io l

it cia
n
ed pe
s

Learn
About
n Rockets
n hyperloops
n spacesuits
n Terraforming
n the moon
n base camps
n the future!

world of mars then

tomorrow and now
From solar cities and space drones How has the Red Planet changed
to interstellar travel, meet the future over the past 4 billion years
tech thats set to change everything and has it ever supported life?

space terraforming
tourism
CATCH A SPACE PLANE INTO
mars

ORBIT FROM YOUR LOCAL

spaceport hyperloop
travel

3d-printed
habitats

Martian
colonies

Discover how humanity

is preparing for Life on Mars
(with a little help from HP)
hp.com/go/mars
FIND OUT MORE At hp.com/go/mars. The first 10,000 registrants will access the Fusion Mars 2030 VR game
Citizens of Earth!
O
ur future depends on you dreamers,
futurists and problem-solvers to
preserve our way of life. You are
invited to collaborate in a universe-changing
design, architecture, engineering and virtual
reality project.
Powered by HP Z Workstations and NVIDIA
Quadro graphics, along with your favourite
Autodesk 2D and 3D design software, we will
imagine, design, and experience a
sophisticated civilization on Mars. A new
home for 1 million human Martians.
Sometime in the not-too-distant future,
humans will thrive on Mars. HP Mars Home
Planet is a global mission to unite engineers,
architects, designers, artists and students to
design an urban area for 1 million people on
Mars and bring it to life in VR.
HP and NVIDIA are bringing the greatest
minds in the world together for a first-of-its-
kind collaborative effort to explore humanitys
future on Mars, in VR.
With the creative and technical guidance of
Technicolor, co-creators will use Unreal
Engine to bring the 3D models to life and
create a virtual reality simulation of what life
on Mars could be like.
Join HP Mars Home Planet for a chance to
win great prizes, collaborate with some of the
worlds leading visionaries, and earn a chance
to have your design included in the ultimate
Mars VR Experience.
hp.com/go/mars | 03
 Contents
Worlds of discovery in your How It Works Special Edition

HP Mars
Home Planet
06 Everything you need to know
about the HP Mars Home Planet
project. This is your chance to help create a
Race to Mars
13
new home for 1 million humans on the Red Its the 21st century space race and the end game will
Planet and contribute to the worlds first see humans walking on Mars. Find out about the rival
and greatest crowdsourced VR experience. projects aiming to get there first and the spacecraft that will
transport them. Discover what we already know about the Red
Planet and how the Moon can act as a stepping stone both for
the journey and our plans when we get there.

f o r f u t u re f u si o n f or hp

Senior Editor Lee Hart
Art Director Stuart Hobbs
Creative Director Mark Donald
Account Manager Charlie Scott
Director of Content Marking
Clare Jonik
Head of Fusion Procurement
and Production Matt Eglinton
Production & Procurement
Manager Abi Dougherty
Contributors All the team at
How It Works magazine
Worldwide Product Content Curation Dylan Young,
Development and AEC Cameron Young
Segment Manager Sean Young
Worldwide Media and
Entertainment Segment
Manager Rick Champagne

04 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

 Life on Mars
33 How has the Red Planet changed over the past 4 billion
years and what will happen once humankind touches
down for a new life on Mars? From the robots that have given us
all of our insight into this unforgiving world to the search for World of Tomorrow
signs of life and the plans to terraform the planet, heres your
complete guide to our new home away from home.
47 It may be next stop: Mars but life on Earth
is going to be pretty good too if this future
tech is anything to go by. Ec0-cities, flying cars, the
Hyperloop, space tourism and more are all heading
our way, so buckle up and get ready to explore the
world of tomorrow.

Copyright 2017 HP Development Company, L.P. The information herein is subject to

change without notice. Cover image includes: Biosphere 2 at The University of Arizona.
How It Works Special Editon: HP Mars Home Planet is published on behalf of HP by
Future Fusion, a division of Future Publishing Ltd. Registered office: Quay House,
The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA, England. Companies/individuals included in this
publication does not imply endorsement by HP or the Publisher. No part of this
publication may be reproduced in any form without the consent of HP.

hp.com/go/mars | 05
 Creating a new home for 1 million
humans on the Red Planet

06 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

E
very civilization needs the resources and
skills of all its inhabitants. From artists to
architects to engineers and students, bring
your unique vision to our future home planet.
Maybe you spend your free time drafting plans for
an ideal smart city. Perhaps you dream of creating
an otherworldly experience in VR. The key
requirement? Imagination and the ability to give
concrete form to your ideas.
In the Mars Valley Urbanization Challenge,
participants will have access to Autodesk design
software to build 3D models of buildings, cities,
vehicles and infrastructure.
In the Mars VR Experience, participants will use
Unreal Engine to bring the 3D models to life, with
the creative and technical guidance of Technicolor,
and create a virtual reality simulation of what life
on Mars could be like.
Participants can register at hp.com/go/mars.
The first 10,000 registrants will have access to a
download code for the Fusion Mars 2030 VR game.
hp.com/go/mars | 07
 Space

MARS VR EXPERIENCE
THE MISSION
Beginning on July 31, 2017 with the help of earthlings
everywhere and technical leadership from Technicolor,
we will collectively endeavour to create the worlds first
crowdsourced Mars VR Experience depicting the lives of
1 million humans living on Mars.
showcased at the Technicolor Experience Center (TEC).
The Technicolor Mars VR Experience is a community-based
crowdsourcing effort, not a competition, but prizes will be
awarded to outstanding contributors who go above and
beyond the call of duty, as determined by our judges.

Our starting point is 40 square kilometers of high quality All who participate in the Mars VR Experience will forever
Mars terrain from the Fusion Mars 2030 VR project. The have the glory of being a key contributor to the worlds first
terrain modelled by the Fusion team is based on real and greatest crowdsourced VR experience.
NASA-supplied terrain data and imagery from the Mars
Valley region of Mars.
THE PHASES
Terraforming and game mechanics:
Fusion will contribute their Mars 2030 terrain model,
Aug 1, 2017 - Feb 1, 2018
complete with Mars environment (gravity, soil, sol, and
Development of built-environment:
even dust storms), in the form of Unreal Engine files.
Feb 1 - May 1, 2018
Final production: May 1 - Aug 1, 2018
Technicolor will offer creative and technological support
to help complete projects. HP Mars Home Planet will be

Contacts
Have a question, comment, concern or great idea? Send it to mars@hp.com

For specific questions regarding the HP Mars Home Planet Education League, please send inquiries to marsleague@hp.com

08 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

HP Mars home planet Education league
Todays students are critical to the future urbanization
of Mars. Their ideas and designs are based on the latest
curricula for engineering, architecture and design
technologies they are tomorrows professionals for
Earth and beyond. The cool designs they create in
HP Mars Home Planet could be used by future
generations in Mars Valley!
Across the globe, universities participate in the HP Mars
Home Planet Education League to create unique solutions
in a global community of future professionals. Show your
competitive edge on the HP Mars Home Planet leaderboard
and see how your school stacks up against the competition.
HP Mars Home Planet is presented by
The HP Mars Home Planet Education League offers a great
opportunity for students to work alongside professionals
and other universities, with access to resources such as
master classes, video links and Mars factoids.
These educational institutions are recognized as leaders
in math, science and technology. If youre interested in
joining the HP Mars Home Planet Education League,
contact marsleague@hp.com.
You can also join the HP Mars Home Planet Education League
as a student ambassador. Sign up at hp.com/go/mars and
youll receive exclusive access to tools and resources.
hp.com/go/mars | 09
 MARS VALLEY URBANIZATION CHALLENGE
THE MISSION
Sometime, in the not too distant future, 1 million humans
will live in Mars Valley (Mawrth Vallis), on the planet Mars.
Your mission is to imagine, design, and visualize the cities,
homes, buildings, shelters, school buses, bicycles, cars,
shopping malls, electrical, water, sewage infrastructure,
amusement parks and ski resorts that will exist to support
the 1 million humans living there.
THE CONCEPT PHASE
Create a visual image depicting your invention for a smart
city/region on Mars supporting life for 1 million humans.
Submissions can be anything from scanned napkin sketches
with crayons to 3D renderings. Submit a bitmap image
accompanied by a text description (math encouraged!).
Design whatever inspires you in the built environment,
from cutlery to cars to skyscrapers to entire city plans.

This is your opportunity to shape the future of life on Mars,

THE CRITERIA
so tap into your imagination, skills and experience to conceive
Submissions are bound by the physical constraints
and illustrate a product, vehicle, building or ecosystem that
of Mars, including Mars gravity, soil, terrain, air, cosmic
forms the living and working ecosystem for 1 million humans.
radiation, need of water supply, etc.
Submissions must propose a solution to support a
productive and happy life for 1 million Martians.
TIMING
Submission: July 31 - Sep 15, 2017
Validation: Sep 16 - Oct 6, 2017
Judging: Oct 7 - Nov 3, 2017

08 || How
10 HowItItWorks:
Works:HP
HPMars
MarsHome
HomePlanet
Planet
THE MODELLING PHASE
Create a 3D model depicting your invention for a smart city/
region on Mars that supports life for 1 million humans. The
submission requirement is a 3D model from any CAD or 3D
modelling software, along with a bitmap image depicting
your model (rendering or screenshot).
Again, you can design whatever inspires you in the built
environment to help form the living and working ecosystem
for 1 million humans.
TIMING
Submission: Nov 14, 2017 - Jan 8, 2018
Validation: Jan 9 - Feb 2, 2018
Judging: Feb 3 - March 2, 2018
THE RENDERING PHASE
Create a still, animated, real-time, or VR rendering depicting
your invention for a smart city/region on Mars that supports
life for 1 million humans. The submission requirement is a
bitmap image, video, or real-time executable, along with the
source 2D/3D files.
TIMING
Submission: March 26 - April 25 2018
Validation: April 26 - May 18 2018
Judging: May 19 - June 8 2018
Find out more
Get full details on the HP Mars Home
Planet project including judging
criteria, awards categories, non-
challenge contributions and more at
hp.com/go/mars
hp.com/go/mars | |09
hp.com/go/mars 11
 Record-
breaking
rockets

n tu ry
e 21
How the st ce
w il l
ra ce
spac s to the
get u anet
Red Pl
Martian Life in
colonies Mars orbit

p14-21: Race to Mars

The competitors, the rockets, the base camp and more! Heres everything
you need to know about the plans to get humans to Mars.
p22-23: Spacecraft testing
How the European Space Agency checks spacecraft before launch.
p24-25: anatomy of a spacesuit
The kit that allows astronauts to survive the extremes of space.
p26-31: living on the moon
The scientific benefits of colonising the Moon and how it could be a
stepping stone for a voyage to Mars. hp.com/go/mars | 13
 race to mars

H
umanity has long dreamt of
sending people to Mars, but its
often felt like something
perennially beyond our reach.
However, it might very well
become a reality in the near
future thanks to the work of a
select few visionaries.
When the Apollo missions to
the Moon ended in 1972, many felt
that Mars was the next step. But instead the decision was
made to develop the Space Shuttle and, later, the
International Space Station (ISS), and remain in the Earths
orbit. Manned missions to Mars were shelved.
But in the last decade or so, Mars has been put back on the
agenda. Helped by recent discoveries that suggest it was once
habitable, theres a renewed clamour to get people there and,
among other reasons, find out if we are alone in our Solar
System, let alone the universe.
Up to now, progress has been slow. NASA has tried and
failed to start a Mars programme before called Constellation,
but this was scrapped in 2009 in favour of a new plan. Now,
NASAs goal is to get humans there by the 2030s. And the last
few years has seen a number of private companies springing
up with the same ambitions too. At the forefront is SpaceX
CEO Elon Musk, who in September 2016 revealed a bold plan
to send 1 million people to Mars over the next 100 years.
The dream of going to Mars is very much alive. As youll see
through this feature, it might not be long before we start
wondering whats next

14 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? Since NASAs Apollo 17 mission went to the Moon in 1972, no humans have travelled beyond low-Earth orbit

The competitors Mission to Mars

The contenders hoping to The key steps in the journey
win the race to Mars to the Red Planet

Its estimated that it will September 2016

cost NASA over $100 billion
to send people to Mars SpaceX
Musks masterplan
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reveals his plan
to send 1 million people to Mars within
100 years using the ITS rocket.

Autumn 2018
NASA
NASA Space Launch System
NASA will launch its huge new
The worlds most successful space agency has long had rocket, the Space Launch System,
its eye on manned missions to Mars, going back to the December 2014 for the first time. This will be an
days of the Apollo missions. But progress has been slow, NASA unmanned mission.
with the plan now to send humans there in the 2030s.
Much will rely on continued support for the development Unmanned Orion
of a new spacecraft and rocket being built by NASA. On 5 December 2014, NASA launched its
Orion vehicle for the first time, on a Delta
IV Heavy rocket. The unmanned flight 2021
lasted around four hours.
SpaceX was founded in NASA
2002 to revolutionise Orion crew
space travel
2024 This is the earliest expected date for

The SpaceX
First SpaceX
NASA to launch a crew on its Orion
vehicle for the first time an integral

dream mission
In 2024, SpaceX is
part of a future Mars mission.

of going hoping to launch its first

manned mission to 2026
to Mars Mars on the ITS, after a
number of unmanned NASA
is very test flights before. ARM
NASA plans to launch its Asteroid Redirect
much Mission (ARM), where a crew on the Orion
vehicle will rendezvous with an asteroid
SpaceX alive 2026
SpaceX
that has moved into lunar orbit.

