles escape the suit. If the suit depressurized in the vacuum of space than the human body would implode due to pressure.
Space Shuttle
This is required to first get to Mars, and will also carry the Lander which will bring the Astronauts down to the surface. The trip is roughly 8 months, so this is where the Astronauts will be spending quite a bit of time before they get to Mars.
Pressurizer: The space ship needs to remain a constant pressure that is similar to sea level pressure back on earth. This allows the human body to operate without any difficulties. One other system that it has is a system of pressurized doors that, if a breach in the hull were to occur, would shut and keep all the particles inside safe areas.
Humidifier: A humidifier must be kept on the ship to maintain the humidity inside the ship to maintain the health of the astronauts. On long trips we would need to maintain the level of water vapor to keep the astronauts skin from splitting and drying out. Without good levels of humidity the throat, sinuses and skin are all damaged and become dry and scratchy, something that can't happen on a one year space trip.
Water and Human waste Recycling stations: Unlike the space suit recyclers this doesn't just store it to be recycled somewhere else. The ISS for example has a system that collects sweat, urine from both astronauts and research animals, condensation and sink and shower water. It then processes it using iodine to clean any impurities. The Russian side however uses silver to do this job.
Oxygenator: This is a system that produces oxygen for the astronauts consumption. In the fictional movie "The Martian" it uses left over fuel from the Mars Ascent Vehicle and splits it into oxygen particles and by product. In real life it would split water using a process known as electrolysis which runs electricity through the particles to split the atoms. It then takes the oxygen and pumps it into the stations atmosphere.
Heater/Air conditioner: The station needs to be kept at the proper temperature for the human body to work properly. A system would probably be made to absorb heat from the ships hull and radiation before being purified for consumption again.
Enclosed: The ship must be air tight as to keep the astronauts from dying. This ties into the pressure portion as the oxygen particles need to remain in the ship for the astronauts and to keep them from being sucked into the harsh environment of outer space. Ships are made from incredibly well engineered metal and only the best parts that will remain airtight and be heat resistant to exiting and entering atmospheres.
Mars Lander: This is technology similar to the moon lander that Neil Armstrong used to get to the surface of the moon. It would need to be a two way vehicle meaning that it must ascend and descend from the surface of mars. It must contain a system with which it can absorb the shock of landing in the surface. It must allow the astronauts to survive the impact.
Space Pod
This is where people will live, work, research, and more! After our Astronauts get to Mars, this will be the main base of operations. In our class we all have our own separate pods, but will all be "connected."
Humidifier: The pod must remain as human friendly as it can at all times, this includes keeping it a humid environment. The humidifier works by sucking air through a moist wick that releases water into the air. Depending on the temperature of the air, it can contain almost twenty two grams of water per cubic meter. Inside the pos it would most likely be kept at a moderate temperature for the maximum comfort inside of it.
Heater: On the surface of Mars the average temperature is -55 degrees Celsius. This is far too cold for the human body to comfortably live at and as such must be heated back to close to room temperature. The pod would be built out of similar materials as the ship in that its highest grade material and is put together properly. The first step to heating an object for a long period of time is insulation. The grade of insulation is measured in how well it retains its temperature. For a Mars pod it would be extremely high grade and as such would require minimal heating inside. To actually heat it, it would be a solar powered electrical coil to heat air. To cool it would require a system such as a fridge with coolant being pumped to the surface of the pod and being cooled of by Mars' frigid atmosphere.
Pressurizer: Same as the suit and ship, the pod would be required to maintain a solid pressure for its occupants. It would be a pressure similar to sea level and said pressurized works by pushing more particles into the pod.
Oxygenator: Works the same as the ship except we could put down a larger more efficient one. We would be able to send a canister with liquid oxygen ahead of the colonist ship so the oxygenation had a large backup for it.
Water recycling station: We would want to conserve as much as possible however we would want to use a reusable filter so we did not need to keep bringing supplies every year. Perhaps adopting the Russians silver filter would be a good way.
Human Waste Recycling station: Currently excrement produced in space is stored and later disposed of because we cannot use it for anything. As is shown on the movie "The Martian" it could possibly be used as fertilizer. However we then need to worry about the microbes inside it causing the others to be sick. One option that NASA is currently looking into is using it to produce food for astronauts. NASA has given Clemson university of South Carolina $600,000 over the course of three years to study the possibilities of feeding astronauts their own poop.
Enclosed: The pod will need to remain airtight for protection from temperatures and from depressurization. The airlock section explains how one would exit the pod to go study the surface or to board for exiting mars. The material used to create the pod would have to be a super strong material but would also have to be light enough to get to mars. Most likely it would be a type of plastic sheeting stretched over some type of fiberglass skeleton.
Airlock: The pod would require an entrance and exit so as the occupants could use it to gather supplies for testing and for exploring. It would need a depressurization chamber as to remove all particles so we don't lose any, keeping in mind that the more we conserve the less we have to bring, and then have a computer to open the final door.
Rover: The rover needs to have two main things: it needs to have a life support system for the driver and one other member, and it needs to have a testing facility. The life support system would be nearly identical to the suit except spread out of the vehicle. The testing facilities would contain all the same lab equipment as the rovers currently in the surface of Mars, as well as other equipment much bulkier to get far better and more readings.