Title: How Will We Colonize Other Planets? | HowStuffWorks
Headings: How Will We Colonize Other Planets?
How Will We Colonize Other Planets?
Lunar Living
Successful Settlement of Mars
Establishing Colonies Beyond Mars
Heading for a Planet in Another Star System
Citation

Content: But in a plan that the agency published in 2015, the initial mission would be complex. Astronauts would make the 180-day trip to Mars in a crew habitat module, a two-level container that would double as a habitat on the Martian surface. By the time the astronauts landed, a separate laboratory module, a rover vehicle and other equipment — including a nuclear reactor — and supplies already would be waiting for them on the Martian surface, after being transported there by robotic spacecraft. Another spacecraft, fueled for a return to Earth, would be positioned in orbit to enable the initial crew to eventually return to Earth [source: NASA ]. Subsequent missions might expand that original base or set up others to form a Mars colony. Advertisement
On Mars, human colonists would have to grow their own food. NASA has been experimenting with growing vegetables on the International Space Station, and also has developed simulated Martian soil, which contains nutrients that plants would need to survive, to better understand how it could be used to grow crops [source: NASA ]. Over the years, science fiction writers and futurists have speculated about the possibility of terraforming Mars, to transform its environment to something closer to Earth's.