NASA/JPL-CALTECH; SpaceX; Thinkstock

The company run by Elon Musk has a rather ambitious
goal of beginning manned flights to Mars by 2024 or
Next SpaceX 2030+
2026. The company wants to build a mammoth rocket
mission
If its first launch is NASA
that can take 100 people to Mars on each trip, with the 2031
successful, SpaceX plans Phobos
ultimate aim of having 1 million people on Mars just a Mars One to launch a human crew At some point in the 2030s, NASA
century after the first launch.
One-way to Mars in every available is aiming to put humans in orbit
This is the proposed launch window every around Mars, possibly landing on
launch date for Mars Ones 26 months. its moon Phobos, but not
Over 4,000 people applied for Mars Ones first crewed mission to necessarily on the Red Planet itself.
proposed one-way trips to the Red Planet Mars, but it looks unlikely
theyll achieve this goal at
the moment.

SpaceX hopes to beat

NASA to Mars

2039
Mars One NASA
This Dutch-led company gained notoriety when it Humans on Mars
proposed sending people on one-way trips to Mars in the By the end of the 2030s, NASA
2030s funded by a reality TV show. The early hype has hopes to finally put people on the
died though, and the company looks unlikely to succeed, surface of Mars. Its a lot later
but its another example of the growing plans to put than SpaceXs plan, but it might
people on the Red Planet. be a more realistic time scale.

hp.com/go/mars | 15
 race to mars

Why Mars?
Our galactic neighbour has always fascinated us
Its a question almost as old as the ambition of
getting there in the first place: whats the point
in going to Mars? Well, there are a few reasons.
First and foremost, it satisfies our human
desire to explore. Around the world, humans
have always pushed beyond their boundaries.
Now, the next logical step is space, and with the
Moon already being graced by us, Mars is the
obvious (and easiest) next step.
Mars also holds tremendous scientific value.
Excitingly, it is now believed that the Red
Planet may once have had conditions that could
support life and it may still do today. We have
sent many rovers and orbiters to Mars, but none
can match the skills and versatility of a human.
Its often said that humans on the ground could
replicate everything the rovers have done in a
decade in a matter of days. And if Mars does
host life, isnt finding out were not alone one of
the greatest reasons of all to go?
The technologies required to send people to
Mars will be immense. It will almost certainly
be a global undertaking, with many potential
spinoffs into the fields of medicine, psychology,
engineering and many more. Perhaps most
importantly of all, though, going to Mars could
ensure our survival.
One day, Earth will face a doomsday scenario
such as an asteroid impact, or failing that, the
eventual death of our Sun. Perhaps the only
way to secure the future of the human race will
be to permanently colonise another world.
Mars could become that new home.

The Red Planet Polar ice

Mars has vast amounts of frozen
water and carbon dioxide on its
What makes the fourth surface, particularly at its poles. The
planet of our Solar northern cap spans 1,100km, while
System so intriguing? the southern cap spans 400km.

Subsurface water Ocean

Between the equator and
Recent research
its poles, Mars is thought
suggests that the
to have a large amount of
Northern Hemisphere of
ice under its surface,
Mars may once have held
perhaps holding more
more water than the
water in total than Lake
Arctic Ocean. Evidence of
Superior in North America.
ancient shorelines still
exists on Mars.

Habitable
Today, the surface of
Mars is mostly dry. But
Surface water
In September 2015, NASA
throughout its history it
revealed that liquid water
may have gone through
may have been found to
multiple periods of
have flown on the surface
wetness, with a thicker
of Mars, in the form of tiny
atmosphere more
trickles called Recurring
conducive to life.
Slope Lineae (RSL), but this
has not been confirmed.

Atmosphere
The atmosphere of Mars has
today mostly been blown away by
the Sun. But it may have been
much thicker about 4 billion years
ago, before Mars lost its magnetic
field for unknown reasons.

One-way missions Mars One stirred up a

In 2012, Mars One caused controversy when they
announced plans for one-way trips to Mars. A debate
about the ethics of such journeys soon began.
Mars Ones reasoning is as follows. Rather than
spending a lot of money developing technology to take
people there and back, they could save money by
keeping people on the Red Planet. They would be
largely self-sufficient, but regular resupply missions
would ensure they dont meet a premature end.
debate about the idea of
Of course, there are a few problems with this, not one-way missions to Mars
least potentially sending people to their deaths. The
cost of these resupply missions, and maintaining the
colony, is likely to far outweigh the savings in not
coming home.
SpaceX, for its part, is now considering something
similar. But rather than sending a handful of people like
Mars One, it wants to have a fully functioning colony of
1 million people on Mars surface by 2124.

16 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet www.howitworksDAILY.com

 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? Three countries have launched manned missions to space on their own: the United States, Russia and China

Competition between the US and the Soviet Union

helped get humans to the Moon

The next space race

How the effort to go to Mars compares
with putting humans on the Moon
President John F Kennedys speech at Rice
University in 1962 lives long in the memory.
We choose to go to the Moon in this decade
and do the other things, not because they are
easy, but because they are hard, he famously
said. By 1969, that goal had been achieved.
We havent quite yet had the same
momentum with our Mars efforts, but we are
making progress. The Apollo programme was
supported by the Mercury and Gemini
missions, which were tentative steps designed
to see how humans coped with prolonged
spaceflight. In the modern era, the best
analogue is the International Space Station.
For more than a decade and a half, the ISS has
been used to test out long-term spaceflight of
a similar length needed for a trip to Mars.
Its also been a great testing ground for a For the Mars missions, NASA is planning
self-sustaining crew in space. something similar. Its hoping to use its
Prior to humans landing on the Moon, we Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) to practice
needed to test various technologies. This using its Orion vehicle in deep space, before a
included sending humans on a test orbit potential mission to Mars orbit in the early
around the Moon, and practising various 2030s perhaps with a crew landing on the
rendezvous techniques in Earths orbit. Martian moon Phobos.

Moon vs Moon distance

Mars
How getting to Mars differs
from going to the Moon
Moon launch
Missions to the Moon can take place
at any time, as the distance between
it and Earth doesnt change much.
earth
The Moon is an average
Cooperation is
of 385,000km from
Earth, a stones throw
going to be key
compared to Mars.
Moon
Team effort
Its unlikely one company or nation will send
humans to Mars alone. Cooperation is going to
Moon journey be key, and were already seeing the first signs.
The journey to the NASA has been busy enlisting private
Moon took about three companies to help with the construction of its
days in each direction Mars architecture. American aerospace giant
for the Apollo missions. Lockheed Martin is building the command
module for the Orion spacecraft, while Boeing is
helping NASA build the huge Space Launch
System rocket.
Other nations are likely to play a part too.
Looking to the ISS, there are 15 countries
working together, comprising the US, Russia,
Canada, Japan, and the eleven member states of
Mars launch the European Space Agency. Its likely that a
Missions to Mars would feasibly similar cooperative effort might be undertaken
only be able to launch every 26 for missions to Mars, perhaps including Japan,
months, when the two planets China and SpaceX too.
are at their closest point. With a cost in the tens of billions of dollars it
will be difficult for one nation, or private
company, to go it alone although Elon Musks
SpaceX is planning to do just that.

Mars journey
The journey to Mars will take at
least six months, although Elon
Musk thinks SpaceX can get this
down to 30 days eventually.

mars
Mars distance
Depending on both planets
NASA; Shutterstock

positions in their respective

orbits, Mars can be anywhere
between 400mn km and The ISS is a shining example of
55mn km away from Earth. international cooperation

hp.com/go/mars | 17
 Space
race to mars

Blast off!
The rockets that will take humans to Mars
To get to Mars youre going to need a big rocket.
So its a good thing that NASA and SpaceX are
working on just that.
On the NASA side of things, weve got the
Space Launch System (SLS) coming in at a cost
of $18 billion. The plan at the time of writing is
to develop two versions of the rocket, the larger
of which (called Block 2) will be the most
powerful rocket ever built more powerful
even than the Saturn V rocket that took
humans to the Moon.
A first launch of the smaller version, called
Block 1a, is expected to take place towards the
end of 2018. This will send an unmanned Orion
capsule on a flight around the Moon. A few
years later, a crew will be sent on a mission to
lunar orbit (Orion can seat a maximum of six).
Beyond this though, there are no firm plans.
The idea is that in the 2030s one or multiple
SLS rockets will be used for a return trip to Mars.
Some have suggested the powerful rocket could
also be used for quicker unmanned missions to
other destinations in the Solar System.
As for SpaceX, they have two large rockets in
development. The first is the Falcon Heavy,
which will mostly be used by paying customers
to take satellites and unmanned spacecraft
into the Earths orbit and beyond. Their much
bigger rocket, revealed in September 2016, is
the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS),
also known as the Mars Vehicle.
The ITS is absolutely mammoth, dwarfing
even the larger version of the SLS rocket. In
early concepts, the rocket will launch with a
large vehicle on top that could take 100 to 200
people to Mars on each trip. The rocket itself
will land back on Earth, ready to be used
again, while the vehicle would travel on
towards Mars on its own.

SLS vs ITS
Comparing these two
Height
NASAs SLS Block 2 will have
massive launch vehicles a height of just over 111m,
making it less than a metre
taller than the Saturn V.

NASAs SLS

Weight
The entire SLS rocket Spacexs its
will weigh 3mn kg at
the time of lift off.

Height
Thrust The ITS will be the
SLS will have a biggest rocket ever,
lift-off thrust of built at 122m tall.
4.2mn kg.

Weight
To get to Mars youre going
The weight of the ITS has not been
Payload confirmed, but we do know the

to need a big rocket. So its a The ITS will be booster is designed to land back
able to take up on the ground, unlike the SLS.

good thing NASA and SpaceX to 550,000kg

into orbit.

are working on just that

18 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet
 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? Inspiration Mars, a hopeful private company, once planned to send a couple on an orbit around Mars in 2018

How the ITS works

The launch system behind SpaceXs plan to send 1 million people to Mars

4 5

1 2
7

1 Launch 3 Orbit could eventually be as 6 Propellant

Between 100 and 200 The crew vehicle will short as 30 days. A propellant plant will
people will be dock with a fuel turn Martian water
Humans will be able to collect data from Mars launched on the ITS. tanker in orbit. 5 Mars landing and CO2 into fuel.
much faster than rovers and probes have The entire vehicle will
2 Reusable 4 Journey land passengers on 7 Return
After launching, the to Mars Mars. It will generate The vehicle will return
booster will return to SpaceX propose that 1,700C as it enters to Earth, ready for
the ground. the journey to Mars the atmosphere. another trip.
Payload
SLS Block 2 will be
able to take
130,000kg into orbit. Inside Orion Docking
A docking adapter will allow Orion
Thrust How NASAs Mars crew to dock to other vehicles, such as
With a lift-off thrust of capsule will work the SLS or a deep space habitat.
13mn kg, the ITS will
be far more powerful
than any other rocket
built before.
Crew
Up to six people will be
able to travel inside the
Orion spacecraft.

Size comparison
How SpaceXs rocket stacks up to NASAs
122m
111.3m
111m
97m
SpaceX Interplanetary

NASA; SpaceX; Illustrations by Alex Pang

Transport System

SLS Block 2

Purpose
Saturn V

Re-entry Supplies
Big Ben

The vehicle is
A heat-shield will protect The capsule will have designed for launch,
the spacecraft during basic life-support and long travel durations
Earth re-entry. cargo capabilities. and re-entry.

hp.com/go/mars | 19
 race to mars

The Mars
Base Camp
Lockheed Martins plan to
put humans into Mars orbit
Sending people to Mars will probably not be a
single-mission endeavour. We will likely need
other missions to prepare, such as test missions
to Mars orbit, or even supply missions to the
surface of the planet. An agency like NASA Explore
One of two Orion vehicles could
wouldnt be too keen on sending people to Mars be used to explore the Martian
and having them fend for themselves it would moons Phobos and Deimos.
be wise to have some sort of infrastructure in
place beforehand.
With this in mind, Lockheed Martin unveiled
its plan for a Mars Base Camp in 2016. The idea
basically revolves around building an ISS-lite
in Mars orbit. This orbiting laboratory could be
visited by Orion spacecraft, and used by
astronauts to study Mars and control rovers on
its surface. The latter is known as telerobotics,
and has been proposed as a way to speed up
Mars exploration. There is a lag of tens of
minutes when controlling a rover on Mars from
Earth, but that would be reduced to just
seconds from Mars orbit.
Lockheed Martins proposal
would involve beginning
construction of the Base
Camp first in cis-lunar space
(near the Moon). The company Fuel tanks
Liquid oxygen and
say that NASA could use this as a place to dock hydrogen fuel will be
its Orion spacecraft and, in 2023, astronauts stored in these tanks.
could practice controlling rovers on the surface
of the Moon. Then, in 2027, the entire station
would be relocated to Mars. By 2028, it would be
ready for humans to visit, and it could be used
Mars
Base Camp
as a staging outpost for trips to the surface in
the 2030s.
Whether NASA will adopt the plan remains to Building a space station
be seen. But its an enticing one as it lays out a in orbit around Mars
steady roadmap for Mars exploration. Unlike
SpaceXs plan, it also seems quite realistic. The
technologies are not beyond our reach, and it Habitat
The station would have
builds on things that have been done before. space for astronauts to
live and work in.

Sending people to
Mars will probably not Laboratory
Here astronauts could
be a single mission conduct experiments and
control rovers on Mars.

