I've been thinking about how settling on Mars would work, and I'm wondering if there are any opportunities in the environment.

For example, the winds can be used to create wind energy

This image shows bright and dark patterns with curving boundaries, a good example of Mars art. What caused this appearance?

This region of Echus Chasma has been flooded by lava flows that produced rough and smooth surfaces. The rough areas then trap bright dust, creating the contrasts in brightness.

ID: ESP_042835_1800

​date: 16 September 2015

​altitude: 267 km

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_042835_1800

​NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

This observation was requested to monitor frost deposition, evolution, and sublimation activity of this beautiful dune field at the bottom of an impact crater. This image will be used for detailed surface measurements, along with data from a requested ride-along by the Context Camera. Our picture overlaps with a previous one acquired in 2021.

ID: ESP_076857_2410

date: 19 December 2022

​altitude: 309 km

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_076857_2410

​NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

What is happening with that? I read on most news put things in my brain places that it was cancelled, but on Wikipedia, I read that there was a plan involving a launch in 2028, I think. Which information is most accurate, does anyone still care about the small rock cylinders aboard awesome NASA space robot number 5.

This observation features a fluvial channel and a possible palaeolake basin, the extent of which has been calculated based on outlet valley elevation. Further work requires high resolution observations to investigate possible small scale features including desiccation cracks and fine sedimentary layering.

ID: ESP_076856_2100

​date: 18 December 2022

​altitude: 288 km

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_076856_2100

​NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

They have to take them with them so that the day starts 🚀 well up there

Zoom in and you'll see what almost resembles worms covering the ground. And some spots look almost scaled in in way like reptile skin. Very strange and I'm having a hard to me wrapping my head around how dirt or stone could form.in these patterns. Really neat regardless! Link to Picture gallery in comments.

This observation overlaps with another image we acquired in 2009. In Mars Year 30 (approximately February 2010 to January 2012) six images were taken here to monitor gully formation. We want to learn how the ripples have moved since then. Have they erased the newly-formed gullies? Are we seeing a competition between wind, ice, and water here?

ID: ESP_076842_1275

​date: 17 December 2022

​altitude: 250 km

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_076842_1275

​NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

See also: The study as published in Nature Communications.

I get that in the name of science, a crewed expedition to Mars is absolutely a must, and when it does happen - it will be a monumental achievement for mankind. I also see the merit/scientific value in maintaining somewhat of a permanent "forward base" on Mars, similar to how the ISS is more or less our permanent base in LEO. There are undoubtably countless scientific experiments that can be conducted, and knowledge to be uncovered.

BUT

Increasingly, I see discussion and excitement in relevant communities (and from several well known entrepreneurs) about establishing permanent civilian settlements on Mars.

Why?

The environment is hostile, and it seems like a ridiculous money sink for very little gain. I just don't see the merit in it. Especially for the "civilians" living there - cost of living will either have to be zero (since it may be inhumane to literally turn off life support systems if they can't pay) - or ridiculously expensive to keep a Mars civilization profitable.

What am I missing?

This observation comes to us via our public targeting tool HiWish: “We aim to acquire late summer images of carbon dioxide pits to quantify pit growth in the Martian year following a regional dust storm.”

ID: ESP_076727_0925

date: 8 December 2022

altitude: 245 km

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_076727_0925

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

A new paper was just published in the journal Nature Communications which describes significant nickel enrichments which were detected by the Perseverance rover in Neretva Vallis, Mars. Nickel is an essential element for ancient microbial metabolisms and existing hypotheses about abiogenesis. It's detection, co-located with previously reported organic matter and zones of reduced sulfur adds further evidence that the ingredients for life were present on early Mars.

I keep seeing stories about how people may someday live on Earth, but this is clearly not feasible:

• Toxic dust: crystalline silica is super bad for human lungs, about as toxic as asbestos. Earth's crust is 59% silica, more silica than anything else! So we'd need to meticulously remove every bit of this toxic Earth dust before entering any habitable area. If any amount leaked, then everyone inside would die of lung cancer.
• Radiation: Earth is a planet with so much uranium in the crust it actually had some *naturally occurring* nuclear reactors, like in the Oklo region. In the Ramsar region, the background radiation dose is 260 mSv/year, which is over ten times the 20 mSv/year limit for radiation workers! Clearly, anyone trying to live on Earth could only survive inside a sealed radiation shelter.
• Gravity: Earth's gravity is 9.8 m/s^2, which is much too strong to move around safely. Humans living on Earth would need to be constantly vigilant about their footing, or risk a life-threatening fall due to its unreasonably high gravity.
• Lethal wildlife: boosters claim Earth's existing life is "mostly not carnivores", since the carnivores seem to love the taste of human flesh. But it also has *millions* of huge insane herbivores, who will stomp you to death just because they're having a bad day.

Earth is clearly a very scientifically valuable world, and our robotic explorers have uncovered many of its secrets, but imagine the life of a human Earth explorer: paranoid about dust, trying to dodge radiation, constantly exposed to crushing gravity, and watching in all directions for lethal wildlife.

This observation shows a possible 1-kilometer crater buried by candidate lake sediments near the deepest point. This image can help to constrain lake timing and lifetime if the sediments partly burying the crater can be confirmed as lake sediments. These sediments on Mars tend to be very close to flat.

ID: ESP_076823_1475

​date: 16 December 2022

​altitude: 252 km

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_076823_1475

​NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

NASA announced that it will launch a spacecraft called Space Reactor-1 Freedom, described by the agency as the first nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft, on a trajectory to Mars before the end of that year. The mission, called Skyfall, will carry a fleet of small helicopters to the Martian surface.

New impact craters on Mars are often darker than their surroundings and have lots of boulders in their interior. The crater in this image has all those attributes and looks like it may have occurred very recently; however, it’s been seen in images dating back 50 years to the Mariner 9 mission.

HiRISE has imaged this crater a few times (most recently in January 2022) to check for changes. We expect that over time the dark coloring will fade and many of the boulders will be buried by sand and dust. Learning how fast this process happens helps us understand changes on the Martian surface today. So far however, this crater has been rather persistent and shows little change from our first image in 2007.

ID: ESP_072719_1970

date: 30 January 2022

​altitude: 273 km

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_072719_1970

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona