How to build a Mars colony that lasts...

[keithisco]

With all the current hype around manned missions to Mars, the New Scientist reports from the first "Human to Mars summit:

"Mars can't just be a one-shot mission," says Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon.

He's part of a group who met last week in Washington DC for the first Human to Mars Summit, or H2M. The astronauts, researchers and space flight firms aim to chart a path to the Red Planet by 2030.

And they are thinking beyond mere visits. Though it won't be easy, they say establishing a permanent, sustainable outpost on the Red Planet may be our civilisation's only chance of long-term continuity.

"Single-planet species don't survive," says former astronaut John Grunsfeld, who still works at NASA. "That's a pretty sound theorem – just look at the dinosaurs. But we don't want to prove it."

Read more (courtesy The New Scientist): http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23542?cmpid=NLC|NSNS|2013-2305-GLOBAL&utm_medium=NLC&utm_source=NSNS