It will cost around $16 billion to

prepare Orion for its first manned
mission, scheduled for the 2020s
20 | How It Works
 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? Some theories suggest that by melting the ice at the poles of Mars, we could turn it into an Earth-like world
Other potential exploration strategies involve setting
up Martian moon bases on Phobos or Deimos
Radiators
Like the ISS, the station
would have radiators to
expel heat into space.
Orion
The Mars Base Camp would
have two docking ports for
two Orion vehicles.
Solar arrays
The spacecrafts power
would come from large
solar arrays.
Propulsion
A cryogenic propulsion
stage would move the
spacecraft from lunar
orbit to Mars.
Hibernation
One of the problems with getting to Mars is working out what to do with the
astronauts on the way. With a journey time of up to several months, the
astronauts will need to keep fit, ready and alert. One possible way to do this
is to have a rotating section to simulate Earths gravity. But another way is to
put the crew into hibernation, an idea that NASA has funded research for.
A small crew could be unconscious for two weeks at a time on a rotational
basis, with one person always staying awake for a brief time. Every two or
three days, that astronaut would go into hibernation and another would wake
up. While asleep, the astronauts would be kept at temperatures as low as 32
degrees Celsius down from our more regular 37 degrees Celsius to slow
their metabolisms.
US company SpaceWorks Enterprises Inc are investigating
the feasibility of induced hibernation for space travel
A home on Mars?
One major criticism of the Apollo missions was that there were no plans to
keep people on the Moon permanently. The longest mission on the surface,
Apollo 17, was about 12 days and we have not been back to the Moon since.
Many are keen for Mars exploration to not simply be a series of boots on
the ground missions, but rather a plan to keep a base or colony on the
surface. Its unclear which route NASA is favouring at the moment, so time
will likely tell what they are aiming for.
As for SpaceX, we know that they want to have a massive colony on the
surface in the next 100 years or so. They envisage sending 100 people or
more at a time and reusing their rocket for multiple trips, eventually leading
to a colony of 1 million people on Mars. Elon Musk has also touted the
idea of terraforming Mars and making it liveable for humans, but
thats a story for another day.
Lockheed Martin; SpaceX
SpaceX wants to have a colony of 1 million people on Mars in around 100 years
hp.com/go/mars | 21
 race to mars

Testing the
limits of
spacecraft
Take a look inside the European Space
Agencys high-tech testing facility

T
he European Space Agency (ESA) brings more Large Space Simulator
than 20 countries together in pursuit of space This room mimics the vacuum of
space, bombards craft with
travel, and its largest facility can be found at radiation, and freezes them to
Noordwijk on the west coast of the Netherlands. The temperatures far below zero.
European Space Research and Technology Centre
(ESTEC) is the high-tech hub of the operation,
responsible for making sure that all spacecraft and Inside the
their payloads are fit to fly.
Travelling to space is a challenge. Spacecraft are
Test Centre
A network of rooms allows
exposed to extreme speeds, extreme temperatures, spacecraft to be rigorously
and extreme vibration. They will enter a vacuum, tested before they go into space
undergo weightlessness, and be pummelled with
radiation, so before the spacecraft set off into these
Electromagnetic
compatibility facilities
unforgiving conditions, the ESA team needs to make These rooms are shielded from
sure that they are ready. external radiation, allowing the
electromagnetic emissions of the
More than 2,500 people work at ESTEC, designing
spacecraft itself to be tested.
the blueprints for new missions, developing new
technology, and checking every spacecraft before
launch. Each new item needs to be tested, and the
facility is equipped to mimic the stresses of outer
space as closely as possible.
The self-contained facility was specially designed
to allow spacecraft to move from one area to the
next, undergoing a sequence of tests to ensure that
they are ready to fly. All the rooms are kept behind
airlocks, ensuring that the craft remain clean and
protected throughout their stay.
Inside the centres various rooms, the equipment
is shaken, spun, blasted with sound, frozen,
bombarded with radiation and exposed to a vacuum.
Each room is specifically designed to test a different
The ESA
aspect of the launch and space-travel process. For Intermediate
instance, the Large European Acoustic Facility acts eXperimental
like a giant music speaker, blasting satellites with Vehicle being
shaken and
the kind of volumes they will need to endure at stirred
lift-off. Next, the craft may be exposed to the extreme
temperatures of space for a period of several weeks.
While the spacecraft and components undergo
rigorous tests, the Data Handling Systems collect Hydraulic shaker
This shaker, known as HYDRA,
and analyse information from hundreds of sensors. can simulate the vibrations of a
Once they have passed every challenge that the Test major earthquake.
Centre throws at them, the spacecraft are ready to
make the dangerous trip into space.

22 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? The ESTEC buildings foundations were dug 25m down to make the building stable enough for rigorous tests
Vibrators
Shakers are used to put
spacecraft through the
intense vibrations that they
will experience during launch.
Data-
Foam wedges absorb
sound and radio Pushed to the
handling
rooms
signals, creating
anechoic rooms
limit
Adjacent rooms The Test Centre is equipped with
allow data to be an impressive arsenal of kit
analysed designed to test spacecraft and
straight away, their payloads to breaking point.
streamlining the Physical properties machines
testing process. weigh and measure the equipment,
determining the centre of gravity
and the moment of inertia. This
Compact Payload can help to ensure that everything
Test Range is balanced if the spacecraft needs
This area allows satellites and to spin in flight.
other payloads to be tested in Electrically powered shakers
conditions that mimic those put the equipment through the
experienced in orbit. intense vibrations of launch, while
a hydraulic shaker is on hand for
larger, heavier equipment. The
Large European Acoustic Facility
(LEAF) bombards satellites with
intense sound, up to 156 decibels,
to ensure that they will still be able
to function after launch. And the
most impressive room in the
facility, the Large Space Simulator,
plunges test equipment into a
space-quality vacuum, complete
with freezing temperatures and
radiation that mimics the
dangerous emissions of the Sun
Throughout testing, sensitive
equipment gathers data about
how the spacecraft are
performing, ensuring that they
will be ready for the real thing.
Airlock Faraday cage
The entire facility is Metal on the walls, floors and
kept sealed and clean ceilings continuously
to prevent damage to conducts electricity to screen
the spacecraft. out external radiation.
Large European Acoustic Facility
This spring-mounted, soundproofed room hits test vehicles with an
intense wall of noise to simulate launch.
The Herschel Space
Observatory inside
the LEAF acoustic
testing chamber
Sound proofing
The walls of the sound chamber
are 0.5 metres thick, and made
from steel-reinforced concrete
ESA
to keep the sound contained.
hp.com/go/mars | 23
 race to mars

ESA astronaut Alexander

Gerst tests his spacesuit at
NASAs Johnson Space
Center in Houston, Texas

Anatomy of a spacesuit
How this incredible device allows astronauts to survive the extremes

S
pacesuits are an astronauts life support and water vapour are also sent back to the PLSS; personal spacecraft. If an astronaut on a
system, providing them with oxygen, the carbon dioxide is then removed by reacting spacewalk (also known as extravehicular
keeping them warm and protecting with lithium hydroxide, producing lithium activity, or an EVA) finds themselves drifting off
them from the vacuum of space. They provide carbonate and water. The water vapour into space, then the modern NASA spacesuits
communications with fellow astronauts and condenses and is also removed and stored in the have a device called the Simplified Aid for EVA
mission control, monitor their health and are pack, while oxygen is recycled back around the Rescue, or SAFER for short, which is composed
sealed against the harsh environment outside. suit for the astronaut to breathe. Sometimes, of little manoeuvring jets that can fly them back
One of the most important parts of any space spacesuits are referred to as an astronauts own to the space station.
suit is the backpack: the Primary Life Support
System, or PLSS. Its more than just an oxygen
pack it keeps the suit pressurised to prevent Spacesuits in numbers
hypoxia (caused by the decrease in oxygen
within the blood stream), removes harmful
carbon dioxide and cools the suit by pumping 19,000m
145kg Spacesuits are
water around it. It also houses medical monitors -160 to +120 With the life required beyond an
and the communication equipment. degrees 1961 support system altitude of around
The PLSS life support system is a closed loop,
Celsius The very first $12 million attached, a 19,000 metres to
Spacesuits protect spacesuit the The most recent spacesuit weighs supply the oxygen
so everything is recycled. Inside the suit the astronauts from SK-1 was worn spacesuits each in at around 145 needed to breathe
astronaut wears a skin-tight Liquid Cooling and the extreme by cosmonaut and cost in the region kilograms. The suit and maintain a
ESA; Getty

temperatures first man in space, of $12 million to alone weighs about constant pressure
Ventilation Garment, which removes body heat
outside the ISS. Yuri Gagarin. manufacture. 55 kilograms. around the body.
through perspiration. Oxygen, carbon dioxide

24 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

DID YOU KNOW? Astronauts have to breathe pure oxygen for a few hours before stepping out the airlock for a spacewalk

Design details
An essential piece of clothing for space travel,
each part of a spacesuit has an important job

Helmet with visor

The helmet features a
visor coated with a thin
layer of gold to filter out
harmful solar rays.

Build a spacesuit
Spacesuits do not come in
a single piece, but are built
from several pieces that
are fastened together: the
upper torso, the arms and
the lower torso assemble.

Toilet break
While in the middle of
a spacewalk you cant
just pop to the loo, so a
spacesuit contains a
maximum absorption
garment a fancy
name for a nappy!

Gloves
Space is so cold that the
fingertips in an astronauts
gloves contain miniature
heaters. The gloves are
made to be dexterous while
providing a strong grip.

Dexterity
Spacesuits have to
provide astronauts with a Ventilation
range of motion for when garment
they are working outside The Liquid Cooling and
of the space station. Ventilation Garment is
made from skin-tight
Spandex and worn beneath
the space suit. It contains
Footwear over 90 metres worth of
The boots on current spacesuits are soft and not really tubing to remove and
made for walking, just floating. New boots will have to recycle body heat, carbon
be designed for going back to the Moon or Mars. dioxide and perspiration.
Life support
system
The life support system
contains oxygen tanks
as well as a battery for
power, water-cooling
equipment and a fan for
essential air circulation.

hp.com/go/mars | 25
 race to mars
Living
on
Moon
the
How we could turn craters into colonies for human life
T
he Moon is our closest neighbour but
only 12 people have ever set foot on its
surface. Since 1972, the only visitors have
been robots, orbiters and probes. For a long
time there was little interest in going back, but
at just three days journey away from Earth, the
Moon is an obvious target for further
investigation. With more countries establishing
their own space programmes, and an
increasing number of private companies
entering the field, interest in the Moon is
growing once again.
The environment on the Moons surface is
hazardous, but if we can find a way to construct
a base we would gain access to a wealth of
off-world resources. It is a prime location for
telescopes and communications equipment,
26 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet
and its unique environment could hold clues to
the history of the Solar System. The Moons
potential has been recognised by organisations
across the world, and there are now several
exploratory missions in development. At the
moment, these are focused around finding out
more about the Moons potential, but over the
next few decades, manned missions and even
base construction could be on the agenda.
Russias Roscosmos are planning a series of
Luna-Glob missions as a starting point for
establishing a robotic base, and in
collaboration with the European Space Agency,
they are hoping to scope out the Moons south
pole in 2019 and 2020. The China National Space
Administration are developing a series of
Change probes to collect lunar samples in
preparation for future mining missions, and
they are building a shuttle capable of lifting
human astronauts to the Moon.
Whats more, in 2007, Google launched the
Lunar XPRIZE, encouraging private companies
to land rovers on the surface by 2017. Even
NASA, who has chosen to focus their resources
on manned missions to asteroids and to Mars,
are developing a probe to map the water
deposits on the lunar south pole.
At the moment, we are just taking our first
tentative steps towards further exploration of
the Moon, but in the future a science fiction-
style base on the surface could become a
reality. We explore what such a lunar outpost
might look like, and what hazards and
challenges could get in the way.
 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? The last person to have set foot on the Moon was Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan in 1972

Why the Moon? Lunar holidays

With preparations already underway for manned missions
to Mars, some might question the logic behind a return to With space tourism barely in its infancy, it might A base on the Moon could
pave the way for a new
the Moon, but a lunar outpost could bring several seem a bit premature to consider the idea of
kind of holiday
advantages. A trip to the Moon and back could be completed holidaying on the Moon, but if humanity were to
in under a week, and the surface is rich in resources. Lunar establish a base up there, visitors would almost be
dust contains hydrogen, oxygen, iron and other metals, and inevitable. The company Space Adventures
if these resources could be mined, it could provide a close has already sold two $150 million tickets
off-world source of water and building materials. for a trip to visit the Moon in 2018, and
The far side of the Moon is shielded from the noise of more private organisations are
Earths communications, providing a quiet vantage point for looking to set up their own tours.
looking out into the universe, and the near side has a Rules set out in the 1967 Outer
constant view of the surface of our planet, making it an ideal Space Treaty state that the
place to set up monitoring stations. Navigational support Moon cannot be claimed by any
could also be provided for a variety of operations, from country, even if they have set
search and rescue on Earth to deep space exploration. up a base there. However, laws
A base on the Moon would also allow us to look closer at its regarding the exploitation of
geology, which in turn would help us uncover more about its the Moon and its resources for
history and the evolution of the Solar System. Experiments commercial gain have not yet
could be conducted, and materials and equipment could be been fully established.
tested, away from the familiar conditions on Earth.

Colonising space Stepping stone Mining and

A lunar base could perform Establishing a base on the excavation
many different functions, from Moon would be a big step The Moon is rich in
mining to communications towards colonising Mars. resources and could
be used for
construction or to
make fuel, oxygen Space outpost
and water. The Moons location and lack of
atmosphere make it a good place
for communications equipment
and sensitive telescopes.

