<span class="bbc_u"><strong>Technical Info</strong></span><br/><br/><strong>Introduction:</strong><br/><br/>There have been major advances in medical science, but that's about it. Transport technology is now mostly electric, with the electricity either solar or nuclear. Communications have moved on only to keep pace with the advances in biotechnology. It is now commonplace for an individual to have a computer chip in their head that allows them to perform all the functions that we currently use a smart-phone and/or a PC for.<br/><br/>Limb regrowth has become possible, as has cryogenics - the colonists would all have been in stasis for the bulk of the journey. The common cold has not been cured as such, and nor has the flu, but the bacterium and virus that cause them have been isolated and the ability to sterilise them for a limited time in an isolated environment has been developed.<br/><br/>Artificial insemination is now quite commonplace, and techniques have been developed whereby same sex couples of both genders can have a baby that is theirs, by taking genetic material from one partner and placing it in either sperm or an ovum (depending on the gender of the couple), then using in vitro fertilisation. It has also become acceptable for gay men to carry their own children to term in a specially constructed "womb" within the belly. Birth is always via caesarean section in these cases.<br/><br/>Weapons technology has also advanced, but again only to keep up with biotechnology. A military grade cranial implant can control, target and fire a weapon all by itself so long as the user has the correct interface chip in his/her palm. Gauss weapons are becoming commonplace, (using an electric field to accelerate a metal projectile) but traditional cordite bullets are still common on earth.<br/><br/>Lasers are NOT viable weapons, unless your only intention is to blind your opponent. A laser powerful enough to actually shoot a beam capable of killing someone with a single shot needs a mains electricity supply. As the Ghostbusters were fictional, it is unlikely that you would see a soldier carrying a nuclear reactor on his back! Plus, to defend against a laser beam all you need is a shiny surface! This reflects the beam of light straight back at the person firing it!<br/><br/><strong>Reproduction:</strong><br/><br/>One of the precepts of the colony is that it be self-sustaining. Obviously this requires an increase in population. This has already been mentioned by Linna that the first native Martians are expected in ten to twelve months... What about the lesbians and gays?<br/><br/>Well, first off, there will be an incentive to have children, but it will NOT be mandatory.<br/><br/>Secondly, as I have described in the technological advances section in the first post, the technology exists for two women or two men to conceive a child between them. It requires what are by now routine gene-splicing techniques, an advance on the simple in vitro fertilisation techniques pioneered in the 1970s, and for male couples, a couple of routine surgical procedures.<br/><br/>DNA is taken from one parent and placed in a "blank" reproductive cell (sperm or ovum) of the opposite gender. These cells are then combined with the unmodified reproductive cells of the other parent. The fertilised ovum is then implanted into the womb of the "mother". In the case of male couples, this is a special pouch created surgically within the "mother's" body.<br/><br/>For male couples birth is always by caesarean section.<br/><br/>It is of course, possible for both parents in a same-sex relationship to be pregnant at the same time.<br/><br/>It is also possible and acceptable for the male partner in a hetero relationship to carry a child<br/><br/><strong>Pay:</strong><br/><br/>It's understood that "pay" for work in the first 3 to 5 years would be pointless. There IS nothing to really buy. Instead of all income going to paying off a debt however, 50% of the standard income go into an accrued account (with interest) and the remainder to defer the cost of the mission or future transport of goods. In 3 to 5 years, the colony should be able to produce goods for it's own use as well as export back to Earth, Luna or orbital facilities between them.  Eventually, there will be a need for non-essencial items and the colony, being self-sufficient will be able to produce consummer goods for the colony. At that time, the colonist will have something to draw upon to pay for said items, or even import some things. A 1 year wait isn't that long if you've waited 4 years to buy a basketball, right?<br/><br/><strong>Exports:</strong><br/><br/>We have an orbital shuttle craft that has enough fuel for four or five trips to orbit and back with a full payload. Before they leave orbit, the crew of the MCM-1 set up a mass driver on Phobos. This mass driver can be loaded up with canisters containing the ore and any other products and then they are fired towards the Earth on a long spiral-orbital trajectory. Each MD-Can obviously has a radio transponder on it, and as they approach Earth they are tracked and hauled down by space tugs.<br/><br/>Empty canisters can be returned on the next scheduled flight, or sent back via mass driver with urgent supplies.<br/><br/>NOTE: Transit time from Earth to Mars is nine months minimum, and the conjunction when this occurs is once every 26 months. It is possible to ship things at other times, but it takes longer.<br/><br/>You've heard the expression "It's not rocket science"? Well sadly, this<em><strong>is</strong></em>rocket science.<br/><br/>I have an IQ in the high 130s and I don't get orbital mechanics!<br/><br/>Suffice to say, you can't just send a rocket from Earth to Mars, or back again. It all has to be planned and worked out using integral and differential calculus. Sending an unmanned cargo pod is different, because if it misses, it doesn't matter. No-one is going to die!<br/><br/><strong>Weapons and Ammunition:</strong><br/><br/>I think we'd all agree that firing a bullet in a pressurised dome is a bloody stupid idea?<br/><br/>Fletchette rounds have been in existence since WWI and they are actually not a round of choice because the fletchette tends to pass through the target causing minimal damage while a lead slug will slow on impact, flayyen and cause maximum damage.