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Colonization of Mars

The colonization of Mars is the proposed process of establishing and maintaining control of Martian land for exploitation and the possible settlement of Mars. Most colonization concepts focus on settling, but colonization is a broader ethical concept, which international space law has limited, and national space programs have avoided, focusing on a human mission to Mars to explore the planet. Settlement of Mars would involve migration of humans to the planet, the establishment of long-term human presence, and the exploitation of local resources. Though uncrewed rovers have explored Mars, there have been no crewed missions and there have been no return missions.

Mars' orbit is relatively close to Earth's orbit, though far enough from Earth that the distance would present a serious obstacle to the movement of materiel and colonists. While Mars' day and general composition are similar to Earth, the planet is hostile to life. Mars has an unbreathable atmosphere, thin enough that its temperature on average fluctuates between -70 and 0 C, yet thick enough to cause planet-wide dust storms. The barren landscape of Mars is covered by fine, toxic dust and subject to intense ionizing radiation. Opportunities to generate electricity via wind, solar, and nuclear power using resources on Mars are poor. Justifications and motivations for colonizing Mars include curiosity, the opportunity to conduct in-depth observational research, an economic interest in its resources, and the possibility that the settlement of other planets could decrease the probability of human extinction. Mars has some in-situ resources, such as underground water, Martian soil, and ore, which could be used by colonists.

The prospect of settling Mars has garnered interest from public space agencies and private corporations and has been extensively explored in science fiction writing, film, and art. Commitments to researching permanent settlement have been made by public space agencies—NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, ISRO, the CNSA, among others—and private organizations—SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing. In addition to these, there are space advocacy groups that are focused on Mars colonization, such as the Mars Society and The Planetary Society.

Background and mission concepts
Landers and rovers have successfully explored the surface of Mars and delivered information about conditions on the ground. The first successful lander, the Viking 1 lander, touched down on the planet in 1976.

Crewed missions to Mars have been proposed, but no person has set foot on the planet, and there have been no return missions. Most of the human mission concepts as currently conceived by national governmental space programs would not be direct precursors to colonization. Programs such as those being tentatively planned by NASA, Roscosmos, and ESA are intended solely as exploration missions, with the establishment of a permanent base possible but not yet the main goal. Colonization requires the establishment of permanent habitats that have the potential for self-expansion and self-sustenance. Two early proposals for building habitats on Mars are the Mars Direct and the Semi-Direct concepts, advocated by Robert Zubrin, an advocate of the colonization of Mars.

At the February 2017 World Government Summit, the United Arab Emirates announced a plan to establish a settlement on Mars by 2117, led by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre.

Gravity and size
The surface gravity of Mars is just 38% that of Earth. Although microgravity is known to cause health problems such as muscle loss and bone demineralization, it is not known if Martian gravity would have a similar effect. The Mars Gravity Biosatellite was a proposed project designed to learn more about what effect Mars' lower surface gravity would have on humans, but it was cancelled due to a lack of funding.

Mars has a surface area that is 28.4% of Earth's, which is only slightly less than the amount of dry land on Earth (which is 29.2% of Earth's surface). Mars has half the radius of Earth and only one-tenth the mass. This means that it has a smaller volume (≈15%) and lower average density than Earth.

Magnetosphere
Due to the lack of a magnetosphere, solar particle events and cosmic rays can easily reach the Martian surface.

Atmosphere
Atmospheric pressure on Mars is far below the Armstrong limit at which people can survive without pressure suits. Since terraforming cannot be expected as a near-term solution, habitable structures on Mars would need to be constructed with pressure vessels similar to spacecraft, capable of containing a pressure between 30 and 100 kPa. The atmosphere is also toxic as most of it consists of carbon dioxide (95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, and traces totaling less than 0.4% of other gases, including oxygen).

This thin atmosphere does not filter out ultraviolet sunlight, which causes instability in the molecular bonds between atoms. For example, ammonia (NH3) is not stable in the Martian atmosphere and breaks down after a few hours. Also due to the thinness of the atmosphere, the temperature difference between day and night is much larger than on Earth, typically around 70 °C. However, the day/night temperature variation is much lower during dust storms when very little light gets through to the surface even during the day, and instead warms the middle atmosphere.

