Mars Rover

Of all the planets of our Solar system, Mars is by far the most similar one to Earth, despite it being an inhabitable, radiation-rich land with a toxic atmosphere. Its position with respect to the Sun, its rocky environments and its mass - all of which may have, a long time ago, helped it host liquid water and some form of ancient life - make the Red Planet the perfect candidate for the future of manned missions.
As a matter of fact, having a permanent ground station on in-between planets and satellites, like our Moon and Mars, may be a giant leap towards space exploration. This may lead to a better understanding of our Universe. However, in order to reach that stage of human civilization, many small steps are yet to be taken. Firstly, we should prioritize the protection and well being of astronauts during months long travels in micro-gravity. Next, we should focus on the protection and well being of astronauts during their permanence on the celestial body. Finally, we should ensure astronauts have a safe return trip, via secure fuel provisioning.
Nevertheless, these goals are not easy to achieve, especially due to the fact that not every resource needed for survival can be brought on board, given the limited capacity of the spaceship and the extremely high cost to weight ratio of a single launch.
In fact, it would be much cheaper to manipulate some of the resources already present on Mars (or the Moon) so as to create all that is needed from scratch.


This paper will discuss the methodologies that can be used to manipulate Mars’ natural resources, a practice known as In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). In the coming years, ISRU will be the main focus of many aerospace companies, as it constitutes the next step towards human colonization of Mars and the Moon.
The purpose of this paper is to suggest an indicative guideline for the exploitation of most martian resources. At the start, this will be carried out by using automated equipment. Then, it will continue via human-run hardware installed in-situ. This will be necessary in order to build a livable habitat and fabricate fuel for the return trip.
Given the low technology readiness level (TRL) of numerous technological applications that this paper will explore, some of the solutions to the challenges that ISRU puts before engineers will be discussed in qualitative rather than quantitative terms.
A strong emphasis will be put in the design of the power system of a hypothetical martian habitat using exclusively photovoltaic panels, as this is the most representative topic of my course of studies.