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Humans on Mars Initiative

Humans on Mars Initiative

  • Mars

    Humans on Mars

    Pathways to a long-term sustainable exploration

    © Joris Wegner, University of Bremen
  • Portrait of Lucio Colombi Ciacchi.

    Lucio Colombi Ciacchi

    “Learning how to produce metals and other materials on Mars will promote a transition from fire-driven to electricity-driven and CO₂-emission-free materials engineering for the first time ever.”

    © Patrick Pollmeier
  • Kurosch Rezwan working in the laboratory.

    Kurosch Rezwan

    “Thinking the unthinkable is what drives me. Mars is the perfect place for that.”

    © Patrick Pollmeier
  • Researcher Anastasyia Tönjes at work.

    Anastasiya Tönjes

    “Another planet means other materials. For me, as a materials scientist, it is a big challenge. With ‘Humans on Mars‘ I can explore the future today.”

    © Patrick Pollmeier
  • Sven Kerzenmacher working on an experiment.

    Sven Kerzenmacher

    “Martian reality will force us to find radically new approaches in coping with scarcity and foster resource efficiency. This mindset will also help shaping sustainable life on Earth.”

    © Patrick Pollmeier
  • Katharina Brinkert at work.

    Katharina Brinkert

    “The exploration of space and protection of Earth go hand in hand. The complementary approach of the Martian Mindset shows us how much space and Earth science can learn and benefit from each other.”

    © Lukas Klose, University of Bremen

  • Cyprien Verseux

    “The Humans on Mars Initiative is an exciting opportunity to combine my expertise in space biology with that of others in fields far apart – and ultimately, to help make Mars exploration sustainable.”

  • Lutz Mädler

    “The Humans on Mars Mindset requires an engineering vision into a world of unknowns and constraints – not far from what we have on Earth, but more extreme and less complex at the same time.”

    © Jonas Ginter
  • Frank Kirchner next to a robot on Moon like surface

    Frank Kirchner

    “Humans on Mars tackles an extremely important challenge with respect to robotics research. It has the potential to achieve major breakthroughs towards creating robots that are fit for everyday life.”

    © Patrick Pollmeier
  • Daniel Meyer

    Daniel Meyer

    “The unique boundary conditions on Mars require us to re-think manufacturing in a multi-disciplinary approach, which will lead to exciting developments also applicable to the challenges on Earth.”

    © Leibniz-IWT
  • Researcher Christiane Heinecke.

    Christiane Heinicke

    “We set out to find ground-breakingly new answers to sustaining humans on Mars. I love the interdisciplinary challenge and the inevitable implications for our life on Earth.”

    © Patrick Pollmeier
  • Professor Kirsten Tracht at work.

    Kirsten Tracht

    “Planning for Mars habitats will enable a radical new paradigm of producing with sustainability and full circularity as the essential boundary from the beginning of product design and material…

    © Patrick Pollmeier
  • Marc Avila, speaker of the initiative Humans on Mars.

    Marc Avila

    “Mars is inhospitable and has extremely limited natural resources. Under the premise of scarcity, our cross-disciplinary team researches how to sustain humans on Mars and applies the lessons learnt to…

    © Patrick Pollmeier

Humans on Mars

We investigate pathways toward a sustainable human exploration of Mars in seven projects funded by the State of Bremen. The projects focus on human factors, such as the interactions and communication between humans and human-machine mixed teams, on habitats and life support systems, and on the responsible extraction of local resources for the in-situ production of consumables and spare parts.

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News and activities

Grafic of Astronauts on Mars next to solar panels
© Joris Wegner, Universität Bremen

Bremen Materials Science Clear First Hurdle on the Way to Excellence Funding

"With the Martian perspective, we will rethink the production of materials under the premise of resource scarcity." 'The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm' has achieved initial success.

Jutta Günther, Kathrin Moosdorf, Kirsten Tracht, Andreas Bovenschulte, Marc Avila, Kristina Vogt and Sarah Ryglewski in front of the Humans on Mars trade booth.
© ZARM, Universität Bremen

Space Tech Expo 2024

From November 19 to 21, the “Humans on Mars” initiative not only presented its own research topics, but this year also addressed the cluster application submitted as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments.

Abootaleb Safdari at the bar Tequila in front of the audience.
© Science goes Public, WFB

Science goes Public - Robots deserve a seat at the table

Observations from Mars exploration by Dr. Abootaleb Safdari, who was a guest in the program series on November 7.

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Publication highlights

Resource_Efficiency
© The Authors, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Resource-efficiency of cyanobacterium production on Mars: Assessment and paths forward

Tiago P. Ramalho, Vincent Baumgartner, Nils Kunst, David Rodrigues, Emma Bohuon, Basile Leroy, Guillaume Pillot, Christiane Heinicke, Sven Kerzenmacher, Marc Avila, Cyprien Verseux

Algal Research 84 (2024): 103801

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2024.103801

Space agencies and private companies…

[Translate to English:] Dependence of cyanobacterium growth and Mars-specific photobioreactor mass on total pressure, pN2 and pCO2 pic
© 2024, The Author(s)

Dependence of cyanobacterium growth and Mars-specific photobioreactor mass on total pressure, pN₂ and pCO₂

Cyprien Verseux, Tiago P. Ramalho, Emma Bohuon, Nils Kunst, Viktoria Lang, Christiane Heinicke 

npj Microgravity 10 (2024): 101

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-024-00440-1

In situ resource utilization systems based on cyanobacteria could support the sustainability of crewed missions to Mars.…

[Translate to English:] Effect_of_atmospheric
© 2024, The Authors

Effects of atmospheric pressure, and of the partial pressures of CO2 and N2, on the growth rates of Anabaena sp. PCC 7938: Assessment and implications for cyanobacterium cultivation on Mars

Cyprien Verseux, Tiago Ramalho, Emma Bohuon, Nils Kunst, Viktoria Lang, Christiane Heinicke

npj Microgravity  (2024) 

doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4348078/v1

In situ resource utilization systems based on cyanobacteria could support the sustainability of crewed missions to Mars. However, their…

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Updated by: Humans on Mars
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