Water and climate
Water on Mars is scarce, with rovers Spirit and Opportunity finding less than in Earth's driest desert.

The climate is much colder than Earth, with mean surface temperatures between 186 and 268 K (depending on the season and latitude). The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 184 K (−89.2 °C) in Antarctica.

Because Mars is about 52% farther from the Sun, the amount of solar energy entering its upper atmosphere per unit area (the solar constant) is around 43.3% of what reaches the Earth's upper atmosphere. However, due to the much thinner atmosphere, a higher fraction of the solar energy reaches the surface as radiation. The maximum solar irradiance on Mars is about 590 W/m2 compared to about 1000 W/m2 at the Earth's surface; optimal conditions on the Martian equator can be compared to those on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic in June. Mars' orbit is more eccentric than Earth's, increasing temperature and solar constant variations over the course of the Martian year. Mars has no rain and virtually no clouds, so although cold, it is permanently sunny (apart from during dust storms). This means solar panels can always operate at maximum efficiency on dust-free days.

Global dust storms are common throughout the year and can cover the entire planet for weeks, blocking sunlight from reaching the surface. This has been observed to cause temperature drops of 4 °C for several months after the storm. In contrast, the only comparable events on Earth are infrequent large volcanic eruptions such as the Krakatoa event which threw large amounts of ash into the atmosphere in 1883, causing a global temperature drop of around 1 °C. These dust storms would affect electricity production from solar panels for long periods, and interfere with communications with Earth.

Temperature and seasons
Mars has an axial tilt of 25.19°, similar to Earth's 23.44°. As a result, Mars has seasons much like Earth, though on average they last nearly twice as long because the Martian year is about 1.88 Earth years. Mars' temperature regime is more similar to Earth's than to any other planet's in the solar system. While generally colder than Earth, Mars can have Earth-like temperatures in some areas and at certain times.

Soil
The Martian soil is toxic due to relatively high concentrations of chlorine and associated compounds, such as perchlorates, which are hazardous to all known forms of life, even though some halotolerant microorganisms might be able to cope with enhanced perchlorate concentrations by drawing on physiological adaptations similar to those observed in the yeast Debaryomyces hansenii exposed in lab experiments to increasing NaClO4 concentrations.

Survivability
Plants and animals cannot survive the ambient conditions on the surface of Mars. However, some extremophile organisms that survive in hostile conditions on Earth have endured periods of exposure to environments that approximate some of the conditions found on Mars.

Length of day
The Martian day (or sol) is very close in duration to Earth's. A solar day on Mars is 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35.244 seconds.

Conditions for human habitation
Conditions on the surface of Mars are closer to the conditions on Earth in terms of temperature and sunlight than on any other planet or moon, except for the cloud tops of Venus. However, the surface is not hospitable to humans or most known life forms due to the radiation, greatly reduced air pressure, and an atmosphere with only 0.16% oxygen.

In 2012, it was reported that some lichen and cyanobacteria survived and showed remarkable adaptation capacity for photosynthesis after 34 days in simulated Martian conditions in the Mars Simulation Laboratory (MSL) maintained by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Some scientists think that cyanobacteria could play a role in the development of self-sustainable crewed outposts on Mars. They propose that cyanobacteria could be used directly for various applications, including the production of food, fuel and oxygen, but also indirectly: products from their culture could support the growth of other organisms, opening the way to a wide range of life-support biological processes based on Martian resources.

Humans have explored parts of Earth that match some conditions on Mars. Based on NASA rover data, temperatures on Mars (at low latitudes) are similar to those in Antarctica. The atmospheric pressure at the highest altitudes reached by piloted balloon ascents (35 km (114,000 feet) in 1961, 38 km in 2012) is similar to that on the surface of Mars. However, the pilots were not exposed to the extremely low pressure, as it would have killed them, but seated in a pressurized capsule.

