[MarsHome] Mars Homestead Project - Press Release

[Joseph E. Palaia, IV]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 25 2005			

MEDIA CONTACT: Joseph Palaia, 508-532-0617, Info at MarsHome.org


Mars Foundation Completes Groundbreaking Mars Settlement Study,
Major Publications of Technical Concepts Announced

Reading, Massachusetts - The Mars Foundation (tm) has completed a
comprehensive, 8-month, pre-design study of the first human settlement on
the planet Mars, an effort called the Mars Homestead (tm)Project. This study
verifies that a permanent settlement can be established early in the course
of human Mars exploration by using near-term technologies and local mars
resources.  The unprecedented, unified Mars settlement design and vision
places the Mars Foundation at the forefront of understanding in this field.

The Mars Foundation's global team of 21 scientists and engineers has
examined the needs of the proposed settlement, developed technical concepts
for Mars-based life support and resource utilization, and identified core
technologies. Detailed concepts have been generated for many technical
disciplines including agriculture, architecture, electrical distribution,
bulk gas, HVAC, instrumentation and controls, information technology,
medicine, psychology, nuclear power, waste recycling, polymer manufacturing,
and metals manufacturing systems.  

The Mars Homestead team will present results of this study in various
peer-reviewed publications and conferences, beginning with the July SAE-ICES
(International Conference on Environmental Systems) in Rome. At this
conference, Georgi Petrov, team architect and recent graduate of the MIT
School of Architecture, presented a paper that describes the Homestead's
architectural design. In August, at the Mars Society Convention in Boulder,
Colorado, the team will deliver a track of eight presentations covering
multiple technical areas. Additional presentations of study results and
technical concepts will be given at the Meridiani Base Workshop in August,
and at the ASCE Earth & Space, AIAA Habitation, NSS International Space
Development, and MIT Mars-Week conferences in the coming year.

The Mars Foundation's scientific and technical team continues to refine and
expand upon these concepts. They have created a settlement technology
roadmap, and are establishing a series of special task forces that are
making more detailed investigations of specific technical areas not covered
in the initial study, including space suit design, Earth-Mars transport,
robotic automation and surface vehicle design. These efforts are being
pursued with the assistance of student groups at MIT, University of
Illinois, University of Central Florida, and University of Michigan. 

More information about The Mars Foundation is available at www.MarsHome.com 
"Mars Foundation", "Mars Homestead", "Mars Homestead Project" are trademarks
of the Mars Foundation.