03-09-2021, 08:27 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-09-2021, 08:31 AM by stevebowers.)
Assuming that the first stations on Mars will not be self-sufficient, they will need to be supplied from Earth. The Antarctic research station McMurdo needs about 4 tonnes of food per person per year and 23 kg of fuel. Martian pioneers would need even more, since the planet is colder, and they would be trying to set up a self-sufficient closed ecological life support system on the planet. A self-sufficient CELSS would need a lot of material that couldn't be manufactured there.