Human survival on Mars would require living in artificial Mars habitats with complex life-support systems. One key aspect of this would be water processing systems. Being made mainly of water, a human being would die in a matter of days without it. Even a 5–8% decrease in total body water causes fatigue and dizziness, and with a 10% decrease comes physical and mental impairment (See Dehydration). A person in the UK uses 70–140 litres of water per day on average. Through experience and training, astronauts on the ISS have shown it is possible to use far less, and that around 70% of what is used can be recycled using the ISS water recovery systems. (For instance, half of all water is used during showers. ) Similar systems would be needed on Mars but would need to be much more efficient, since regular robotic deliveries of water to Mars would be prohibitively expensive (the ISS is supplied with water four times per year). Potential access to on-site water (frozen or otherwise) via drilling has been investigated by NASA.

Effects on human health
Mars presents a hostile environment for human habitation. Different technologies have been developed to assist long-term space exploration and may be adapted for habitation on Mars. The existing record for the longest consecutive space flight is 438 days by cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, and the most accrued time in space is 878 days by Gennady Padalka. The longest time spent outside the protection of the Earth's Van Allen radiation belt is about 12 days for the Apollo 17 Moon landing. This is minor in comparison to the 1100-day journey to Mars and back envisioned by NASA for possibly as early as the year 2028. Scientists have also hypothesized that many different biological functions can be negatively affected by the environment of Mars. Due to higher levels of radiation, there are a multitude of physical side-effects that must be mitigated. In addition, Martian soil contains high levels of toxins which are hazardous to human health.

Physical effects
The difference in gravity may negatively affect human health by weakening bones and muscles. There is also risk of osteoporosis and cardiovascular problems. Current rotations on the International Space Station put astronauts in zero gravity for six months, a comparable length of time to a one-way trip to Mars. This gives researchers the ability to better understand the physical state that astronauts going to Mars would arrive in. Once on Mars, surface gravity is only 38% of that on Earth. Microgravity affects the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and neurovestibular (central nervous) systems. The cardiovascular effects are complex. On Earth, blood within the body stays 70% below the heart, but in microgravity this is not the case due to nothing pulling the blood down. This can have several negative effects. Once entering into microgravity, the blood pressure in the lower body and legs is significantly reduced. This causes legs to become weak through loss of muscle and bone mass. Astronauts show signs of a puffy face and chicken legs syndrome. After the first day of reentry back to earth, blood samples showed a 17% loss of blood plasma, which contributed to a decline of erythropoietin secretion. On the skeletal system which is important to support body posture, long space flight and exposure to microgravity cause demineralization and atrophy of muscles. During re-acclimation, astronauts were observed to have a myriad of symptoms including cold sweats, nausea, vomiting and motion sickness. Returning astronauts also felt disoriented. Journeys to and from Mars being six months is the average time spent at the ISS. Once on Mars with its lesser surface gravity (38% percent of Earth's), these health effects would be a serious concern. Upon return to Earth, recovery from bone loss and atrophy is a long process and the effects of microgravity may never fully reverse.

Radiation
Dangerous amounts of radiation reach Mars' surface despite it being much further from the Sun compared to Earth. Mars has lost its inner dynamo giving it a weaker global magnetosphere than Earth has. Combined with a thin atmosphere, this permits a significant amount of ionizing radiation to reach the Martian surface. There are two main types of radiation risks to traveling outside the protection of Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere: galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar energetic particles (SEP). Earth's magnetosphere protects from charged particles from the Sun, and the atmosphere protects against uncharged and highly energetic GCRs. There are ways to mitigate solar radiation, but without much of an atmosphere, the only solution to the GCR flux is heavy shielding amounting to roughly 15 centimeters of steel, 1 meter of rock, or 3 meters of water, limiting human colonists to living underground most of the time.

The Mars Odyssey spacecraft carries an instrument, the Mars Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE), to measure the radiation. MARIE found that radiation levels in orbit above Mars are 2.5 times higher than at the International Space Station, or much higher than the combined global fallout of the thousands of nuclear weapons testing. The average daily dose was about 220 uGy—equivalent to 0.08 Gy per year. A three-year exposure to such levels would exceed the safety limits currently adopted by NASA, and the risk of developing cancer due to radiation exposure after a Mars mission could be two times greater than what scientists previously thought. Occasional solar proton events (SPEs) produce much higher doses, as observed in September 2017, when NASA reported radiation levels on the surface of Mars were temporarily doubled, and were associated with an aurora 25-times brighter than any observed earlier, due to a massive, and unexpected, solar storm. Building living quarters underground (possibly in Martian lava tubes) would significantly lower the colonists' exposure to radiation.