<br/><br/>My invention is a Gauss gun fired round called a Low Velocity Fletchette. The Gauss gun uses a fraction of the energy to launch it's steel projectile that a laser would to do an equivalent amount of damage, the battery for the weapon is in the fore-grip or under the barrel. The round itself is a steel dart about 40mm long and 7mm diameter with a depleted uranium core and four fins on the back about 5mm wide and15mm long. The dart will spin as it flies and will fly at a much lower velocity than a bullet. Bullets fly at around 150 m/s at the slowest. Arrows fly at between 60 and 100m/s.<br/><br/>I would say that the LVF round flies at around 30m/s from a had gun and 70m/s from a rifle.<br/><br/>This means that the LVF is a short range weapon only. It will happily kill the target if fired at the head or heart, or incapacitate from a flesh wound. The soft depleted uranium core means that the round will compress on impact.  The low velocity and light weight means that the round has a low kinetic energy and thus will rarely create an exit wound.<br/><br/>It also makes it highly unlikely that the round will pierce a pressure sealed bulkhead.<br/><br/>LVF rounds can be fired from any gauss weapon with the right calibre, but if fired from an unmodified weapon - i.e. one using a full charge to fire a steel-jacket lead slug, the fletchette is liable to disintegrate in the barrel. To modify a weapon to fire LVFrs it is necessary to reduce the amount of energy passed into the coils in the barrel to reduce the muzzle velocity.<br/><br/>Non fatal weapons are also available but the military being the military, they want the ability to kill people should it become necessary!<br/><br/>Note: Lasers are not viable weapons because of a) the power requirements and b) the fact that you can deflect one with a mirror!<br/><br/><strong>Construction and Mining:</strong><br/><br/>The Martian regolith is rich in minerals. (NB: Regolith is the name given to soil that has 0 biological components). The substrata will be richer still. Using the Martian rock to build with will help protect against solar radiation.<br/><br/>A machine is used to turn Regolith into an air-tight Marscrete. The rock or dust is crushed to a consistent powder and then mixed with a resin (that initially will be imported from Earth)  Spraying the resultant mix over a surface results in it instantly setting to the consistency of baked clay, within about half a second of contact with CO<sub>2</sub>. for the next two hours it remains workable, able to be drilled, cut, glued, added to, etc. but after four hours it has hardened to the consistency of adamantium.<br/><br/>To construct domes and living spaces, the marscrete is sprayed onto an inflated plastic bubble in a thin layer, then further layers are added. The marscrete can be sprayed on the inside or outside of the bubble.<br/><br/>For mining and to dig tunnels, a special tunneling machine is used which will dig out a circular tunnel 2m in diameter. The inside of this tunnel is sprayed with a layer of marscrete by the machine, rendering it instantly airtight. The mining machine uses a small portion of the spoil it has dug out to do this. The remainder is crushed and compacted into super-dense blocks around 1m x 500mm x 500mm. These blocks are then hauled to the surface to be analysed for content and refined.<br/><br/><strong>Minerals:</strong><br/><br/>No one really knows what minerals are available on Mars. There is water but it is frozen into Ice or trapped in permafrost lakes deep below the surface. Iron Oxides give Mars it's rusty colour. Extract the iron from them and you have oxygen available.<br/><br/>Uranium is available in some quantity, and other minerals such as gold, silver and platinum may be available. Mars formed at about the same time as the Earth, so has probably got the same sort of minerals with the exception of fossil fuels. However, there is the possibility that life once existed on Mars, and a mass extinction event would have created oil deposits... We won't know until we start exploring!<br/><br/><strong>Biotechnology:</strong><br/><br/>The next big thing.... In 2012, we are on the forefront of a new technological revolution - biotech.<br/><br/>We already have the ability to splice genes and make clones. The cranial implant chip already exists, and has been used successfully to allow a paralysed woman to use a mechanical arm.<br/><br/>Nanotechnology is just around the corner - in fact to a certain extent it is already here.<br/><br/>By 2121 the cranial implant will be common place, safe and user friendly. You won't pick up your phone to make a call, you will open the phone application on your implant and make a call without actually saying a word, unless you want to... Similarly computer programs. They will be stored on a computer chip in your head and you will use them just by thinking about them.<br/><br/>Military hardware will interface directly with the user's implant, probably via a shielded cable plugged in behind the ear or at the back of the neck, allowing speed-of-thought reactions. Weapons targetting will be by looking in the general direction you are pointing the gun, where you will see the aim point superimposed on the target by the software. Flying and driving will work the same way. Civilians can use a blue-tooth link. Military hand guns will have an interface chip in the hand grip that connects directly to an equivalent chip in the user's palm.<br/><br/>Entertainment has similarly changed. Want to listen to music? just play it directly into your brain. Watch a movie? Why? Why watch, when you can<em>experience</em>the movie. You can be part of it. Total immersion entertainment, fed directly into the brain. Want to experience the same movie as someone else? Link your implant to theirs by blue-tooth. The most intimate connection two consenting adults can share, brain to brain...<br/><br/>In short, this technology will revolutionise life. Sure there will be mishaps - a worm virus written to take over an implant killed seven hundred people in 2096. Anti-virus tech and firewall tech took a leap forward as a result. But on the whole, the convenience of being able to control things just by thinking about them has outweighed the risks.<br/><br/><strong>Environment Suits:</strong><br/><br/>As mentioned elsewhere, Mars is a hostile environment. The 1970's image of just wearing a face mask wouldn't work. You'd freeze or boil. The Martian environment suit is basically the same as a lunar space suit. It serves the same function after all. The main difference is the weight. A Mars suit weighs about half what a lunar suit does, because it lacks the lead weights in the feet, Mars' gravity being twice that of the moon.<br/><br/>Standard Mars suits are white. Military and command personnel wear orange suits.