Post-Modern Martian Troglodytes

 Using drones to excavate cave dwellings before Post-Modern EarthTroglodytes arrive upon Mars may be one of the more safe and economic approaches to constructing dwellings for explorers. It might in fact be an upgrade over the probable future government-corporate modus operandi toward erecting clusters of disposable and relocatable extraterrestrial shelters that could be unsafe at any speed. Rock drill drones and drones planting explosive charge to blast into well selected martian hillsides could be the first of a two-stage process to manufacture cave dwellings. The second phase would have rock drills make holes for expansion bolts along the perimeter entrance for front wall panels to attach to. The panels would need to be designed to have flexible membranes on surfaces attached to the cave to seal against air leaks.

Mining technology is quite mature. Adapting it to Martian conditions will require innovation and invention. Shaped explosive and cratering charges placed by drone operators to reduce the use of heavy equipment will be necessary. Development of safely spaced mines after the initial housing is built to create space for industrial, scientific and recreational opportunities could follow the rise of Martian mining technology. A post-modern cave district might provide several alternative shelters in case one’s air seal fails catastrophically. Alternative shelters within easy waking or drone deliver distance would create a better survival footing.

Plainly there are innumerable ways to place surveillance and inspection cameras on mars able to provide drone operators on earth with near real-time information for control. That would work as well for drones picking up and delivering cargo from pilotless spacecraft delivering building supplies from Earth and the Moon base.

Water might be the most difficult delta v challenge for humans living on Mars to satisfy. A human needs about five gallons a water a week for drinking, and water weighs perhaps 7 pounds per gallon. It would require a two-hundred ten to 250 gallons of water per troglodyte each month of martian residency, and more than 2400 lbs for a year adding up to quite a lot of material to fly from Earth. Instead the water should be harvested from existing deposits on Mars.

Harvesting Martian water from ice deposits should be technically too challenging for drones. After the water is sampled for purity it would need to be transported by drone vehicles to the cave dwellings. Using sunlight for solar voltaic power, and with solar panels decreasing in cost almost on a semi-annual basis electrolysis could separate some of the water made from ice into constituent parts. Bringing oxygen from Earth is rather impractical too so producing it in the cave dweller’s neighborhood would be the better choice.

Before the first long-term martian settlements are established experimenting with cave-home construction and building electric drone vehicles able to charge from power lines or power stations for transport need be started. Though a small nuclear plant may work on Mars to generate power, electric vehicles and recharging stations or even in-line electricity for direct power for vehicles should go ahead too.