Much remains to be learned about space radiation. In 2003, NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center opened a facility, the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory, at Brookhaven National Laboratory, that employs particle accelerators to simulate space radiation. The facility studies its effects on living organisms, as well as experimenting with shielding techniques. Initially, there was some evidence that this kind of low level, chronic radiation is not quite as dangerous as once thought; and that radiation hormesis occurs. However, results from a 2006 study indicated that protons from cosmic radiation may cause twice as much serious damage to DNA as previously estimated, exposing astronauts to greater risk of cancer and other diseases. As a result of the higher radiation in the Martian environment, the summary report of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee released in 2009 reported that "Mars is not an easy place to visit with existing technology and without a substantial investment of resources." NASA is exploring a variety of alternative techniques and technologies such as deflector shields of plasma to protect astronauts and spacecraft from radiation.

Psychological effects
Due to the communication delays, new protocols need to be developed in order to assess crew members' psychological health. Researchers have developed a Martian simulation called HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) that places scientists in a simulated Martian laboratory to study the psychological effects of isolation, repetitive tasks, and living in close-quarters with other scientists for up to a year at a time. Computer programs are being developed to assist crews with personal and interpersonal issues in absence of direct communication with professionals on Earth.

Terraforming

The terraforming of Mars is the hypothetical set of planetary engineering projects that would modify Mars to allow terrestrial life to survive free of protection or mediation. Proposals for the terraforming of Mars have been put forward, but there is considerable debate about their feasibility and the ethics associated with terraforming.

Minimum size of a colony
No consensus exists about the minimum viable size of a colony required to ensure that inbreeding would not occur. Through mathematical modelling of the time spent by people on work in a colony, Jean-Marc Salotti concluded that the minimum number for a colony on Mars is 110. This is close to other studies of the genetic problems involved in the longer journey to Proxima Centauri b (6,000+ years). Other studies, focused on interstellar settlement, have concluded that minimum viable populations or a desirable number of colonists range from 198 to as high as 10,000.

To be self-sustaining, a colony would have to be large enough to provide all the necessary living services. These include:
 * Ecosystem management: producing appropriate gases, controlling air composition pressure and temperature, collecting and producing water, growing food and processing organic wastes.
 * Energy production: this includes extracting methane for vehicles and if photovoltaic cells are used to produce energy this would include the extraction and processing of silicates, to augment or replace any original equipment.
 * Industry: extracting and processing appropriate ores, manufacturing tools and other objects; producing clothes, medicine, glass, ceramics, and plastics.
 * Building: even if the base is constructed before arrival, it will need frequent adaptation according to the evolution of the settlement as well as inevitable replacement.
 * Social activities: this includes raising children and educating them, health care, preparing meals, cleaning, washing, organizing the work and making decisions. Time for sport, culture and entertainment can be minimized but not eliminated.

Interplanetary spaceflight
Mars requires less energy per unit mass (delta V) to reach from Earth than any planet except Venus. Using a Hohmann transfer orbit, a trip to Mars requires approximately nine months in space. Modified transfer trajectories that cut the travel time down to four to seven months in space are possible with incrementally higher amounts of energy and fuel compared to a Hohmann transfer orbit, and are in standard use for robotic Mars missions. Shortening the travel time below about six months requires higher delta-v and an increasing amount of fuel, and is difficult with chemical rockets. It could be feasible with advanced spacecraft propulsion technologies, some of which have already been tested to varying levels, such as Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, and nuclear rockets. In the former case, a trip time of forty days could be attainable, and in the latter, a trip time down to about two weeks. In 2016, a University of California, Santa Barbara scientist said they could further reduce travel time for a small robotic probe to Mars down to "as little as 72 hours" with the use of a laser propelled sail (directed photonic propulsion) system instead of the fuel-based rocket propulsion system.

During the journey, the astronauts would be subject to radiation, which would require a means to protect them. Cosmic radiation and solar wind cause DNA damage, which significantly increases the risk of cancer. The effect of long-term travel in interplanetary space is unknown, but scientists estimate an added risk of between 1% and 19% (one estimate is 3.4%) for males to die of cancer because of the radiation during the journey to Mars and back to Earth. For females the probability is higher due to generally larger glandular tissues.