Exploration
Large vehicles could Refuelling
be used to carry The low gravity on the
explorers away from surface would allow
established bases to spacecraft to land, refuel
explore the Moon. and take off much more
efficiently than on Earth.

Technical testing
Building a protective habitat on
the surface of the Moon will
test technologies to their limits.
ESA_Foster + Partners; NASA

hp.com/go/mars | 27
 race to mars

How to
Inflatable habitats are light but
vulnerable to asteroid impacts

build a base
The Moon has little atmosphere and none of
the protective shielding that we enjoy here on
Earth. As a result, the surface is hostile. It is
pummelled by solar winds, scorched by
radiation, and chunks of rock regularly fall
from the sky. The ground is coated in the
shattered remains of ancient asteroid impacts,
forming a thick layer of sticky dust, and with no
atmosphere or weather to wear the particles
down, the grains are razor sharp. A successful
base would need protection against all of these
threats, and, for people to stay there long-term,
it would also require a steady supply of food,
water, oxygen, power, shelter and rocket fuel.
One of the most popular concepts for a lunar
base is inflatable housing lightweight and
easily assembled by pressurising from the
inside. With the airlock from the landing
capsule used as a door, these structures could
provide a quick and simple solution to setting
up a base. However, a puncture could prove
catastrophic, so the pods would need to be Buildings coated in Moon dust Dust from the Moon could be used
shielded in underground chambers or beneath would be shielded from as a material for 3D printing
piles of Moon dust. impacts and radiation

Flat-packed panels could also be shipped in

from Earth to build sturdier dome or hangar
structures, but it would be much more fuel-
efficient to use building materials found on the
surface of the Moon. When heated, lunar dust
can be transformed into a tough solid that could
be used to construct buildings and roads, and
3D printers could one day be used to make
structures from the regolith.
In the right location, solar panels could
provide renewable power for the base, and, if
plants are able to grow on the Moon, it could
one day be possible to set up a semi-sustainable
farming and composting system. Then, if water, Excavation equipment would need
oxygen and hydrogen (rocket fuel) could be to resist the damaging effects of
extracted from lunar dust, a base might even be fine dust particles
able to become self-sufficient.
Unfortunately, there are still major
challenges to overcome before we reach this
stage, not least the devastating effects of lunar
dust. The dust seems to find its way inside even
tightly sealed spaces, causing rapid damage to
equipment. There are some ideas to get around
this, including cable cars or covered transport
tubes to minimise the disturbance on the
surface, and clean rooms and air locks to keep
inside spaces dust-free.

Solar panels could

provide renewable
power for the base
28 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet www.howitworksDAILY.com
 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? NASA held a Regolith Excavation Challenge to encourage engineers to built robots that can dig up lunar soil
Craters
Craters near the poles
could provide protection
against solar wind.
Where to build?
Smooth terrain
The surface near the
equator might be easier
to land on, but the
temperatures here vary
by hundreds of degrees.
near side
Sunlight
The equator is in darkness for 14 days
at a time, but some places near the
poles are in near constant sunlight.
Location, location, location
The Apollo missions landed close to the Moons
equator, where the surface is smooth and
entering orbit is easy, but these regions have
serious problems with temperature control. The
Moon turns on its axis once every 28 Earth days,
so daytime at the equator lasts for two weeks,
and temperatures climb to more than 100
degrees Celsius. For the other two weeks, the
same spot is plunged into total darkness and
the surface cools to 150 degrees below freezing.
These wide fluctuations could pose real
problems for buildings and equipment, and
Choosing the right spot could mean the
difference between success and failure
Far side
with sunlight absent for days at a time, solar
power would be intermittent. Facing head on to
the Sun and with little in the way of
atmosphere, the equator is also blasted by
radiation and solar winds.
At the poles, night and day are less dramatic.
The surface is rougher, but certain areas
receive sunlight for most of the year, and the
temperature remains more stable at around
zero degrees Celsius. There is also water ice
trapped at the poles, which could provide
gases, fluids and even rocket fuel.
Permanent shade
The north pole is smoother
than the south pole, but parts
of it are in constant shadow.
Helium-3
Solar winds have left rich
helium-3 deposits near the
equator, providing a potential
source of clean energy.
Lava tubes
Caverns beneath the
surface of the Moon could
provide shelter from
radiation, space weather
and temperature changes.
Water ice
There is frozen water
locked away near to
the Moons north and
south poles.
One promising location is Shackleton Crater,
which is found at the Moons southern pole. It
receives sunlight for around 80 per cent of the
year, which could provide a near constant
source of electricity from solar panels.
Building a base near the equator would be
more challenging, but underground habitats
could provide enough protection in more
exposed locations. Lava tubes like the Marius
ESA; NASA; REX
Hills pit could offer ready-made shelter from
temperature fluctuations, solar wind,
radiation and surface dust.
hp.com/go/mars | 29
 race to mars

Inflatable habitats
Building materials are heavy,
so one option is to use
inflatables. These would need
to be protected from impacts.

What would a
lunar colony
look like?
The Moon is not a safe place for humans
a base will be essential for survival

Water supply
Water could be extracted from lunar
dust by heating it with hydrogen gas.

Launch and landing

The gravity on the Moon is low, so
launching and landing spacecraft requires
much less fuel than it does on Earth.

Telescopes and
equipment
Away from the Radiation shielding
interference of Earths Buildings would need to be
atmosphere, a lunar protected from radiation. A
base could house popular idea is to bury them
powerful telescopes. under layers of moon dust.

30 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? The Moon is an average distance of 384,400km away, equal to about 30 Earths lined up side by side

Oxygen
Water extracted from the lunar surface Only a handful of people have
could be split into hydrogen and oxygen
using a technique called electrolysis. visited the Moons surface, and
the longest stay lasted three days
Glass roads
Microwaves could be used to
melt the dust on the surface of
the Moon to produce smooth,
tough roads. Food Flatpack buildings
Farming resources would need Buildings could be
to be transported to the Moon, constructed using geometric
but waste could then be recycled frameworks shipped in pieces
to keep plants growing. from Earth.

Home away from home

Humans have been living in space since the 1970s, falling around the
Earth inside orbiting space stations like Salyut, Almaz, Skylab, Mir and
the International Space Station (ISS), but no one has been in orbit for
longer than 438 days (the record set by Valery Polyakov), making the
long-term success of space colonies hard to predict. Over 200 astronauts
and cosmonauts have lived on the ISS, and by monitoring them closely
we have learnt a lot about the effects of microgravity on the human body,

DK; Dreamstime
but the Moon is a different environment. Only a handful of people have
visited the surface, and the longest stay lasted for only three days.
The Moon has a sixth of the Earths gravity and
comes with its own unique challenges. The
dust that coats the surface could prove
one of the most difficult problems to
overcome. During the Apollo
missions, the sharp particles
found their way into equipment,
through vacuum seals, and even
Mining inside spacesuits, irritating the
operations
The dust or regolith eyes and lungs of the astronauts.
could be mined for
Permanent settlements on the
use as a building
Moon will only be possible with
material, or to make
proper protection
oxygen, water and
rocket fuel.

hp.com/go/mars | 31
life
MARS
ON

How weve explored the Red Planet

and whats coming next

p34-41: life on Mars

Find out how our discoveries about Mars so far are preparing
the way for manned missions and ultimately colonisation.
p42-43: colonising mars
From spacesuits to spaceships, housing to terraforming, this is
the tech that will help us make a home on the Red Planet.
p44: Farming on alien planets
How humankind could hit paydirt when it comes to growing
crops with Mars soil.
hp.com/go/mars | 33
 life on mars
I
A brief history of Mars
How this world turned from habitable to deadly
4.5 billion years ago
Formation
The planet Mars forms, along with
the other rocky planets in the
Solar System.
34 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet
n September 2016, SpaceX founder
Elon Musk announced a bold plan to
colonise Mars with humans. It made
headline news around the world and
while there are understandably some
critics it has once again raised the
prospect of exploring Mars.
Today, Mars is a barren, inhospitable
world. With an atmosphere thats 95 per
cent carbon dioxide, temperatures as
4.5 to 4.1 bn years ago
Pre-Noachian
A little-known period of Martian
history when the planet was likely
pounded by asteroids.
low as -153 degrees Celsius and no magnetic field,
its not exactly a habitable location. But several
billion years ago, were pretty sure Mars had vast
amounts of water. We can see evidence for this in
what appear to be valleys carved by rivers, empty
lakebeds and even coastlines.
The big question remaining about Mars is
whether life could have existed there, or still does.
It is unclear how long the planet had surface
water for, and it may not have been long enough
for life to thrive. But its possible that primitive,
microbial life might have taken hold.
4.1 to 3.7 bn years ago
Noachian
Volcanic activity thickened the atmosphere,
causing rain, forming valleys and lakes we
see remnants of today.
 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? Mars
Sincemay
NASAs
nowApollo
be coming
17 mission
out of
went
an ice
to age,
the Moon
as there
in 1972,
is evidence
no humans
thathave
its polar
travelled
ice caps
beyond
are melting
low-Earth orbit

Two upcoming missions, the European

ExoMars 2020 rover and the American Mars 2020
rover, will be endeavouring to answer this Were pretty sure
question. These two rovers are an exciting
precursor to what looks set to be the era of
Mars once had vast
Mars exploration. amounts of water
At the moment, NASA is hard at work on a new
spacecraft and rocket that will take people to
Mars in the 2030s. Their goal is to further the
exploration of the human species and, perhaps,
create a permanent base on Mars.
Then Musk came along in September 2016 and
threw a spanner in the works. He said he was
working on a giant rocket that, beginning in the
2020s, would start transporting people 100 at a
time to Mars, with the goal of a million people
settled there by the turn of the century. The Mars 2020
rover will search
Mars is back on the agenda and even if there for signs of
has never been life there before, if all goes microbial life on
according to plan it seems there soon will be: the Red Planet

humans are homing in on the Red Planet.

Mars then Water No magnetic field

and now
A thick atmosphere and magnetic Without a magnetic field, the
field may once have allowed surface of Mars is subjected to
water to exist on the surface. intense solar and cosmic radiation.
How has the Red Planet changed
over the past 4 billion years?

Thin atmosphere
Today, Mars has a relatively
thin atmosphere, making the
pressure too low on the
surface for liquid water.

Coast
Scientists have recently
observed what appear to be
NASA; Thinkstock

ancient coastlines on Mars.

Martian seas No surface water

Recent evidence suggests the Any water that was once on
northern hemisphere of Mars the surface has long since
once had more water than boiled away, but some may
Earths Arctic Ocean. remain underground.

3.7 to 2.9 bn years ago 2.9 bn years ago to present Today

Hesperian Amazonian Present day
Much of Mars surface water turned Over the past few billion years, a thinning Mars is now a cold and barren
to ice as temperatures dropped atmosphere left much of the planet smooth, world, with only hints of its
during this period. dry and devoid of geologic activity. ancient water remaining.

hp.com/go/mars | 35
 life on mars

Robots on Searching for

signs of life
Mars How the upcoming ExoMars
and Mars 2020 rovers will
study the Red Planet

How NASA is using PanCam

robotic explorers to
uncover the Red Planet
ExoMars This panoramic camera will
be used to image and map
the terrain on Mars.

In July 1965, NASAs Mariner 4 spacecraft Infrared Spectrometer

conducted a flyby of the Red Planet, returning the for ExoMars (ISEM)
Working with the panoramic
first ever images of the Martian surface. Since camera, ISEM will use infrared to
then, we have learned a huge amount from these select targets for further analysis.
robotic missions and perhaps it wont be too
long until humans are there, too. Adron
This instrument will search
When NASA first started sending missions to Raman Laser
for subsurface water and
Mars, scientists were unsure what theyd find. Spectrometer
help to choose suitable
Using a laser, this instrument
But over time, they have been able to paint a will attempt to find organic
targets for drilling.
picture of what this world once looked like. compounds and signatures of
The goals of the missions have changed too, life inside samples.
from those of initial discovery, to more refined
searches for life and water.
NASAs Viking landers arrived in 1976 and were
the first dedicated probes to search for life.
Results were inconclusive, but a fire was stoked in
Martian exploration by returning the first images
from the surface itself. However, following several Close-up Imager
This system of cameras
failed attempts, it would be another two decades
will help take high-
until the next successful Mars mission. NASAs resolution images of
Mars Global Surveyor launched in 1996, and rocks and features with
scientific interest.
between 1998 and 2006 it extensively mapped the
surface and provided much of the data needed for
later missions. Excitingly, it also provided
evidence for water ice on Mars.
The first rover arrived in 1997. Sojourner
analysed rocks on Mars and found similar
features to Earth. In 2004, the wildly successful
Spirit and Opportunity rovers also landed, with
the latter still active on the surface today.
In 2012 we said hello to the Curiosity rover,
which landed in Gale Crater, and has since
discovered this location likely contained an
ancient lake. 2014s MAVEN mission, meanwhile,
has helped us discover how solar winds
destroyed the Martian atmosphere. Drill
But theres still much more to learn and thats A drill on board will collect
where ESA and NASAs amazing next generation samples from several soil
types, reaching a maximum
of Martian rovers comes in. depth of two metres. Mars Multispectral
Imager for
Subsurface Studies
This instrument will help

A history of water on Mars study the mineralogy of rocks

encountered by the drill.
How weve painted a picture of a once habitable world

Canyons 1971 Rivers 1976 Salty 1997

Mariner 9 Viking 1 and 2 Pathfinder
NASAs Mariner 9 spacecraft found a The Viking landers found Pathfinder found that temperatures
vast canyon on Mars and beamed back evidence that rivers of water had on Mars were high enough to
images of the planets south pole. spread far across the surface. support salty liquid water.

