Day in the life of a Mars colonist – with lab-grown dinners & robot companions

WELCOME to Mars – where the air is too thin to breathe and the surface temperature is too cold for unsheltered life.

Yet the Red Planet has the benefit of a 24-hour day – about 37 minutes longer than on Earth – with four seasons, sweeping canyons, polar ice caps, river beds and even some liquid water.

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The first crewed Mars mission has been proposed for the 2030s – with Elon Musk’s SpaceX aiming to send humans to the Red Planet as early as 2029.

But Musk hopes his crew will have built a self-sustaining colony by 2050.

This is what a day in the life could look like.

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To stay physiologically, emotionally and psychologically fit in Martian conditions, astrocolonists must exercise, eat healthily, follow a sleep and work schedule and make time for leisure activities.

Colonists are expected to wake from their slumber to a bluish sunrise, inside a township built into rock faces or underground.

Radiation levels mean Mars colonies will have to base themselves in tunnels or cave-like structures, as Evan Fraser, author of Dinner on Mars: How to grow food when humans colonise the Red Planet, told The Sun.

There will be no cockerel for an alarm clock or even a dog or a cat as a pet.

The best you can hope for is a robot companion, beyond your colonists in arms.

Gym

Decades of research on the International Space Station has informed us well, which is why Mars colonists will likely hit the gym for at least two hours a day.

Weights, treadmills and cycling are all staple exercises for astronauts trying to combat muscle and bone loss – and it won’t be much different for Mars colonists.

New research also suggests that jumping exercises, like skipping, may also prevent cartilage damage during long Mars missions.

The lived reality of living on Mars will be really, really hard and full of what we would consider material deprivations.

Evan Fraser, author of Dinner on Mars and director of the Arrell Food Institute

Breakfast

Unfortunately, eggs and bacon are off the menu.

There will be no ability to grow fields of grain, so that eliminates bread too, along with most other carbohydrates.

“The reality of living on Mars will be hard and full of what we would consider material deprivations,” says Fraser, director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph.

Mars colonists will likely get their proteins not from animals but from fungi and fermented proteins instead.

Astro-farmers and their agro-robots will monitor big stainless steel vats with microorganisms growing inside.

They will be filled with water and left to ferment to produce an end-product like the vegan meat alternatives we see on Earth.

However, it’s possible – with a lot of hard work – that Mars colonists could eat fish.

“I can imagine a situation where you might take in a heavily shielded box salmon, trout, or maybe Arctic char embryos, and you might do a little tiny bit of aquaculture in those systems,” adds Fraser, who has likened the conditions of a Mars colony to those experienced by early settlers in North America.

“But that’s about it. I think that’s where you’d end up.”

There will hopefully be lots of vegetables and legumes, however, growing in hydroponic pillars.

Dietitians may also closely track each crew member’s vitamins, minerals and calories – like Nasa’s staff do with astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) today.

How long does it take to get to Mars?

It’s not that short of a trip…

• There’s an immense distance between Earth and Mars, which means any trip to the red planet will take a very long time
• It’s also made more complicated by the fact that the distance is constantly changing as the two planets rotate around the sun
• The closest that the Earth and Mars would ever be is a distance of 33.9million miles – that’s 9,800 times the distance between London and New York
• That’s really rare though: the more useful distance is the average, which is 140million miles
• Scientists on Earth have already launched a whole bunch of spacecraft to (or near) Mars, so we have a rough idea of how long it takes with current technology
• Historically, the trip has taken anywhere from 128 to 333 days – admittedly a huge length of time for humans to be on board a cramped spacecraft.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Get dressed

Mars has dust storms, high levels of radiation and less gravity than Earth.

While there are plans to terraform Mars, it’s a mission that could take anywhere from 50 to 100million years to complete. 

So, you’ll need to ditch the jeans for something more practical: a spacesuit.

You can wear regular clothes at home and probably around the township.

But once you leave to go outside, you’ll need to enter an airlock and clamber into your next-gen spacesuit.

Go to work

Earth and Mars will not have the same career prospects – and the roles that do exist on both planets will be quite different.

There will be builders, architects, miners, cooks, cleaners, doctors, engineers and robotics specialists.

Early on, jobs that don’t involve getting your hands dirty in at least some fashion would likely be done from Earth.

Paul Wooster, principal Mars development engineer at SpaceX

And astrofarmers, which will be unlike any muddy-booted countryman on Earth.

“The Martian farmer to a large extent is going to be a data technician and a robot specialist more than anything else, with some horticulture or wet lab based skills,” explains Fraser.

“I think the skills of a very sophisticated brewer are also quite likely.

“The ability to handle microorganisms in a fluid suspension and keep them reproducing at a constant pH and a constant temperature – those are the sort of skill sets that are going to be required to produce food on Mars.”

Produce will be grown deep underground, away from surface-level radiation – and humans will have minimal involvement in an effort to avoid contamination.

According to Paul Wooster, principal Mars development engineer at SpaceX, the initial labour shortage in the early-stages of a Mars colony will almost certainly put an emphasis on remote control robots.

“Early on, jobs that don’t involve getting your hands dirty in at least some fashion would likely be done from Earth,” says Wooster, cited by Forbes.

Your job will probably be cemented within the colony, but if you’re an astro-prospector, for example, then you might have to hop in a rover and drive to the mining site.

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Afternoon

Errands

The daily errands of a Mars colonist might include maintenance on your robot companions, taking your rover for an oil change, and almost certainly going for a health check-up.

Colonists will have regular blood and urine samples taken to see how their bodies respond to the unique conditions of Mars – like the lower gravity and radiation.

Trips to the opticians will also be necessary, if possible, as astronauts suffer a higher likelihood of early-onset cataracts as a result of space radiation exposure.

A Mars colony will also have to find a way to make its own medicines, as radiation will reduce the effectiveness of pills and solutions from Earth.

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Evening

Socialising

The challenges of establishing an off-planet colony aren’t just physical strain on the body but the psychological and social tests too.

Fortunately, it’s possible to import instant coffee to Mars – so you can always have a catch-up over a brew with a fellow colonist.

Or, Fraser believes, colonists will have the means to distill spirits and grow psychedelic mushrooms.

So there may even be Martian pubs and relaxed rules on psychedelics.

On the flipside, speakeasies may crop up underground to which colonists can sneak off after hours.

Crew won’t be able to video chat their loved ones back on Earth due to a communication delay of as long as 22 minutes each way.

AI-powered virtual assistants may be used to serve colonists suffering from loneliness – a tool which Nasa is currently considering for distant space journeys.

Colonists may also experience communication blackouts of up to two weeks every two years, when Mars’ view of Earth is obstructed by the sun.

I can now imagine the game being played inside a pressurised dome at a comfortable room temperature and atmospheric conditions.

Avi Loeb, theoretical scientist at Harvard University and author of Interstellar

Sports

The planet’s low gravity will make playing Earth sports harder – so new games may be invented or existing ones modified.

Avi Loeb, theoretical scientist at Harvard University and author of Interstellar, believes humans will eventually take football to Mars.

“I can now imagine the game being played inside a pressurised dome at a comfortable room temperature and atmospheric conditions,” he writes in a Medium article.

“The duration of a day and the seasons on Mars resemble those of Earth.

“Water ice from the Martian polar caps can be partially melted and served as refreshments to the players and Martian audience.”

Downtime

Colonists should still be able to stream Netflix, but there will be a delay due to the distance between Mars and Earth.

This delay can last up to 20 minutes.

So colonists will have to say goodbye to instant streaming when they leave Earth, among hundreds of other overlooked luxuries.