Landing on Mars
Mars has a surface gravity 0.38 times that of Earth, and the density of its atmosphere is about 0.6% of that on Earth. The relatively strong gravity and the presence of aerodynamic effects make it difficult to land heavy, crewed spacecraft with thrusters only, as was done with the Apollo Moon landings, yet the atmosphere is too thin for aerodynamic effects to be of much help in aerobraking and landing a large vehicle. Landing piloted missions on Mars would require braking and landing systems different from anything used to land crewed spacecraft on the Moon or robotic missions on Mars.

If one assumes carbon nanotube construction material will be available with a strength of 130 GPa then a space elevator could be built to land people and material on Mars. A space elevator on Phobos (a Martian moon) has also been proposed.

Phobos as a space elevator for Mars
Phobos is synchronously orbiting Mars, where the same face stays facing the planet at ~6,028 km above the Martian surface. A space elevator could extend down from Phobos to Mars 6,000 km, about 28 kilometers from the surface, and just out of the atmosphere of Mars. A similar space elevator cable could extend out 6,000 km the opposite direction that would counterbalance Phobos. In total the space elevator would extend out over 12,000 km which would be below Areostationary orbit of Mars (17,032 km). A rocket launch would still be needed to get the rocket and cargo to the beginning of the space elevator 28 km above the surface. The surface of Mars is rotating at 0.25 km/s at the equator and the bottom of the space elevator would be rotating around Mars at 0.77 km/s, so only 0.52 km/s of Delta-v would be needed to get to the space elevator. Phobos orbits at 2.15 km/s and the outer most part of the space elevator would rotate around Mars at 3.52 km/s.

Equipment needed for colonization

Colonization of Mars would require a wide variety of equipment—both equipment to directly provide services to humans and production equipment used to produce food, propellant, water, energy and breathable oxygen—in order to support human colonization efforts. Required equipment will include:
 * Basic utilities (oxygen, power, local communications, waste disposal, sanitation and water recycling)
 * Habitats
 * Storage facilities
 * Workspaces
 * Airlock, for pressurization and dust management
 * Resource extraction equipment—initially for water and oxygen, later for a wider cross section of minerals, building materials, etc.
 * Equipment for energy production and energy storage, some solar and perhaps nuclear as well

 * Food production spaces and equipment
 * Propellant production equipment, generally thought to be hydrogen and methane through the Sabatier reaction for fuel—with oxygen oxidizer—for chemical rocket engines
 * Fuels or other energy source for use with surface transportation; carbon monoxide/oxygen (CO/O2) engines have been suggested for early surface transportation use as both carbon monoxide and oxygen can be straightforwardly produced by zirconium dioxide electrolysis from the Martian atmosphere without requiring use of any of the Martian water resources to obtain hydrogen
 * Off-planet communication equipment
 * Equipment for moving over the surface—Mars suit, crewed rovers and possibly Mars aircraft.

Basic utilities
In order to function, the colony would need the basic utilities to support human civilization. These would need to be designed to handle the harsh Martian environment and would either have to be serviceable while wearing an EVA suit or housed inside a human habitable environment. For example, if electricity generation systems rely on solar power, large energy storage facilities will also be needed to cover the periods when dust storms block out the sun, and automatic dust removal systems may be needed to avoid human exposure to conditions on the surface. If the colony is to scale beyond a few people, systems will also need to maximise use of local resources to reduce the need for resupply from Earth, for example by recycling water and oxygen and being adapted to be able to use any water found on Mars, whatever form it is in.

Communication with Earth
Communications with Earth are relatively straightforward during the half-sol when Earth is above the Martian horizon. NASA and ESA included communications relay equipment in several of the Mars orbiters, so Mars already has communications satellites. While these will eventually wear out, additional orbiters with communication relay capability are likely to be launched before any colonization expeditions are mounted.

