Failure of the settlement

A complete failure of the colony would mean the death of all settlers. It could take decades or centuries before a subsequent colonization attempt is started. This article wants to collect situations, incidents, precautions and mitigations.

(under construction)

Destruction of life support

• oxygen
• temperature
• water

Contamination of air or food

... with radioactive, chemical or bacteriological substances

Precaution: If dangerous substances are not produced, they can not pose a threat. If such substances are unavoidable, they should be produced, used and stored in a separated part of the colony, where no other vital system can be affected in case of an incident.

Destruction of vehicles

... that are needed to reach peripheral sites of the colony

= Destruction of equipment that is needed for maintenance of vital systems

Biological

The human metabolism need a great variety of substances. The full complexity of all interactions is not fully understood. If there is a shortage or an excess of some rather unknown substances, the health might be seriously affected. In worst case the ability to work and maintain the vital parts of the colony falls below a required minimum. Such substances may possibly produced by some sort of germs that are omnipresent on Earth, but are not in the Martian colony.

The immune system may get out of balance, since the ensemble of germs around and inside of the settlers will be different or narrowed. If, unlike in the ISS, the bacteriological profile is not updated frequently, some vital germs my become extinct.

Mitigation: A garden with soil is a living ground for many microbes and germs.