Category: CE 2026

Recapping earlier posts: we’ve launched from Earth, in one big ship or 10,000 smaller ones, we’ve completed the six-month plus journey and played 2,000 Scrabble games, and we’ve found a place to live, above ground in a lovely domed city, underground or a combo.

Now that we’re on Mars, what can we get local, or what will we need to ship from Earth. Using a relatively simple search query, “provide a list of the major raw materials used in manufacturing,” I found a short list of ninety-two raw materials that are sourced from mining, drilling, or agriculture: from sand and gravel, to steel and aluminum, to petroleum products, to basic agricultural products. You can see the article and the list here: 92 Examples of Raw Materials – Simplicable.

Now this list is not exhaustive and summarizes some categories (e.g., Rare Earths is comprised of multiple elements), but it’s a place to start. Of the 92 materials listed, 41 are derived from agriculture, fishing, or livestock. We’ll address those in a subsequent post when we tackle the subject of agriculture more broadly. That leaves 51. And of these 51, almost 40 have been identified on Mars. Extraction may be more difficult than on Earth, but they are there.

NASA (and other organizations) are examining what we can extract directly Mars. Generally this is in the category of In-situ Resource Utilization, ISRU for short. Here’s a short video on the topic:

https://youtu.be/zmpQpmhigEY

This is a ~13 minute video but it provides details on the surprising amount of minerals found on Mars and makes the point that the essential elements for a human outpost are there. Good news for the future Martian Miners.

Here is a summary of resources, uses, and what it would take to extract them in an article from NASA: Overview: In-Situ Resource Utilization – NASA

And finally, an organization I was privileged to help with their habitat in 2024, The Mars Society, posts interesting articles and information on all things Mars: The Mars Society, or watch this 16 minute video

Colonizing Mars | The Mammoth Task of Supporting Humans in a Martian Colony | Watch

But one thing we won’t have at first is lumber. Interesting thought—wood might just be the rarest commodity in the universe. Here’s a short 1-minute video where Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses this topic:

https://youtu.be/A6mgYFmTtkA

So, what’s the bottom line, what should we consider when we think about colonizing Mars? Well, with regards to raw materials, we don’t need to ship everything there from Earth. We can re-think how we extract raw materials and process them into final products needed for human settlement. We might not have everything (no fossil fuels as far as we know), but the building blocks are there.

With core science research and advanced engineering, it just might be doable. And who knows, we might just learn something that improves resource utilization right here on our home planet—the ultimate location for ISRU.

Thanks for stopping by.

“… My attention was quickly riveted by a large red star close to the distant horizon. As I gazed upon it I felt a spell of overpowering fascination—it was Mars, the god of war, and for me, a fighting man, it had always held the power of irresistible enchantment. As I gazed at it on that far-gone night it seemed to call across the unthinkable void, to lure me to it, to draw me as the lodestone attracts a particle of iron.”

A Princess of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

1912

Mars—that reddish sparkle in the night sky. Mars—a planet empty (we think), cold, dry, and dusty. Mars—it beckons.

I’ve been reading about Mars for probably as long as I’ve been able to read. I’ve read Edgar Rice Burroughs’s John Carter Mars series more times than I care to admit. In fact, a paper on the series was one of the few A’s I received on an English paper in high school.

Expeditions to our neighbor and the amazing things we’ve learned have kept me just waiting for more: more missions, more progress, and more movies and more books. I even ventured to Southern Utah in 2024 to immerse myself in all things Mars. (You can read about that adventure at Mars Analog 2: An Expedition to the “Martian” Desert.)

And here we are. Robot landers and rovers are hard at work. Orbiting observatories are mapping and analyzing. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll see a human landing in the near future. (I keep my fingers crossed for every Starship launch and can’t wait for the next Artemis missions to the Moon as stepping stones to an expedition to Mars.)

At the risk of sounding obvious, the challenges are legion.

As we proceed through the year, I hope you’ll follow along and that my posts spark some thought on what it would take to get there and what we’ll do when we arrive.

Here are nine top level topics to get us started [with links to last year’s posts and this year’s schedule]:

Rocketry. Getting us off the planet Earth and on our way.

[Go for Launch 10,000 times – W. Steve Wilson]

Transit. Surviving and thriving during the extended trip to Mars.

[It’s A Long Way to Mars – Don’t Forget Scrabble – W. Steve Wilson]

Settlement. Living and working in a hostile environment.

[Life Under a Dome or Underground – W. Steve Wilson]

Resources. Supplying the settlement from Earth or locally.

[We Have a Place to Live. What Now? – W. Steve Wilson]

Agriculture. Feeding the settlers. [March]

Economics. Making the society self-sufficient. [April]

Population. Growing the human presence. [May]

Cultural. Developing a Martian identity. [June]

Politics. Governing the settlement. [July]

So, over the next several months, I’ll share my thoughts on these topics, provide some sources that reveal what’s being done or discussed in these areas, and, of course, make the occasional reference to science fiction movies and books.

(Image: UK First Edition, File:The War of the Worlds first edition.jpg – Wikipedia)

I’ll do my best to be informative and entertaining. If you have a topic, you’d like to cover or have questions as we go, leave a comment, or send me a note using the Contact form.

Buckle up, we are go for launch.

Thanks for stopping by.

Welcome to my blog for the year 2026. Last year we began exploring topics related to settling Mars. In the new year we’ll continue those discussions covering topics that could fall under the question: What do we do when we get there?

This year we’ll continue to take a focused approach and talk about topics related to developing a permanent presence on the Red Planet. Each month I’ll post a more detailed recap of the topic. Along the way, I’ll bring in other sources you can check for more detail, and I’m sure I’ll refer to where and when science fiction tackled the topic. Stay tuned.

This should be fun. I love research, and building a future world on Mars means I get to cover a wide swath of our modern society. You never know when you’ll come across an idea or a surprise solution. So, I’ll share what I discover and hope you find it interesting.

I hope you will enjoy my posts, and if you’d like to discuss a particular topic or stay connected, please slide over to my Contact page. Please join my email list as well to receive advance notice of upcoming stories of aliens, strange worlds, and mysteries on the short fiction tab.

Thank you again for visiting.