The one-way communication delay due to the speed of light ranges from about 3 minutes at closest approach (approximated by perihelion of Mars minus aphelion of Earth) to 22 minutes at the largest possible superior conjunction (approximated by aphelion of Mars plus aphelion of Earth). Real-time communication, such as telephone conversations or Internet Relay Chat, between Earth and Mars would be highly impractical due to the long time lags involved. NASA has found that direct communication can be blocked for about two weeks every synodic period, around the time of superior conjunction when the Sun is directly between Mars and Earth, although the actual duration of the communications blackout varies from mission to mission depending on various factors—such as the amount of link margin designed into the communications system, and the minimum data rate that is acceptable from a mission standpoint. In reality most missions at Mars have had communications blackout periods of the order of a month.

A satellite at the or  Earth–Sun Lagrangian point could serve as a relay during this period to solve the problem; even a constellation of communications satellites would be a minor expense in the context of a full colonization program. However, the size and power of the equipment needed for these distances make the L4 and L5 locations unrealistic for relay stations, and the inherent stability of these regions, although beneficial in terms of station-keeping, also attracts dust and asteroids, which could pose a risk. Despite that concern, the STEREO probes passed through the L4 and L5 regions without damage in late 2009.

Recent work by the University of Strathclyde's Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, has suggested an alternative relay architecture based on highly non-Keplerian orbits. These are a special kind of orbit produced when continuous low-thrust propulsion, such as that produced from an ion engine or solar sail, modifies the natural trajectory of a spacecraft. Such an orbit would enable continuous communications during solar conjunction by allowing a relay spacecraft to "hover" above Mars, out of the orbital plane of the two planets. Such a relay avoids the problems of satellites stationed at either L4 or L5 by being significantly closer to the surface of Mars while still maintaining continuous communication between the two planets.

Robotic precursors

The path to a human colony could be prepared by robotic systems such as the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity and Perseverance. These systems could help locate resources, such as ground water or ice, that would help a colony grow and thrive. The lifetimes of these systems would be years and even decades, and as recent developments in commercial spaceflight have shown, it may be that these systems will involve private as well as government ownership. These robotic systems also have a reduced cost compared with early crewed operations, and have less political risk.

Wired systems might lay the groundwork for early crewed landings and bases, by producing various consumables including fuel, oxidizers, water, and construction materials. Establishing power, communications, shelter, heating, and manufacturing basics can begin with robotic systems, if only as a prelude to crewed operations.

Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander MIP (Mars ISPP Precursor) was to demonstrate manufacture of oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars, and test solar cell technologies and methods of mitigating the effect of Martian dust on power systems.

Before any people are transported to Mars on the notional 2020s Mars transportation infrastructure envisioned by SpaceX, a number of robotic cargo missions would be undertaken first in order to transport the requisite equipment, habitats and supplies. Equipment that would be necessary would include "machines to produce fertilizer, methane and oxygen from Mars' atmospheric nitrogen and carbon dioxide and the planet's subsurface water ice" as well as construction materials to build transparent domes for initial agricultural areas.

Economic drivers and prerequisites
The rise of reusable launch vehicles in the 2020s has substantially reduced the cost of access to space. With a published price of US$62 million per launch of up to 22800 kg payload to low Earth orbit or 4020 kg to Mars, SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets are already the "cheapest in the industry". SpaceX's reusability includes the Falcon Heavy and future methane-based launch vehicles including the Starship. SpaceX was successful in developing the reusable technology with Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy and as of April 2024, it was rapidly advancing towards reusability of Starship. This is expected to "have a major impact on the cost of access to space", and change the increasingly competitive market in space launch services.

Alternative funding approaches might include the creation of inducement prizes. For example, the 2004 President's Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy suggested that an inducement prize contest should be established, perhaps by government, for the achievement of space colonization. One example provided was offering a prize to the first organization to place humans on the Moon and sustain them for a fixed period before they return to Earth.

Local resource extraction and trade with Earth
No evidence of abundant resources with value to Earth has been collected. The distance between Mars and Earth would present a considerable challenge to potential trade between the planets.

Local trade
Some early Mars colonies might specialize in developing local resources for Martian consumption, such as water and/or ice. Local resources can also be used in infrastructure construction. One source of Martian ore currently known to be available is metallic iron in the form of nickel–iron meteorites. Iron in this form is more easily extracted than from the iron oxides that cover the planet.

Another inter-Martian trade good during colonization could be manure, as soil will be very poor for growing plants.