36 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? Data from Mars Odyssey suggested there was enough ice under the surface of Mars to fill Lake Michigan twice

Methane on Mars Mars 2020

In 2014, NASAs Curiosity rover had discovered a
temporary increase of methane in its location
on Mars. This hinted at but does not prove
Mastcam-Z
This advanced camera will
the presence of biological processes. RIMFAX
take panoramic images of
An instrument on board the rover called This ground-
Mars, and work out the
Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) sniffed the penetrating radar will
mineralogy of the
atmosphere over the course of 20 months. In try to work out what
surrounding surface.
two of those months, there were spikes of is going on under the
methane that were ten times larger than the Martian surface.
average in other months.
This suggests there was a localised methane
source. There are several possible causes,
including the interaction of rock and water
underground. But there could be a biological
reason, perhaps subsurface
microbes releasing
methane. It raises
the possibility that
some basic life Curiously familiar SuperCam
may still exist The Mars 2020 will be This instrument will be able to
on Mars today. based on the design of the detect organic compounds in
Curiosity rover shown here. rocks from a distance.
Curiosity found
spikes in methane
levels on Mars

Mars Environmental PIXL

This instrument will allow for
Dynamics Analyzer
a more detailed analysis of the
These sensors will measure the
chemical composition of
temperature, wind speed and
Martian soil than ever before.
more on the surface of Mars.

Mars Organic
Molecule Analyser
The biggest instrument on
ExoMars, MOMA will directly
try to find biomarkers in
samples collected by the drill.
NASAs Viking
landers were the
MOXIE
This intriguing
instrument will attempt
to create oxygen on
SHERLOC Mars from its carbon
This instrument will use an
ultraviolet laser to search for
dioxide, with an eye on
future manned missions.
organic compounds on Mars.

first probes to
search for life Hidden
water
There could be ice or
even liquid water
trapped under the
Martian surface

Clues
Geological features on the
surface suggest Mars once
had rivers, lakes and seas.

MAVEN is NASAs most Reservoirs

recent spacecraft to be Mars surface is barren,
NASA/JPL; SPL

sent to Mars but remnants of ice could

be trapped underground.

Liquid 1999 Ice 2001 Stream 2012

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Odyssey Curiosity
Images from the Mars Global Surveyor This probe found that there could Curiosity has found that its landing site
between 1999 and 2001 suggested liquid be huge deposits of ice and water within the Gale Crater may have been an
water may still be flowing on Mars. below the surface of Mars. ancient stream bed.

hp.com/go/mars | 37
 Space
life on mars

Getting to Mars
How were preparing for manned
missions to the Red Planet

The rockets
To get beyond Earths orbit, you
need a very big rocket. For the
Apollo missions to the Moon, Practising on the ISS
NASA had the Saturn V, which Long-duration stays aboard the
remains the most powerful International Space Station (ISS) are
rocket ever built. But for missions helping prepare crews for Mars. These
to Mars, things are going to need stays normally last six months, but in
to get bigger and better. 2015, an American astronaut and
First up is NASAs Space Russian cosmonaut spent an entire
Launch System (SLS). Measuring year on the station, providing crucial
117 metres in height, this data on how humans will cope with
heavy-lift rocket will launch the longer spaceflights needed for
astronauts and cargo to Mars. Its Mars missions.
first test flight is not scheduled
until 2018, though, and questions
remain over how it will be used.
More recently, SpaceX founder
Elon Musk revealed his bold plan
to get to Mars with his SLS Rocket
Interplanetary Transport System NASAs Space Launch
(ITS). At a height of 122 metres, System will enable humans
Musk wants to use this to to explore destinations
colonise Mars with a million beyond the Moon.
people by the turn of the century.
It is likely that Russia and China
will also reveal rockets bound for
Mars over the coming decades.

Will SpaceXs
Interplanetary
Transport System
deliver on its
promises?

NASAs crew capsule

The Orion spacecraft is NASAs answer
to launching astronauts from Earth and
returning them from Mars. It will house
up to six astronauts, taking them into
Earths orbit where they will likely dock
with another larger habitat, which they
will use for the journey to Mars, although
this has yet to be finalised.

Journey to Mars
How NASA plans to send humans to Mars by 2040

Present-2024 2018 2020

International Space Station Exploration Mission-1 Deep Space Gateway
Missions to the ISS will continue until SLS and an unmanned Orion NASA plans to build a spaceport in lunar
at least 2024, learning how humans capsule will launch together for orbit to act as a gateway for missions
live and work in space. the first time in 2018. into deep space, including Mars.

38 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? No humans have left Earths orbit since 1972, when Apollo 17 made the three-day journey to the Moon

HI-SEAS uses a dome in Hawaii to

Simulating a Mars mission simulate Mars missions

On 28 August 2016, six people emerged from a two-story dome in

Hawaii, having spent a whole year in isolation. Why? They were
simulating what it might be like to live on Mars under similar conditions
in the future.
The mission, called HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and
Simulation), was part-run by NASA to prepare for its planned manned
missions in the 2030s. During the experiment, the team spent their entire
time inside the dome, having to don spacesuits to venture outside, just
as explorers will have to on future Mars missions. Their communications
to Earth were also delayed by 20 minutes the same lag Martian
explorers will experience.
Although theres no substitute for actually being on Mars, the goal of
this programme was to see how humans would cope with isolation.
NASAs missions to Mars may last three years in total, including 500 days
on the surface a long time away from Earth and other human contact.

Deep space habitats

Getting to Mars will take up to nine months,
so astronauts will need something larger than
a small capsule to live in. This is likely to be a
multi-roomed spacecraft similar to the ISS,
and will require shielding to protect
astronauts from cosmic radiation.

Robotic helpers
Images from orbiters and
data from rovers at Mars
will be used to pick a landing
site for the manned
missions, with a number of
candidates already being
discussed. Once humans
reach Mars, probes can also
be used as relay satellites to
Ion engines communicate with Earth.
The spacecraft that takes humans to Mars
will likely use some form of solar electric
propulsion, or ion engines, to gradually
accelerate and decelerate the spacecraft.
This will help save on fuel, leaving more
room for cargo and reducing the mass
needed at lift-off from Earth.

NASA; SpaceX; Illustration by Adrain Mann

2030 2033 2039

The Moon Phobos Mars
By 2030, NASA wants to NASA may launch a crewed By the end of the 2030s,
be conducting regular mission to the Martian moon NASA plans to send humans
missions to lunar space. Phobos in around 2033. to the surface of Mars.

hp.com/go/mars | 39
 life on mars

Humans on Mars People have long

dreamed of turning
What will we actually do when we get to the Red Planet? Mars into an Earth-
Of all the aspects of sending people to Mars, what soil. This will provide a barrier against cosmic
like world
life will actually be like there is the most and solar radiation, keeping the crews healthy.
speculative of the lot. Thats not to say people We know there is a lot of water ice locked at the The dome
havent thought about it, but no one yet knows for Before a crew arrives, robots
poles and under the surface of Mars, so making
turn the water into ice, and
sure how humans will survive there. use of this will be important. Depending on how create a layered dome that
What seems likely, though, is that the first successful the Mars 2020 and ExoMars rovers can house people.
missions to Mars will involve telerobotics. This are, it may be that there is enough water
will see humans orbit Mars, perhaps living on the underground to support a small Martian colony.
Martian moon Phobos, and operate rovers on the This water could be purified into drinking
surface. Without the communications delay that water, or broken down into its constituent
Earth-controlled rovers suffer, this could allow for elements to make fuel.
much more rapid exploration of the surface. With humans on Mars, we will be
Eventually, though, humans will set foot there. able to explore the surface like never
If Elon Musk is to be believed, these humans before. Gone will be the days of
will be self-sustaining, living off the land and tentative robotic footsteps
using clever equipment to create oxygen, water, we will be able to study and
and even make the planet more Earth-like. It analyse vast swathes of
remains to be seen if Musks plan to have a million the Red Planet, and
people living on Mars by the turn of the century perhaps definitively
comes to fruition. answer if there is
For NASA, the plans are likely to be simpler and life on Mars.
more realistic. Think along the lines of the Apollo
missions, with small crews venturing to the Sunlight
When completed, humans
surface, staying on Mars for a few weeks or a few would be able to live
years, before returning home. inside the dome, growing
To create a habitat on Mars, it may be necessary plants in sunlight.
to partially submerge a structure in the Martian

Mars Ice House

This proposal won NASAs 3D-Printed
Habitat Challenge in 2015

Ice, ice, maybe

As its name suggests, this
structure would be made
entirely out of ice.

Exploration
Astronauts could enter
and exit the structure
with ease, allowing
them to explore the Water
Martian surface. Subsurface water would
continuously be mined to
re-supply the astronauts
and keep them alive.

Terraforming Mars
The steps wed need to take to make Mars habitable

50 years 100 years 100 years 150 years

Preparation Colonisation Melting Plants
Send humans to Mars, and If Elon Musk is right, we By heating the poles we would By this point, oxygen levels
install the machinery necessary could have a million people release vapour and CO2 into the may be suitable for plant
to terraform the planet. living on Mars in 100 years. atmosphere, heating the planet. life on the surface.

40 | How It Works
 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? Other places in the Solar System like Europa and Titan may once have played host to life, or perhaps still do

This design from Team LavaHive uses 3D

printing to create a modular Mars base
Can we make
Mars habitable?
People have long dreamed of turning Mars into
an Earth-like world and it might be possible
although perhaps not just yet.
One way to do it would be to heat the vast
amount of ice at the Martian poles, maybe with
large mirrors in orbit. This would release carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere, thickening it, and
potentially heating up the planet.
Another method would be to use factories on
the surface to manufacture chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) from the air and soil. CFCs are responsible
for Earths ozone, which traps heat from the
Sun, and perhaps we could create a similar
effect on Mars.
Wed also need to find a way to turn the
atmosphere from predominantly carbon dioxide
into oxygen and nitrogen, like on Earth.
One complication is that without a magnetic
field, the Martian atmosphere is continuously
blown away by the Sun. Who knows, though
perhaps there will be a solution in the future.

If all the ice on Mars

This concept from Team Gamma uses melted, it could look
semi-autonomous robots to construct a
50 years decidedly more
Radiation Earth-like
The icy exterior habitat from the Martian soil
would give
protection from
radiation, meaning 150 years
these humans
would not have to
live underground.

900 years

100,000 years

Location
The habitat would
be built on land
where subsurface
water was easily
accessible.

Habitat modules
NASA; WIKI; Clouds AO; Foster + Partners

would have both

private and
communal spaces

900 years 100,000 years

Humans The future
In an optimistic scenario, Mars could However, other estimates suggest it may
then be suitable for everyday human take 10,000 to 100,000 years to terraform
life in 900 years. the planet. Stay tuned!

hp.com/go/mars | 41
 life on mars

COLONISING MARS
The tech that will help us go where no man has gone before

E
ver since Neil Armstrong set foot on the
Moon there have been dreams to colonise
other bodies in the Solar System
something that is becoming increasingly viable
thanks to huge advancements in space travel
and equipment such as spacesuits.
Voyager 1 has travelled just short of 20 billion
kilometres (12.4 billion miles) from planet Earth,
but so far humans have only reached the Moon,
which is 384,400 kilometres (239,000 miles)
away. The main reasons behind the difficulty of
sending humans further distances are fuel
storage, costs and the comfort of the astronauts.
At least one of these conditions has to be
compromised for a long-distance journey into
space and that has held us back but that
situation could soon change.
The reaction between nano-aluminium
powder and water creates a powerful blast of
hydrogen gas and aluminium oxide. This
provides the thrust for a rocket to launch without
weighing too much. Solar technology, such as
that used on the Rosetta comet-chasing probe,
will also reduce the reliance on fuel, further
lightening the load.
MIT has developed a skintight spacesuit that
essentially shrink-wraps the astronaut,
providing counter-pressure to the atmosphere.
This will be much lighter and more flexible than
current spacesuits, making extended periods of
wear far more bearable.
3D printing has also paved the way for
missions in space to be much more streamlined.
The ability to design and print almost anything
from a tiny bolt to a huge satellite dish means
that missions can leave without bulky payloads
on board.
All these advances in technology have pushed
forward the possibility of inhabiting another
planet. Mars One is a project that aims to have
humans living on Mars by 2025. They hope to
achieve this by sending up rovers and life-
support units within the next eight years, which
will seek out a location close enough to the poles
for water, close enough to the equator for solar
power and flat enough to build on. The life-
support units will leech water from the soil by
heating subsurface ice. Some will be stored and
some used for creating oxygen, nitrogen and
argon, which should make the atmosphere
breathable before the first humans arrive.

Escape vehicle
In the event of an
emergency, the Terraforming
inhabitants of the Chlorofluorocarbons
planet will have a will be released into
Clothing means of escape. the atmosphere to
Spacesuits will be required trap the Suns heat and
until the atmospheric create an ozone layer.
conditions are right, but
lighter, more mobile suits Factories
are in development. The chlorofluorocarbons
will be manufactured in
factories from soil and
air, well in time for the
first crews arrival.

Housing module
Inhabitants would live
inside pressurised domes,
which are connected to
the water supply.

Supplies
Water will be
extracted from
the Martian
surface by
heating ice.

42 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? The Falcon 9 was developed by SpaceX, a private research facility owned by Elon Musk

Reaching Mars
To make it to the Red Planet, new spaceships are needed
these are the best ones currently in development

VASIMR
The Variable Specific
Impulse Magnetoplasma
Rocket converts gas into
magnetised plasma,
providing powerful fuel
to shorten the journey.

SLS
Similar in design to the
Saturn V King of the
Apollo era and
successfully launched
13 times NASAs Space
Launch System (SLS)
is currently being
developed for future Crew capsules
Mars missions. NASAs Orion Multipurpose
Crew Vehicle or SpaceXs
Falcon 9 Dragon capsule could carry
A two-stage the colonists to Mars.
reusable rocket
that will take the
spaceship to
Mars. It is
designed by
private space
company SpaceX.

Sol90; Dreamstime

hp.com/go/mars | 43
 life on mars
Farming on alien planets
Mars and the Moon could be new places to grow food
B
elieve it or not, the soil found on the
Moon and Mars could actually be much
more fertile than some of the dirt found
on Earth. If we are ever to go on to colonise
other worlds with the Red Planet being our
number-one target then this is very good
news for astronauts.
Its thanks to a team of scientists in the
Netherlands, who have braved volcanoes in
44 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet
Hawaii and Arizona to obtain material akin to
Martian dirt and lunar soil, to provide us with
the information that could help humans one
day settle on an alien planet. Both soils have
the essential ingredients plants need to grow
nitrates and ammonium.
The experts discovered by using fake
minerals from Mars and the Moon to try and
grow carrots, tomatoes, weeds and wheat
Growing food on Mars and
the Moon could hugely
benefit plans to colonise
other worlds
that untreated soil found on Mars was the
NASA/ESA/The Hubble Heritage Team; NASA
plants favourite. On the other hand, Moon dirt
didnt agree with them completely, with some
crops struggling to grow.
All is not lost for crop farming on the Moon,
though scientists think that pumping our
natural satellites soil with nitrogen-fixing
bacteria could be the ticket for growing crops
on our cratered companion.
 world of
tomorrow
Introducing the future tech thats
going to change everything
p48-51: future cities and classrooms
How technology will affect the way we live and learn.
p52-55: tomorrows transport
Get from A to B in style with flying cars and Hyperloops.
p56-57: star trekkers
How drones can be used in space exploration.
p58-60: travel 2050
Your ticket to the high-tech holiday of the future.
p62-65: interstellar space travel
The ambitious plan to sail between the stars.

hp.com/go/mars | 47
 world of tomorrow

Future cities
Experience the lean, green cities well soon be living in

Solar power
Buildings would
incorporate solar
panels into their walls
to harvest energy.

Farmscrapers
Wind power High-rise flats could grow
The farmscrapers would food both inside and outside
also have wind farms on the buildings, helping to
their roofs to make use of create natural insulation.
unhindered wind energy.

Urban spaces
By building up rather than out,
cities will have room for spaces
for recreation and leisure.

Water collection
Rainwater could be collected
on the roofs of buildings,
which would then be used in
the homes below.

48 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? Solar
Sincepower
NASAsisApollo
expected
17 mission
to become
wentthe
to the
largest
Moonsource
in 1972,
of no
electricity
humansby have
2050
travelled beyond low-Earth orbit

M
ajor cities are often viewed as grey,
energy-guzzling monoliths, but the
eTrees
Trees with solar panels cities of the future could change
instead of leaves can everything. As the planets store of fossil fuels
provide charging stations dries up, we are looking for new ways to power
for phones and free lighting.
our cities in sustainable but spectacular-
looking ways.
Skyscrapers will become towering
greenhouses as vertical farming takes hold.
Crops would be grown between storeys, taking
advantage of the Suns energy while using
minimal ground space. These ecological
super-buildings would have photovoltaic
solar-cell facades and be topped by wind
turbines, making these homes the ultimate
self-sustaining structures.
Tomorrows city centres could look very
Energy storage different as groups gather below solar powered
Excess energy produced trees. These so-called eTrees offer more than
by solar panels and wind just shade, as the energy produced from the
farms would be stored in
batteries and fed back solar panels transforms them into mobile
into the national grid. phone charging stations, free Wi-Fi and night
lighting. The solar energy also activates an LCD
screen that displays information such as the
weather and educational content.
Building upward would allow plenty of room
on the ground for urban social areas as well as
luminous plants. These are implanted with
light-giving compounds known as luciferins,
which will make the greenery glow at night as a
cost-effective and eco-friendly method of
illuminating tomorrows cities.
Far from being a scary, soulless world as
shown in movies like Judge Dredd and Blade
Runner, the future cities promise to be bright,
spacious and green, making the most of the
amazing natural resources we have at our
disposal already.

Science Photo Library; Getty; Corbis; Dreamstime

Virtual fitting rooms

Plants replace street lamps
Researchers at the Glowing Plant
project have transferred firefly genes
into plants to make them glow in the
dark and light your way home.
This tech is already here! Some stores
offer you the chance to superimpose
clothes onto your body using a tablet or
smartphone app.

hp.com/go/mars | 49
 Space of tomorrow
world

Desk-embedded computing Augmented learning

FUTURE classroomS How will tech change

learning in the coming years?
3D projections
Interactive
holograms will allow
students to walk
around models of
planets, animals and
more, studying them
in more detail.

Augmented
learning
Glasses with special
over-eye displays will
let students view
related, useful
Indoor information around a
school trips subject as they learn.
Students will bring in
their own VR headsets
from home in order to
take virtual outings as
a group.

Guided learning
Interactive boards will allow
teachers to pose questions at
the start of the lesson, before
students form into groups to
direct their own learning.

Desk-embedded
computing
Desks will be a lot more than
surfaces to lean on. Screens
built into the table-tops will
allow students to work without
extra computers or hardware.

Digital
worksheets
Paper-thin screens Gaming
will be commonplace, Games will be
Online discussions allowing a single introduced into the
The online area will be used as a worksheet to change classroom as a tool for
place to communicate, with throughout the day learning, making the
students and teachers to display classroom a more
contributing to discussions about information the interesting and engaging
a days lesson for homework. students need. place for students.

50 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? Currently, 3D printers can take hours to print small models but in future models will be created in minutes

Passing notes VR lessons

Passing notes
Kids wont write notes
to each other any more
VR lessons Interactive
holograms will
Dedicated booths will
instead, theyll send
allow students to
messages through their
allow students
step away from the
smart watches so the
classroom and take
teacher doesnt see.
to walk around
trips into history,
space, or the future.

models of
planets, animals
and more

The new textbooks

Carrying bulky textbooks
around will be a thing of the
Illustration by Nicholas Forder

past, with tablets

Analytic learning
containing a students Printing the future
Students will be
entire reading list for the 3D printers in the classroom
encouraged to record
academic year. will allow students to create
their own work, so they
can watch it back later real, hard copies of items
to analyse their own they are studying to
performance. manipulate and analyse.

hp.com/go/mars | 51
 world of tomorrow

Tomorrows
transport
Why getting from A to B will soon become a breeze

W
hen you hear the term transport of
the future your mind will generally
turn to flying cars. Excitingly, theyre
already on the way. AeroMobil has unveiled the
third version of its flying vehicle. Capable of
switching in seconds between car and plane,
you could wing your way to your destination,
free from traffic jams and roadworks.
On the ground, the AeroMobil uses regular
petrol and fits into any standard parking space,
but can reach 200 kilometres (124 miles) per hour
in the air thanks to its Rotax 912 engine. This
would reduce the traffic in future cities, making
the streets safer for people on the ground.
Also, companies such as Amazon and DHL are
trialling drones that can deliver parcels under 2.3
kilograms (five pounds), which Amazon says
makes up 86 per cent of their deliveries. The use
of drones will clear the streets and air as they
will be battery or solar powered.
If you still felt like you wanted to stay on the
ground, however, driverless taxis could ferry
you around. The Google driverless car has
already completed over 1,125,000 kilometres
(700,000 miles) of accident-free driving using
GPS satellites to map routes and on-board
cameras to search for hazards.
These cars could be used as taxis which
would be summoned by a smartphone app
and would drive closer to each other and more
efficiently than human drivers, meaning that
no one need ever own a car. Unless its an
amazing flying car, that is.

Flying car Composition

The AeroMobil has a steel
framework covered by a
Safety
In the event of an aerial
problem, the AeroMobil
The plane-car hybrid that will carbon coating, giving it has a parachute-
change our travelling forever strength and lightness. deployment system.

Length
The 6m (19.7ft)-long body
makes it 38 per cent longer
than the 2014 Ford Focus,
so bay parking might be tricky.

Fuel range Engine

The petrol-
You can travel 875km (540mi)
powered Rotax 912
on the road and 700km (435mi)
engine throws out 100hp
in the air, so you could travel the
(74.6kW), making the
length of England.
aerial top speed
200km/h (124mph)
and 160km/h
(100mph) on
the road.

Wings
The wings span
8.2m (27ft) and
are fully collapsible,
enabling the
AeroMobil to act
as a normal car.

Seating
There is only room for two
people, so its probably not
ideal for families!

52 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? Even though its a flying car, the AeroMobil uses regular gasoline

The AeroMobils
dashboard is a little
more complicated
than todays cars

Delivery drones
At the moment delivery companies spend huge
sums of money and use enormous amounts of
fuel on delivering parcels, but in the city of the
future drones could take on the task. Amazon
and DHL are testing out drones that could
deliver the majority of their products. These
autonomous flying vehicles are lightweight and
can be pre-programmed to reach their
destination, guided by satellites.
They could deliver to hard-to-reach areas such
as islands and take a huge number of vehicles
off the roads. As they are powered either by
batteries or solar power, they wouldnt be a
drain on resources like delivery trucks either.
At the moment it is still illegal in the US for
Amazon to use their drones for commercial
reasons, although the company is in talks with
the FAA to work around this. As the technology
is already there it is looking increasingly likely
that these devices could be in our skies within
the next few years.

Kick back and let the

car of the future
drive you around

Driverless taxis
There is a very good chance that in the future, no
one need ever own a car. Just like London and
New Yorks bike-rental scheme, driverless cars
could be summoned to your house and drive you
to work. As they will drive themselves with much
Science Photo Library; Alamy; AeroMobil; Dreamstime

quicker reactions than humans and cant be

distracted, they will be able to run at a steady
speed, closer together and with fewer accidents,
removing the main causes of traffic jams
Rooftop cameras will use lasers to scan the
road ahead at a range beyond that of human
vision. A second camera will look to the sides for
hazards like pedestrians or animals. The
guidance system will use GPS, altimeters and
gyroscopes to keep track of where it is and
where it is going. As 90 per cent of a cars life is
spent parked, autonomous hire cars could
become the most efficient way to get around.

hp.com/go/mars | 53
 world of tomorrow

The Hyperloop
Elon Musks fascination with revolutionising
the way we travel doesnt just include electric
Tesla cars or SpaceX rockets. The entrepreneurs
most innovative idea yet focuses on a high-
speed super shuttle called the Hyperloop.This
Futurama-style tube concept is billed as a
high-speed transport system capable of
whizzing between San Francisco to Los Angeles
a total distance of around 600 kilometres (372
miles) in just 35 minutes.
This unconventional design involves pods
travelling through a tube at almost the speed of
sound. To achieve such an incredibly quick
journey between the two Californian cities, the
Hyperloops tubes will be depressurised to
significantly reduce atmospheric drag on the
pods as they zip through. Musk ruled out using
a complete vacuum, however, since this would
be difficult to maintain and even so much as a
tiny crack in the tube would completely stop the
whole system working.
The pods will have aluminium ski-like fixtures
that will have high-pressure air pumped
through them, allowing the capsules to levitate
on a cushion of air, similar to an air hockey
table. These skis will pass through tracks of
linear induction motors positioned throughout
the tube which will electromagnetically
accelerate or decelerate the pods as required.
An eight-kilometre (five-mile) test track of the
Hyperloop system is due to be built in California.
If the project is a success, we could soon see a
rapid form of transport for people and goods
that doesnt cost lots to run, making Hyperloop
one of the most exciting advancements to ever
occur in the travel industry.

Passengers
Each capsule should be able to hold
Tube pressure
Reduced pressure approximately one
Inside the Hyperloop
28 passengers, with seating thousandth of the air pressure at sea level Heres how Elon Musks Hyperloop will
similar to that on ensures a travelling capsule is faced with transport passengers quickly and
an airplane. minimal air resistance. efficiently from A to B

Aerodynamics
The capsules will need to
be designed with a suitably
aerodynamic shape to cut
through the air.

Design
SpaceX are currently holding
a competition for engineers
to design pods to try out on
the Hyperloop test track.

Tubes
The Hyperloops tubes
will be suspended in the
air by pillars, which will
include dampers to help
withstand earthquakes.
Linear accelerators
The Hyperloops propulsion will be Air cushion
provided by linear electric motors which Each capsule will float on a
produce electromagnetic forces that cushion of air, significantly
push the pods along the tube. reducing friction.

A taxi service in the sky

Personal helicopters arent the only next-gen form
of travel whisking passengers away from street
level. SkyTran, which has a pilot project currently
in development in Israel, is a monorail-like system
with pods suspended six to nine metres (20 to 30
feet) above the ground and provides high-speed,
low-cost transport for its users. Passengers
simply summon a pod to a station via an app on
their smartphone and it takes them where they
want to go. The system works using maglev
technology which utilises magnets in therail to
levitate the two-person pods so they are not in
direct contact with the track, reducing friction.
The cutting-edge technology, developed with
NASAs Ames Research Center, means that the
pods generate their own levitation as they move,
only requiring an initial burst of power to start and
stop. A 500-metre (1,640-foot) test track will be
built at the campus of Israel Autospace Industries,
where the pods will be able to reach speeds of up
to 70 kilometres (43.5 miles) per hour. If the trial
is successful, this all-new form of transport will SkyTrans pilot project will demonstrate a
be installed in the heart of Tel Aviv, before being network of high-speed, low-cost transport
introduced to cities across the world.

