Life on Mars: Humans will live in huge 'space oases' on the Red Planet in just 15 years, European Space Agency predicts
Imagine a future where humans live in huge 'space oases' on Mars – luxury indoor habitats made of heat-reflective material that grow their own food.
Robots are sent into the vast Martian wilderness, where they explore without the risk of exhaustion, radiation poisoning or dust contamination.
Enormous space stations and satellites are manufactured in orbit, AI is trusted to make critical decisions, and the whole solar system is connected by a vast internet network.
While this sounds like science-fiction, the European Space Agency (ESA) hopes it will become a reality in just 15 years.
In a new report, the agency – which represents more than 20 countries including the UK – outlines an ambitious vision for space exploration by 2040.
'By 2040, we envision a resilient European presence across Earth's orbits and the solar system,' it says.
'Expanding into space is not a luxury but a necessity and space is no longer a frontier – it is a territory.
'It unlocks unknown resources that open new markets and enable scientific breakthroughs.'
The new report, 'Technology 2040: A Vision For The European Space Agency', shows the public where ESA wants to be 'in the decades to come and the directions for how to get there'.
As part of its vision, in just 15 years' time, humans will dwell in 'plentiful' habitats called 'space oases' in Earth's orbit and also on the moon, Mars and far beyond.
These white domes will protect humans from cosmic radiation, offering a place for them to sleep, eat and work between trips outside.
They will be utterly self-sustaining habitats, creating their own power and food, making resupply missions from Earth a thing of the past.
More than ever before on Earth, humans will rely on autonomous technology akin to the droids in Star Wars to explore the vast planet, about 4,212 miles in diameter.
Much like 2015 film 'The Martian', plants will thrive in glass-ceilinged greenhouses, giving us foods like potatoes, rice, fungus, tomatoes, and leafy greens.
ESA says the habitats must protect astronauts from the harsh conditions outside, calling for 'smart radiation shielding materials'.
They will be packed with high-tech sensing capabilities to forecast, monitor and mitigate variable hazards such as incoming space rocks.
If and when they land on Mars, comet bodies and asteroids will be mined, their materials put to use for building materials while also being analysed to reveal more about our solar system's history.
ESA also envisions a future where 'large space structures', like spaceships, satellites, telescopes and space stations, won't be bound by the limitations of the launch vehicles dimensions.
For example, the tennis-court-sized James Webb Space Telescope was painstakingly and expensively designed to fit within its launch rocket 'like a model ship in a bottle' before unfolding in space four years ago.
Instead, such a machine could be manufactured and assembled directly in orbit, or on the surface of the moon or Mars.
Autonomous spacecraft will no longer need gatherings of humans to shepherd them from a distance because they'll have the required intelligence of their own, eliminating the need for ground control.
Space debris, meanwhile, will be recycled and reused to create a 'circular and sustainable' space economy, mitigating environmental impacts
To date, human habitation in space has been limited to space stations in low-Earth orbit, where crew members stay for short periods – around six months at most.
But in the near future, people would stay in space for months or years at a time, or eventually move there permanently, making us a multiplanetary species.
The new report, 'Technology 2040: A Vision For The European Space Agency', shows the public where ESA wants to be 'in the decades to come and the directions for how to get there'
ESA says: 'The next steps in human exploration will involve longer stays and farther destinations.
'Key to the success of these undertakings will be the creation of more permanent infrastructure with increased independence from Earth.'
While undoubtedly an exciting vision, ESA and its members no doubt have their work cut out to make it a reality in just 15 years.
As yet, no human has ventured further from Earth than 248,655 miles, as achieved by the Apollo 13 crew on April 14, 1970.
In comparison, Mars is 140 million miles from Earth on average, and our only presence there is a collection of debris and rovers in various states of activity.
NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX are both planning to put humans on Mars in the next 20 years – but no spaceship yet in existence is ready for the journey.
The most promising vessel is SpaceX's Starship, which has been designed for long-distance space travel, but it could be decades before it's ready for a Mars trip.
On Wednesday night, Starship exploded into a bull of flames after a malfunction during a routine ground test in Texas.
Despite once being home to lush oceans of liquid water billions of years ago, any traces of H2O on Mars today are well hidden.
But experts say there's two miles of water buried beneath the surface in an area of the planet's equator, known as the Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF).
The water is frozen as ice in a layer measuring over two miles (3.7km) thick, according to new data from the Mars Express spacecraft.
If melted, the water would cover the whole of Mars in a layer of liquid up to 8.8 feet (2.7 metres) deep, and would be enough to fill Earth's Red Sea.
Although melting the ice may require an ambitious drilling operation when astronauts land on Mars, it could potentially be used for drinking or growing crops.
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