Solar power is a candidate for power for a Martian colony. Solar insolation (the amount of solar radiation that reaches Mars) is about 42% of that on Earth, since Mars is about 52% farther from the Sun and insolation falls off as the square of distance. However, Mars' thin atmosphere would allow almost all of that energy to reach the surface as compared to Earth, where the atmosphere absorbs roughly a quarter of the solar radiation. Sunlight on the surface of Mars would be much like a moderately cloudy day on Earth.

Mining the asteroid belts from Mars
Since Mars is much closer to the asteroid belt than Earth, it would take less Delta-v to get to the Asteroid belt and return minerals to Mars. One hypothesis is that the Moons of Mars (Phobos and Deimos) are actually asteroid captures from the Asteroid belt.

16 Psyche in the main belt could have over 10,000 quadrillion dollars worth of minerals. On October 13, 2023, NASA launched the Psyche orbiter, which is set to reach the asteroid by August 2029.

511 Davida could have $27 quadrillion worth of minerals and resources. Using the moon Phobos to launch spacecraft is energetically favorable and a useful location from which to dispatch missions to main belt asteroids.

Mining the asteroid belt from Mars and its moons could help in the colonization of Mars.

Poles
It has been proposed to set up a first base at a Martian pole, which would allow access to water.

Caves
Caves would naturally provide a degree of insulation from Martian hazards for humans on the planet. These hazards include radiation, impactor events, and the wide range in temperatures on the surface.

Mars Odyssey found what appear to be natural caves near the volcano Arsia Mons. It has been speculated that settlers could benefit from the shelter that these or similar structures could provide from radiation and micrometeoroids. Geothermal energy is also suspected in the equatorial regions.

A team of researchers which presented at Geological Society of America Connects 2022 identified some 139 caves worth exploring as potential shelters. Each was within 60 miles of a location ideal for use as a landing site and had been imaged in high-resolution by HiRISE.

Lava tubes
Several possible Martian lava tube skylights have been located on the flanks of Arsia Mons. Earth based examples indicate that some should have lengthy passages offering complete protection from radiation and be relatively easy to seal using on-site materials, especially in small subsections.

Hellas Planitia
Hellas Planitia is the lowest lying plain below the Martian geodetic datum. The atmospheric pressure is relatively higher in this place when compared to the rest of Mars.

Planetary protection
Robotic spacecraft to Mars are required to be sterilized, to have at most 300,000 spores on the exterior of the craft—and more thoroughly sterilized if they contact "special regions" containing water, otherwise there is a risk of contaminating not only the life-detection experiments but possibly the planet itself.

It is impossible to sterilize human missions to this level, as humans are host to typically a hundred trillion microorganisms of thousands of species of the human microbiome, and these cannot be removed while preserving the life of the human. Containment seems the only option, but it is a major challenge in the event of a hard landing (i.e. crash). There have been several planetary workshops on this issue, yet no final guidelines for a way forward. Human explorers would also be vulnerable to back contamination to Earth if they become carriers of microorganisms should Mars have life.

Ethical, political and legal challenges
It is unforeseen how the first human landing on Mars will change the current policies regarding the exploration of space and occupancy of celestial bodies. In the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty, it was determined that no country may take claim to space or its inhabitants. Since the planet Mars offers a challenging environment and dangerous obstacles for humans to overcome, the laws and culture on the planet will most likely be different from those on Earth. With Elon Musk announcing his plans for travel to Mars, it is uncertain how the dynamic of a private company possibly being the first to put a human on Mars will play out on a national and global scale. NASA had to deal with several cuts in funding. During the presidency of Barack Obama, the objective for NASA to reach Mars was pushed to the background. In 2017, president Donald Trump promised to return humans to the Moon and eventually Mars, and increased the NASA budget by $1.1 billion, to mostly focus on development of the new Space Launch System.

Colonialism
Space colonization in general has been discussed as a continuation of imperialism and colonialism, especially regarding Mars colonial decision making, reasons for colonial labor and land exploitation have been questioned with postcolonial critique. Seeing the need for inclusive and democratic participation and implementation of any space and Mars exploration, infrastructure, or colonialization, many have called for dramatic sociological reforms and guarantees to prevent racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice.

