1. Human Needs
   1. Food
      1. Farming
         1. Hydroponics/Aeropoinics
            1. soil-less solutions to farming such as hydroponics or aeroponics are possible but require systems sent from earth to set up and as such would be sub-optimal solutions
         2. Suitable crops
            1. if we are able to set up soil free solutions to faring or are otherwise able to turn the martian terrain into something crops can grow in the most practical crops would e wheat, corn, soybeans, peanuts, and sweet potatos. genetic modification would also play a key role in assuring the plants survival.
            2. as there is less sunlight on mars and green houses would be very inefficient as they would have to be made of reinforced materials to counteract the air pressure, the best place to grow crops would be in underground tunnels with high power LEDs possibly supplemented by fiber optic cables that would transport sunlight from the surface
         3. Lab-grown meat
            1. Lab grown meat is a good solution for those who are strongly against switching to another form of protein and is becoming less expensive by the day.
         4. Insects
            1. Insect farms would be the most efficient way to produce protein for the colonists as they are protein dense and require relatively low amounts of water and food to grow.
      2. Animals?
         1. bringing livestock is not really a feasible option as they require a lot of land, organic material and space while in transport [see lab grown meat for alternative]
   2. Environment
      1. Oxygen
         1. moxie
            1. Creating oxygen using electrolisys
            2. MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) is a technology that can be used to to split the carbon dioxide into Mars's atmosphere into oxygen using electrolysis
         2. Dealing with CO2
            1. Cyanobacteria - photosynthesis, convert CO2 into O2
      2. Radiation
         1. Protective suit
         2. Genetic engineering for radiation
         3. see shelter
      3. Micro-gravity
         1. Without artificial gravity colonists bone density and muscles will amongst other things degrade significantly.
         2. Artificial gravity could be created using centrifuges inside the structure angled such that they counteract the low gravity on mars.
   3. Shelter
      1. Bio Dome
         1. Radiation shielding
         2. Need water nearby
      2. Teraforming
         1. Good graphic
         2. Won't work/ isn't feasible withing the next 170,000 years
      3. Lava tubes
         1. large underground lava tubes created by past geothermal activity could be very useful for setting up underground settlements to protect from radiation
   4. Water
      1. Soil
         1. Water is present in the martian soil and extracting this could be good way to provide for our colonists
            1. Microwaves and filters could be a good way to do this
      2. Icecaps
         1. Mars has both a northern and a southern polar icecap, which contain fairly clean ice, and grow and shrink with the seasons.
      3. much of mars's water has disappeared- lost to space and buried underground. evidence suggests that mars at one point had liquid water however it is unlikely that any remains even underground
      4. Recycling
         1. Water can be repurposed and reclaimed to reduce the need to produce more water
            1. Floating Topic
      5. cyanobacteria - cleaning water
   5. Reproduction
      1. Radiation would affect the human reproductive system and could render it useless without proper shielding; this could possibly be countered with genetic engineering.
   6. Power
      1. Fusion
         1. while not available today if nuclear fusion technology is developed it would be the ideal way to produce power for our martian colony
      2. Fission
         1. Nuclear fission would probably be the most reliable source of power source of power available today and a large amount of power could easily be produced once a functional reactor was up and running
         2. A new type of reactor called the kilopower reactor is being designed to fit in a space ship which would last around 15 years. they measure 11ft tall and around 2ft wide. the ractors woruld also provide alot of heat energy as they they are only 30% efficent (still dwarfing the previuous reactos 7% efficincy) meaning thises could help produce the heat for our shelters. - the reactors provide 1 killowatt of power and can be scaled with up to 10 reactors. (4 active and one spare would be optimal
      3. solar
         1. dust storms and the lack of solar energy provided from the sun (mars is farther aww
      4. geothermal power
         1. geothermal power seems to also be unusable unless there are some geothermal anomalies near the surface; also no atmosphere means heat is shot off into space
      5. bacteria
         1. bacteria called exoelectrogens could be used to produce both clean water and electrical power
      6. wind
         1. Not possible due to a lack of wind on mars
      7. Both fission and fusion can be used to produce heat which could be used to keep our shelter at usable temperatures
   7. materials
      1. Ceramics can easily be formed from the martian regolith and so a majority of equipment and structures can be made of them when possible, also glass could be relatively easy to procure from the regolith
      2. see cyanobacteria
      3. resource recycling will never be 100% efficient so a lot of what is used on mars will have to be extracted from the planet
      4. manufacturing
         1. 3d printing with plasma
      5. Basalt
         1. basalt can be made molten and extruded to produce basalt fiber -- quite a useful and versatile material.
2. Technological requirements
   1. Transportation
   2. Communication
   3. Travel to Mars????????
3. Miscellaneous
   1. Healthcare
   2. Governance
   3. Magnetosphere
      1. If it were to be jumpstarted by a sufficiently large meteor or other impact mars's core could provide a magnetosphere which would serve to keep the atmosphere in and would also protect from radiation amongst other things, this could also lead to geothermal activity which could be used for power.
      2. satellites could be used to create an artificial core
      3. jump starting mars's core would be along term goal however doing so could jeprodise existing colonies and as such leads to a chicken and the egg type problem
   4. cyanobacteria
      1. can be used to produce bio fuels, however special engines may be required
      2. can eat rocks to extract valubale materials
      3. By pulling nutrients form the atmosphere cyanobacteria could provide necessary nutrients for growing plants on mars. - nitrogen fixing
      4. Cyanobacteria can also photosynthesize co2 to turn it into o2 and may have been responsible for a large portion of the o2 on earth.
   5. Waste Management
      1. Human waste
         1. human waste can be used as both fertilizer and fuel for any bacteria based life support systems
      2. Garbage
         1. while it will be important to reuse and recycle as much as possible it is almost inevitable that some waste material is produced disposal by landfill could be a possible solution so long as it is used sparingly.