54 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? Elon Musk says his Hyperloop would cost 10% of the $70bn rail being built between LA and San Francisco

Personal helicopters
Traffic is swelling on roads around the world
and in Brazil the wealthy are looking to avoid
this altogether by taking to the skies in
personal helicopters.
Novel designs such as the Volocopter are
becoming increasingly popular among the urban
elite. Key to the success of vehicles like the
manned Volocopter, which can carry up to two
passengers at a time, is that they are capable
of a vertical take-off or landing, making it very
useful in tightly-packed cities where space is
at a premium.
The Volocopter is powered by electric
motors, making it quieter and more
environmentally friendly than a conventional
helicopter. The lack of an internal combustion
engine also eliminates the vibrations and the
high noise level associated with helicopters, German company e-volos Volocopter is
meaning the Volocopter is much more an electrically powered VTOL aircraft
comfortable for its occupants.

Solar power
The Hyperloop looks set to harness
the Suns energy by installing solar Speed
panels along the roof of the tube. The capsules will whiz
through the Hyperloop at a
top speed of about
1,223km/h (760mph) just
below the speed of sound.

Air compressor
A large compressor fan will
be mounted to the front of
each capsule to help direct
air toward the back and
out of the pods path.

Sacramento

San Francisco
California

Fresno

To Las Vegas

Los Angeles
Main route
Journey times from San Diego
LA to San Francisco Branches

Hyperloop 35mins
Car 5hrs 40mins
Thinkstock; Argodesign

Bus 8 hrs
Train 12 hrs
Flight 1hr 30mins

hp.com/go/mars | 55
 world of tomorrow

Star trekkers
NASAs prototype drone
is being tested in this
gimbal to assess its
low-gravity performance
How drones can be used in
space exploration
Cold-gas jets Navigation
Instead of rotors, jets will The navigation system will
Extreme Access Flyers use oxygen or steam
water vapour to handle
recognise landscapes, and
will be able to guide itself
The next evolution of quadcopters the lifting and to pre-programmed
will use fuels created on Mars manoeuvring duties. locations.
The mission to find water and ice on
Mars will soon expand to utilise a new Powered up
generation of drone technology thanks A base station, from which the
to the scientists at NASA. A tiny new drone will be deployed, will
drone may soon be launched to the also recharge the drone using
Red Planet, and be flown into the most energy captured from solar
difficult-to-access areas of faraway panels.
planets and asteroids to discover
resources otherwise inaccessible to
land-based rovers. A drone might just
discover water on Mars.

Sampling
No blades The drone will be designed
The blades of a modularly, allowing it to
drone on Mars take various tools one at
would have to be a time, depending on
huge to gain lift in the mission.
the thinner Mini-drone
atmosphere. The drones NASA is

A tiny new drone may currently testing are around

the size of your palm, so a

soon be launched to lander could carry several in

a single mission.

the Red Planet

NASAs Prandtl-D
Drones are already used in space exploration that is, if you count
rovers and balloon-based scanners. But hundreds of thousands of
miles away, drones may soon be used to scout new landscapes of
planets using lightweight new designs like the Prandtl-D.
This aircraft, currently in development at NASA, may be the
future of exploration thanks to a revolutionary design. The new
wing is bell-shaped rather than a traditional elliptical shape, and
the removal of a tail or flight control surfaces has dramatically
reduced the crafts weight. Together, these features result in more
than a 30 per cent increase in fuel economy.
The design began with the research of the early 20th-century
aeronautical engineer Ludwig Prandtl, and also incorporates
conclusions from several other engineers and aerodynamics
pioneers. However, the crafts name, Prandtl-D, also stands for The revolutionary flat design
Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Lower Drag we takes inspiration from bird flight
wonder what Ludwig would think of that

56 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? Drones could scout the inside of lava tubes on Mars, which might later provide a safe base for astronauts

Early prototypes are large, but the final Recharge station Picture perfect
drone may be as small as the palm of your Balloons could offer a Balloons, holding
mobile recharging station cameras, could fly
for smaller drones, which over the surface of
would deposit samples the moon, taking

Exploring Saturns moons Distant world

Currently, scientists have
before taking flight again. high-resolution
images of the
only managed a brief landing surface.
The drone craft that may soon search the
surface, seas and skies of Titan on Titan, so we are sadly still
years from a mission like this.
Titan is currently the only Earth-like world within our
reach; with its liquid lakes, thick atmosphere and
climate system, its at the top of many astrophysicists
to visit lists. Until now, the closest weve gotten is a
pioneering but brief visit from the Huygens probe in
2005, but with the advancement of drone technology
we may soon be exploring Saturns moon from the
land, sea and air.
Back-up plan
Several drones could be
taken in a single lander,
so if one failed, another
could be deployed.

Rotor-driven
Due to Titans thick
atmosphere, drones
featuring rotors would fly
far better than those
using gas-powered flight.

Kraken Mare
Titans largest known sea, known
as Kraken Mare, is the primary
target for any underwater drone.

Tough areas
Instruments Rotor-based drones could
The submarine will measure the land in hard-to-reach
lakes chemical composition, areas, including at the
take images of the sea bed, and top of inclines.
track currents and tides.

Into the unknown

The seas of Titan are composed
of liquid hydrocarbons rather
NASA

than water, so designing a

suitable drone is difficult.

hp.com/go/mars | 57
 world of tomorrow
I
ts 2050 and taking a vacation is easier than ever,
thanks to the latest technological breakthroughs.
Over the next few pages, well guide you through
every step of your trip, from planning and booking, to
travelling and making the most of your stay.
Some of the technology involved might seem
unbelievable, but all of it was already real, or under
development, in 2016. Take the process of booking your
trip; you may have been using comparison websites to
find the best deals, but now you dont need to enter your
information, as online travel agents already know your
preferences. Gareth Williams, CEO and co-founder of
travel company Skyscanner, said: Travel search and
booking will be as easy as buying a book on Amazon.
Theres no longer any guesswork involved in picking
your holiday destination either, as Nik Gupter,
58 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet
our tic ket
Y hig h-
to the y
h o lida
tech future
of the
Choose your
mode of
transport
Dassault Systmes concept for a
flying cruise liner
The Spike S-512 jet will mirror the
speed of Concorde
Skyscanners director of hotels, already predicted back
in 2016: In ten years time a traveller will be able to take
a virtual reality walk through the hotel he is planning to
book in real-time.
The stress of travelling is long gone and getting to your
Zaha Hadid Architects/Bloom+Voss Shipyards/Moka-Studio
destination is almost as enjoyable as the holiday itself. Avoid the airport altogether by
taking your TF-X flying car
In 2016, Melissa Weigel from design studio Moment
Factory said: In the near future, airports will be an
intrinsic part of the holiday experience. Since then,
automated check-in and speedy security scanning has
made boarding your flight a breeze.
Holiday destinations have also changed a great deal,
as futurist Daniel Burrus predicted: Relatively
affordable trips in low Earth orbit that enable you to
The 90-metre luxury JAZZ yacht
experience a few minutes of weightlessness will happen features an indoor pool
very soon. Now weve our sights on the Moon and Mars.
 DID YOU KNOW? Self-service kiosks at Incheon airport in South Korea allow a three-minute check-in for eight major airlines

you have Motion sensors Smart mirror

reached your Upon entering the room,

the lights automatically
switch on and the coffee
As you get ready for the
day, the local weather,
news stories and your
Future hotel
rooms
destination machine whirs into action. emails are projected
over your reflection. The intuitive tech-filled
rooms that will provide a
home away from home
The smart hotel room will
ensure the stress-free
experience continues Touchscreen control
A central interactive hub gives you control
over all internet-connected appliances to
Once youve stepped off the plane and
fully customise the temperature,
swiftly passed through immigration with humidity and lighting in your room.
your biometric card, you will find another Keyless entry
Avoid check-ins by downloading
driverless taxi waiting to take you to your
your key code onto your phone and
hotel. Instead of having to pick up your scanning it at your hotel room door.
room key at the check-in desk, you can
proceed straight to your room and unlock
it using your smartphone, a system that
was adopted early by Hilton and Marriott
hotel chains.
Your bags are delivered to your door by a
robot butler, such as Botlr, the droid
employed by Aloft Hotels at their
Californian establishments. He can be
summoned via an app to bring you any
toiletries you may have forgotten to pack, or
Biometric safe
deliver a tasty snack to help you refuel after Keep your personal
your long journey. possessions secure in
Just as everything in your own home is a safe that only opens Robot butler
when it scans your Your luggage, room service,
connected to the internet, all of your hotel fingerprint or retina. fresh towels and more are
rooms appliances are smart and intuitive delivered by a robot that you
too. You can even upload your home can summon via an app.

temperature preferences to the rooms Nest

thermostat, and display family photos on
the digital wall displays, to help you feel
really at home.
A good nights rest is guaranteed as the
Sleep Number x12 bed features sensors that
monitor your sleep, ensuring the alarm
Wireless charging
clock gently wakes you at the optimum Forget to bring your phone
time, and can tilt the pillows to stop your VR headset charger or plug adapter?
Get a taster of local attractions Dont worry, theres an
partner snoring. All of this tech already by paying a virtual visit via the inductive charger built into
existed as of 2016, but has since been VR headset in your room. the bedside unit.
adopted by hotels throughout the world.

weird hotels that actually exist

The frozen hotel The salt palace The jumbo
Made entirely from Located on the edge of experience
snice a mixture of the worlds largest salt If you havent had enough
snow and ice the flats in Bolivia, the of airplanes by the time
Icehotel in Sweden melts Palacio de Sal has been you leave the airport,
ICEHOTEL/Paulina Holmgren

in the summer and is built using one million then Jumbo Stay will let
rebuilt every winter, with blocks of salt and you dwell in one too. The
construction taking just features 16 rooms, a spa converted 747-200 jumbo
six weeks. Temperatures and a golf course. jet is grounded near
inside the hotel are Everything from the walls Arlanda Airport in
between -5 and -7 to the beds is made Sweden and features
degrees Celsius. entirely from salt. over 30 rooms.

hp.com/go/mars | 59
 world of tomorrow

At the spaceport Remote location

Catch a space plane into orbit from your local spaceflight hub Due to the higher risk
involved with rocket
vehicles, spaceports are
located away from
Airspace densely populated areas.
Space plane operations
are conducted in
segregated special-use
airspace, away from World Views helium-
normal air traffic routes. filled balloon will float a
capsule full of space
tourists to the edge
of space

Spaceflight operators
Lots of different commercial Refuelling
spaceflight companies operate Rocket engines need both fuel
from the same spaceport, so a
Terminal building and a source of oxygen, and
number of different vehicles different types are needed for
Not just for check-in and
are catered for. different spacecrafts.
shopping, the terminal also
hosts astronaut training
facilities to prepare
Runway passengers for their flight.
Space planes like Virgin
Galactics SpaceShipTwo need
a long runway for horizontal
take-off and landing.

space tourism
Take a trip thats literally out of this world
If you really want to escape from it all, then how
about leaving the planet altogether? Space
tourism is a billion dollar market in 2050 and
there are several companies offering trips. Blue
Origin, the company set up by Amazon founder
Jeff Bezos, can offer you breathtaking views
from its New Shepard spacecraft as you soar
over 100 kilometres above Earth.
Youll need to arrive at the desert launch site
in West Texas two days before your flight so you
can begin your astronaut training. Youll
receive mission and vehicle overviews,
in-depth safety briefings and instructions on
how to move in a weightless environment.
When the morning of your flight arrives, its
time to scale the steps of the launch tower and
climb through the hatch of the capsule, which
sits on top of an 18-metre tall rocket.
Once youre strapped in and have received
final clearance for launch, the countdown to
lift-off will begin. The extreme acceleration will
force you back into your seat and youll
experience over 3 g for 150 seconds and
then the booster engine will cut off as Blue Origin first
vertically landed a
you glide into space. The capsule will booster in 2015,
separate from the booster, and from the paving the way for
serene silence will come the signal to reusable rockets
release your harness.
As you float out of your seat and marvel
at the weightless freedom, youll forget
that youre travelling faster than Mach 3
three times the speed of sound and stare
back at Earth out of the capsule window. XCOR Aero
space is plan
Before descent, you will return to your seat to Lynx spacep ning to laun
lane from its ch its
Curaao sp
strap in for re-entry. Forces of over 5 g will push aceport
against you before the parachutes deploy and
thrusters fire, reducing your speed as you
gently float back to Earth. Once youve landed,
just miles from where you launched, you can go
and collect the complimentary souvenirs of
your thrilling trip. Thats right; novelty
keyrings still exist in 2050.

60 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

 world of tomorrow
The StarChip will be accelerated by
lasers to 20 per cent the speed of light
Interstellar
space travel
The multimillion-dollar project taking us
further into space than ever before
T
o date, weve done a pretty good job of
exploring the Solar System. But in our
half a century or so as a space-faring
species, we have not yet truly ventured to any of
the 100 billion stars in our own galaxy, or
beyond. In 20 years, though, that could all be
set to change.
On 12 April 2016, Russian billionaire Yuri
Milner announced an ambitious project as part
of the Breakthrough Initiatives to send a series
of small spacecraft to the nearest stars to our
own Sun, the Alpha Centauri system. And he
wasnt alone; alongside him at this
announcement were respected scientists,
including Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne,
who have all signed up to help with the project.
The human story is one of great leaps, said
Milner. 55 years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the
first human in space. Today, we are preparing
for the next great leap to the stars.
So, whats it all about? The project is known
as Breakthrough Starshot, and it is utilising an
oft-touted but little explored technique
62 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet
known as laser sails to reach tremendous
speeds, and make a trip to another star possible
in as little as a generation.
Youve probably heard of solar sails before.
These are sheets of thin material that expand to
massive sizes in space. Like a wind sail on
Earth, these sails then pick up speed not from
regular wind, but solar wind, the stream of
particles given off by our Sun. The rate of
acceleration is very slow but over time, a
spacecraft could theoretically reach a
significant fraction of the speed of light.
This proposal is slightly different, though.
Instead of using solar wind, the team is
proposing to fire giant lasers on Earth at
sail-mounted spacecraft. These spacecraft,
known as a StarChips, would have several
instruments packed into them, but be small
enough to fit on the palm of your hand, thanks
to huge advances in technology. The sail itself
would be larger, spanning a metre, although
just a few hundred atoms thick. Theoretically,
shining a 100-gigawatt laser on one of the sails
should accelerate the spacecraft to 20 per cent
of the speed of light or 216 million kilometres
per hour in minutes.
At these speeds, traversing the Solar System
would be a breeze. In hours, the spacecraft
would reach Mars, a journey that takes several
months for conventional spacecraft powered by
chemical fuels. In three days, it would reach
Pluto, which took New Horizons almost ten
years to reach. Most importantly, in 20 years,
the spacecraft would reach Alpha Centauri, 4.37
light years (40 trillion kilometres) away.
Alpha Centauris three stars
arethe closest to our Sun
 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? The furthest spacecraft from Earth, NASAs Voyager 1, would take 73,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri

One of the main reasons for going to Alpha

Centauri which is actually a triple system
made of three stars is that its the closest star
system to our Sun. We now think that almost
every star plays host to at least one planet, and
Alpha Centauri A, B and C should be no
exception. The goal of the mission would be to
study these planets, returning images and
priceless data to Earth. Owing to the distance,
this information travelling at the speed of
light would take 4.37 years to make it back. But
a total of less than 25 years for such data is
pittance, considering the implications.
Earth is a wonderful place, but it might not
last forever, Stephen Hawking said in a
statement from Breakthrough Starshot. Sooner
or later, we must look to the stars. Breakthrough
Starshot is a very exciting first step on that
journey. So far, so good. But this is just
scratching the surface of the technical
Sailing to
the stars
To travel at high speeds,
Breakthrough Starshots nanocrafts
will be propelled by a powerful laser
on Earth. Each would be a chip
weighing just one gram, with
communications, cameras and a
battery built in. But expanding from
this would be a larger sail spanning
a metre. An array of lasers on Earth
would shine a combined 100
gigawatts on the spacecraft. Each
one would accelerate 60,000 times
faster than Earths gravity, reaching
20 per cent of the speed of light in Yuri Milner (third from left) and
just two minutes. At these speeds other scientists, such as Stephen
the journey to Alpha Centauri, just Hawking (front centre), announcing
over four light years away, would Breakthrough Starshot
take 20 years.
How a laser Laser

sail works
challenge of this hugely ambitious project. An array on Earth fires
a combined laser of
Weve never sent a spacecraft beyond 240,000 100 gigawatts.
The science behind using lasers
kilometres per hour before; the StarChip would to reach incredible speeds
travel almost 1,000 times faster. There will be a
huge number of unknowns of accelerating to
and travelling at these speeds. How the
spacecraft will hold itself together during the
intense acceleration phase, and how it will
communicate with Earth at great distances,
will also need to be resolved.
Breakthrough Starshot, therefore, is a bid to Direction
overcome such hurdles. Milner is investing $100 The laser will be directed at the
million of his own money, but he readily admits StarChip in Earth orbit.

that this is merely seed funding. The final cost

of the mission could spiral into the billions of
dollars, and he is hoping for funding from a
number of sources in order to support the
project. As such, there is no definitive launch Propulsion
date yet, although some time in the next couple As the laser hits the sail, it
transfers its momentum,
of decades is not unthinkable. causing acceleration.
One way to overcome some of the challenges
facing the project will be to send not just one Speed
spacecraft, but to launch a mothership with Continued firing of the laser over several minutes
thousands of StarChips on board. All of them increases the speed to 20 per cent that of light.

Exploring space Breakthrough Initiatives ; Alamy; Thinkstock; SPL

Warp travel Nuclear power Slow and steady

Some theories suggest it may be possible to warp Launching a spacecraft with nuclear reactors would Instead of fast travel, we could send a
space time, allowing us to travel huge distances in a give it a lengthy source of fuel, allowing it to colony of humans on a generation ship,
short amount of time. This is mostly science fiction at accelerate and decelerate constantly to reach far-off with them travelling for hundreds of years
the moment, though. destinations, but safety is a concern. towards a new world.

hp.com/go/mars | 63
 world of tomorrow

Breakthrough Starshot timeline

Heres how the spacecraft will make their way beyond the Solar System
Interstellar wind
The Moon Interstellar
It will take the StarChips Within a matter of days, the
less than a minute to spacecraft will pass beyond the
reach the Moon. Suns influence, and become
true interstellar travellers.

Heliosphere

interaction
101 AU 102 AU zone 103 AU

Kuiper belt Voyager 2

Asteroid belt

Mars Voyager 1
After an hour, the swarm Once they pass Voyager 1 at 20
of spacecraft will make billion kilometres, the StarChips Interstellar wind
their way past the Red will become the most distant
Planets orbit. Termination shock man-made objects.

AU = Astronomical Unit, the distance between Earth and the Sun

would be released in orbit, where the powerful As for Alpha Centauri itself, the system may planets. Its hoped the same would be true of
Earth-based laser would shine upon them, hold invaluable secrets. At the moment, were Alpha Centauri.
firing them off in the direction of Alpha not actually sure if any of the three stars host Initially, astronomers had thought that
Centauri. Think of this mission not as a single planets. Previous detections have since been there was a planet orbiting in the desirable
man-made vehicle making a lonely journey, but ruled uncertain. But its fair to assume there are habitable zone of one of the stars, Alpha
an entire fleet venturing off into the cosmos. probably some planets in orbit, considering Centauri B, an orbital position that is not too
If it works, this form of propulsion could two of the stars are similar to our Sun. We know hot nor too cold, where liquid water is able to
prove invaluable. Not only would it let us reach all stars form in a debris of dust and gas, a form on the surface. The nature of whatever
Alpha Centauri in 20 years, but it would also let planetary disc, which often gives rise to planets are there still remains uncertain, but
us explore destinations closer to home, such as
the Moon and Mars, in a tiny fraction of the A giant array on Earth
will fire a 100-gigawatt
time that is currently possible. Imagine if, on a laser at the StarChip
regular basis, scientific organisations from
around the world could send their own
prospecting spacecraft to places all over the
Solar System, letting us frequently explore
worlds closer to home, rather than sending a
mission every few years or so.
Once the spacecraft reached Alpha Centauri,
they would not stay for long. Owing to the
method of travel, this would very much be a
one-way trip. The spacecraft would merely fly
by any worlds we discover, snapping as many
images as possible and gathering data. They
may also collect information on the
atmospheric composition of the planets, their
temperature, their rotation rate, and so on.

64 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet

 Particle problems
DID YOU KNOW? The first planet outside the Solar System was not discovered until 1992, but thousands have been found since

Deep space Phone home Obstacles

Now entering unchartered territory, Once data is collected, it Space is so vast that, throughout
the StarChips could provide will be sent back home at the journey, there are unlikely to be
information on the characteristics the speed of light, taking any obstacles in the way.
of interstellar space. 4.37 years to reach us.

Beyond
After the flyby, the
spacecraft will be
interstellar medium left to drift endlessly
into space.

Local Interstellar G Cloud

Cloud

104 AU 105 AU
Alpha Centauri
After 20 years, the
spacecraft will reach
the Alpha Centauri The StarChip is small enough to fit
system and begin between finger and thumb
their mission.

Oort Cloud
It will take more than five years
to exit the Oort Cloud, the
region of comets surrounding
our Solar System.

Breakthrough Initiatives ; SPL

the chances that one might be habitable are
indeed fascinating.
For decades now, we have been looking for
worlds beyond our own that are Earth-like; that
is, they have the necessary conditions to host
life. After all, we are just one planet orbiting one
of 100 billion stars in one of 100 billion galaxies.
It seems unlikely that ours is the only planet
teeming with life. But so far, finding planets
exactly like our own has been difficult, owing
to the limited methods of detection we
currently employ. However, if we could send
probes to a potentially habitable world around
Alpha Centauri, we may be able to discover if
our planet really is unique or if there are many
others like it. Imagine images being returned of
a glorious alien world abundant in water,
clouds or perhaps even vegetation. Such a
discovery would no doubt change life on Earth
forever, with untold money being pumped into
missions to find more worlds like our own and
even visit them.
For now, the project is in its infancy, and
these dreams are at least 40 years away. But
perhaps well soon make the first steps to
becoming a truly interstellar species, and
discover our place among the stars.
Sooner or later,
we must look
to the stars
Stephen Hawking
The Alpha Centauri System
Alpha Centauri is not a single star. The system is actually
composed of three stars: Alpha Centauri A and B, which are
somewhat similar to the Sun, and Alpha Centauri C, or
Proxima Centauri, which is a small and faint red dwarf. Its
not known which of the three Breakthrough Starshot
would visit yet.
Early in 2015, it was announced that Alpha
Centauri B might play host to a planet, dubbed
Alpha Centauri Bb, which was thought to be
located in a tight and uninhabitable orbit. Later
research suggested that Alpha Centauri Bb
might not actually exist at all, and could
simply have been a blip in observations. But
considering how similar two of these stars
are to our Sun, it is rather likely that at least
one has some planets and with more
powerful telescopes in the future, these
should hopefully reveal themselves.
By sending spacecraft there, we could
return not only images of these planets,
but also information on their atmospheres,
and potential habitability. Even if theyre
molten rocks, images of such alien worlds
would be astounding. Its quite likely there are planets in
the triple Alpha Centauri system

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DID YOU KNOW? ESAs PLATO space telescope will focus on finding Earth-like worlds in habitable zones after launching in 2024
Where next?
Once Mars has been conquered, the search will be
on for the next potentially habitable planet. Heres
how we categorise the different worlds found in
our galaxy and how likely they are to support life
Miniterran
Radius compared to Earth: 0.03 to 0.4 RE
Mass compared to Earth: 0.00001 to 0.1 ME
Miniterrans are the smallest spherical rocky
worlds, according to the Planetary Habitability
Laboratory (PHL). Due to their size, which is similar
to that of Mercury, they are very hard to find only
five have been found outside the Solar System to
date. Those we have found are close to their star,
and thus very hot and have no atmosphere.
Neptunian
Radius compared to Earth: 2.5 to 6 RE
Mass compared to Earth: 10 to 50 ME
As their name suggests, neptunians are similar in
mass to the planet Neptune. They are likely to be
gas giants too, and due to their size, we can more
easily find them in the cold zone at the edge of
their planetary system, where water turns into ice.
Our own Solar Systems edge, known as the Kuiper
belt, is home to the dwarf planet Pluto.
66 | How It Works: HP Mars Home Planet
Subterran
Radius compared to Earth: 0.4 to 0.8 RE
Mass compared to Earth: 0.1 to 0.5 ME
These rocky worlds are similar in size to Mars and
again, like miniterrans, they are incredibly difficult
to locate outside of our Solar System. Most of the
69 identified so far orbit close to their star, and
are hot and hellish worlds, prone to regular
bombardment from asteroids. Mars is the only
subterran world in our Solar System.
Jovian
Radius compared to Earth: > 6 RE
Mass compared to Earth: > 50 ME
Jovians are worlds that are similar in size to Jupiter
or even bigger and are primarily composed of
hydrogen and helium gas. Being so large they are
relatively easy to find. But scientists were
surprised to find many orbiting close to their host
star known as hot Jupiters which has forced a
rethink in how planetary systems evolve.
Battle of the Planets
So far, the most common types of planet weve
found tend to be the larger ones: subterran and
upwards. Most planets are found by observing the
dip they produce in their stars light as they pass in
front. But to confirm a planet, we need to observe
these orbits. This is most easily done for large
planets in close orbits, such as hot Jupiters, and
so these were thought to be the most common
planet type. However, recent studies suggest
mini-Neptunes worlds between Earth
and Neptune in size may actually
be the most abundant.
Terran
Radius compared to Earth: 0.8 to 1.5 RE
Mass compared to Earth: 0.5 to 5 ME
Terrans are similar in size to Earth and Venus and
are often billed as the most likely worlds to be
habitable. Of the 664 found outside the Solar
System to date, about 15 are thought to be in their
stars habitable zone, also known as the Goldilocks
zone the region where liquid water, and maybe
life, could exist.
Superterran
Radius compared to Earth: 1.5 to 2.5 RE
Mass compared to Earth: 5 to 10 ME
Superterrans, also known as super-Earths, are
rocky worlds considerably larger than Earth.
About 29 are known to orbit in their stars
habitable zone, although due to their enormous
size, it is sometimes difficult to discern if a
superterran is rocky like Earth, or a gas planet
similar to Neptune.
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