In Fall 2018, The Mars Society offered a prize for the best design and description of a 1000 person colony on Mars. The twenty page plans had to account for the colony location and design, the economic success of the colony, the socio/cultural environment, the governance processes, and the aesthetics of living on Mars. One hundred teams from around the world responded with their proposals. This book presents 22 of the plans judged to be the best to address all these requirements in a comprehensive way. The depth and breadth of this thinking of teams from around the planet Earth as they planned and described their concepts for settling the Red Planet can only be fully appreciated by reading all of the design reports in this book.

Colony One Mars All contact is lost with the first human colony on Mars during a long and destructive sandstorm. Satellite imagery of the aftermath shows extensive damage to the facility. The fifty-four colonists who called it home are presumed dead. Three years later, a new mission sets down on the planet surface to investigate what remains of the derelict site. But, it's not long before they realize the colony is not as lifeless as everyone thought. Someone is still alive -- hiding out somewhere. Yet, before they can find the elusive colonist a strange illness starts to affect the crew. Pressure now mounts on Biologist, Dr. Jann Malbec, to locate the source and find a way to fight it. However, as she investigates she begins to suspect a dark and deadly secret lurking within the colony. A secret that threatens not just the crew but the entire population of Earth. With limited resources and time running out, she must find some answers and find them fast. Because if she doesn't, none of them will be going home. Colony Two Mars The only survivor of the ill-fated ISA mission is now stranded on Mars. Having been designated a bio-hazard by Earth, any hope of returning home is all but gone. She is alone, isolated, and abandoned. That is, until another human shows up in the main colony airlock. However, he's barely alive and soon dies without regaining consciousness. More disturbing though, a DNA test identifies him as a colonist who has already died, several years earlier - impossible as that may be. Nevertheless, there is only one place he could have come from, the mine on the far side of the Jezero crater - Colony Two. An outpost they had presumed was long dead. But if he survived, maybe there are others still alive? She now has no choice but to attempt the dangerous journey across the crater to investigate. Because if she doesn't find some answers soon, her only future is to die alone on Mars. Colony Three Mars Now that the truth of the genetic experiments on Mars has been revealed, new missions are on their way to gain control of this extraordinary technology. In the process, they seek to exploit and enslave the colonists-turning them into nothing more than lab rats. Worse, these newcomers are well armed, and prepared to go to war with each other to win control of the colony and its people. But Dr. Jann Malbec has a secret, one that she could use to spare the colony and save the colonists from this fate. However, by using it she will almost certainly doom Earth to a planet-wide pandemic of apocalyptic proportions. Yet she must choose. Earth or Mars-which is is going to be?

Since the beginning of human history Mars has been an alluring dream; the stuff of legends, gods, and mystery. The planet most like ours, it has still been thought impossible to reach, let alone explore and inhabit. Now with the advent of a revolutionary new plan, all this has changed. Leading space exploration authority Robert Zubrin has crafted a daring new blueprint, Mars Direct, presented here with illustrations, photographs, and engaging anecdotes. The Case for Mars is not a vision for the far future or one that will cost us impossible billions. It explains step-by-step how we can use present-day technology to send humans to Mars within ten years; actually produce fuel and oxygen on the planet's surface with Martian natural resources; how we can build bases and settlements; and how we can one day "terraform" Mars; a process that can alter the atmosphere of planets and pave the way for sustainable life.

It's bad luck to be born on Mars. Welcome to the second book of the On Mars series, a story of our near-future. Journey with Jake, born in the first Martian colony, as he seeks help from the only other humans on Mars. But Earthers are as dangerous as the hostile planet. The colonists need resources - metals and minerals - to survive, but their prospecting efforts have failed. A second generation Mars-born, Jake's lucky to avoid the sicknesses that plague the settlement, but refuses to father any children in the doomed colony. He joins a team to explore beyond the Tharsis Plain, but his first trip ends in near-disaster. Half a planet away, new-comers from Earth start a second colony, but refuse all attempts at communication. Jake, with his friend Martha, plots a way to contact them and perhaps find help for his family and friends. He continues to prospect despite the risk on Mars' hostile surface, and waits for the enigmatic Sino-African colony to respond. But greater dangers await if they do. Read this book to discover if humans can claim Mars as home.

Xenon Hybrid, the Red Planet's ceremonial head-of-state, has not been seen for many years after withdrawing to an isolated enclave in the far north where he steadily built up a following of citizens seeking out an alternative lifestyle. They bother no one, and no one bothers them. But when an Earth-bound ship explodes on the launchpad in Jezero City, and the DNA from two bodies recovered at the site are found to be an exact match, Dr. Jann Malbec is convinced that they are the product of a covert cloning program. More troubling still is that the DNA is a very close match to the reclusive and enigmatic Xenon. Meanwhile, newly promoted Mars Envoy, Mia Sorelli, finds herself stuck on the planet after her ride back to Earth is now a charred hunk of metal. She begins to get an uneasy feeling that someone may be trying to assassinate her, and Mia's suspicions start to focus on a clandestine group of Xenon's followers. As these parallel investigations begin to converge, it becomes apparent to both Jann and Mia that the peaceful and simple lifestyle of the Xenonists is not all that it seems. There is a darker ideology bubbling underneath the surface, one that threatens to bring catastrophe to the entire population on Mars. But will anyone believe them in time?

The search for life on Mars—and the moral issues confronting us as we prepare to send humans there Does life exist on Mars? The question has captivated humans for centuries, but today it has taken on new urgency. As space agencies gear up to send the first manned missions to the Red Planet, we have a responsibility to think deeply about what kinds of life may already dwell there—and whether we have the right to invite ourselves in. Telling the complete story of our ongoing quest to answer one of the most tantalizing questions in astronomy, David Weintraub grapples with the profound moral and ethical questions confronting us as we prepare to introduce an unpredictable new life form—ourselves—into the Martian biosphere. Now with an afterword that discusses the most recent discoveries, Life on Mars explains what we need to know before we go.

How can a colony on Mars survive when the greatest danger on the planet is humanity itself? All contact is lost with the first human colony on Mars during a long and destructive sandstorm. Satellite imagery of the aftermath shows extensive damage to the facility, and the fifty-four colonists who called it home are presumed dead. Three years later, a new mission sets down on the planet surface to investigate what remains of the derelict site. But, it's not long before they realize the colony is not as lifeless as everyone thought. Someone is still alive -- hiding out somewhere. Yet, before they can find the elusive colonist a strange illness starts to affect the crew. Pressure now mounts on Biologist, Dr. Jann Malbec, to locate the source and find a way to fight it. However, as she investigates she begins to suspect a dark and deadly secret lurking within the facility. A secret that threatens not just the crew but the entire population of Earth. With limited resources and time running out, she must find some answers and find them fast. Because if she doesn't, none of them will be going home. About Colony One Mars: This is the first book in a Sci-Fi series set in a human colony on Mars. The science depicted is, for the most part, plausible. In other words, what's technically possible with either current technology or taking experimental research a step or two further. That said, you won't need a calculator or a slide-rule to enjoy the story.