The narrative of space exploration as a "New Frontier" has been criticized as an unreflected continuation of settler colonialism and manifest destiny, continuing the narrative of colonial exploration as fundamental to the assumed human nature.

The predominant perspective of territorial colonization in space has been called surfacism, especially comparing advocacy for colonization of Mars opposed to Venus.

Dangers during pregnancy
One possible ethical challenge that space travelers might face is that of pregnancy during the trip. According to NASA's policies, it is forbidden for members of the crew to engage in sex in space. NASA wants its crew members to treat each other like coworkers would in a professional environment. A pregnant member on a spacecraft is dangerous to all those aboard. The pregnant woman and child would need additional nutrition from the rations aboard, as well as special treatment and care. The pregnancy would impinge on the pregnant crew member's duties and abilities. It is still not fully known how the environment in a spacecraft would affect the development of a child aboard. It is known however that a fetus would be more susceptible to solar radiation in space, which would likely have a negative effect on its cells and genetics. During a long trip to Mars, it is likely that members of a craft may engage in sex due to their stressful and isolated environment.

Advocacy
Mars colonization is advocated by several non-governmental groups for a range of reasons and with varied proposals. One of the oldest groups is the Mars Society who promote a NASA program to accomplish human exploration of Mars and have set up Mars analog research stations in Canada and the United States. Mars to Stay advocates recycling emergency return vehicles into permanent settlements as soon as initial explorers determine permanent habitation is possible.

Elon Musk founded SpaceX with the long-term goal of developing the technologies that will enable a self-sustaining human colony on Mars. Richard Branson, in his lifetime, is "determined to be a part of starting a population on Mars. I think it is absolutely realistic. It will happen... I think over the next 20 years," [from 2012] "we will take literally hundreds of thousands of people to space and that will give us the financial resources to do even bigger things".

Author Robert Zubrin has been a major advocate for Mars exploration and colonization for many years. He is a member of the Mars society and has authored several fiction and nonfiction books about the subject. In 1996 he wrote The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must. He continues to advocate for Mars and space exploration with his most recent book being The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility.

In June 2013, Buzz Aldrin, American engineer and former astronaut, and the second person to walk on the Moon, wrote an opinion, published in The New York Times, supporting a human mission to Mars and viewing the Moon "not as a destination but more a point of departure, one that places humankind on a trajectory to homestead Mars and become a two-planet species". In August 2015, Aldrin, in association with the Florida Institute of Technology, presented a "master plan", for NASA consideration, for astronauts, with a "tour of duty of ten years", to colonize Mars before the year 2040.

There are critics of the project of Mars colonization. American political scientist Daniel Deudney has argued that a fully developed Mars colony represents an existential threat to humans remaining on Earth. His book, Dark Skies: Space Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, and the Ends of Humanity, challenges the widespread view among advocates that a Mars colony would be friendly to the interests of humans on Earth. According to Deudney, this is merely an assumption based on the largely unexamined claim that a future Mars colony will be a straightforward extension of civilization on Earth, rather than a new kind of civilization with distinct goals, values, fears and desires.

In fiction
A few instances in fiction provide detailed descriptions of Mars colonization. They include:

 * Aria (2002–2008), by Kozue Amano

 * Away (2020), published by Netflix
 * Climbing Olympus (1994), by Kevin J. Anderson
 * Colony One Mars: A SciFi Thriller (2016), by Gerald Kilby
 * First Landing (2002), by Robert Zubrin
 * For All Mankind (2019), airing originally on Apple TV+, from Series 3 onwards
 * Icehenge (1985), the Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars, 1992–1996), and The Martians (1999), by Kim Stanley Robinson
 * John Carter (2012), by Mark Andrews
 * Man Plus (1976), by Frederik Pohl
 * The Martian (1992) and Return to Mars (1999), by Ben Bova
 * Mars (2016), by National Geographic
 * Mars Diaries (2000), by Sigmund Brouwer
 * Mars Underground (1997), by William K. Hartmann
 * Martian Gothic: Unification (2000), developed by Creative Reality for Microsoft Windows and Coyote Developments for PlayStation, published by TalonSoft for Microsoft Windows and Take-Two Interactive for PlayStation

 * Mr. