Is the Maraldi region of Mars the best place to build our first Martian colony?

Question

For a map of Mars, click here: http://www.the-planet-mars.com/pictures/map-of-mars.jpg

According to a news story on Yahoo, a spacecraft orbiting Mars has scanned huge deposits of water ice at its south pole so plentiful they would blanket the planet in 36 feet of water if they were liquid --- plenty of water for the Martian colonists. The Maraldi region is very close to the South Pole, but I'd imagine that we wouldn't want to start building on the icy region itself. Instead, we could find a mountain in the Maraldi region, tunnel it out, build our installation inside, and then build a road down to where the ice deposits are much more concentrated. From there, we could mine the water and bring it back to "Maraldi City" (Mars' new capital). It'd be tough to harvest enough solar energy on Mars, but the wind gusts tend to be pretty strong, so I'd recommend placing windmills on the top of that mountain (or mountain range, if we want to have a much larger base for building).

Answer 1

Interesting question. I guess it depends on how deep they'd have to go to get to the ice. That would be the main point right there...
As far as the cold temperatures...it's already so cold on the surface, I don't see how 50 degrees (F) colder would make that much of a difference...however if Mars is tilted like earth (not sure that it is) then there would be long periods with no sunlight, also making contact with Earth a bit more difficult.

The windmills I think is a great idea...and probably will be used as a means of pumping the water out...since it's presumably frozen, all you'd need to do is find a simple, energy efficient way to melt it and let the wind do the rest.

Just some thoughts.

Answer 2

The movie is form of BS, i'm no longer likely to video demonstrate the completed element because they could't even get to the point. I waited 20min to verify the images, and for all of those 20min they continuously said displaying the images and then they under no circumstances do, the images I said were detrimental high quality and the I likely ought to have got here across Waldo in those pictures if I regarded hard sufficient, now to not teach a martian civilization. Now i'm an organization believer that we were visited a number of circumstances with assistance from extraterrestrial beings, i be conscious of the that authorities is regularly occurring with of a lot more advantageous about this than they're going to ever admit, many advances in present day technologies have those days come out of nowhere and it stands to reason that we are opposite engineering some alien technologies. I also do believe that there replaced into once life on mars and it really is likewise in all probability that we are direct descendants of in spite of it really is that when lived there, even if, the video is entire BS, and under no circumstances fairly surely worth both hour run time.

Answer 3

Sounds like you got it all figured out already. Contact NASA. Are you really Dr. Zubrin?

I'd like to see a nuclear reactor for energy on Mars.
What could go wrong?

Answer 4

Dewd........ As long as they have internet, Mickey D's, video rentals, and MTV........... ☺

Doug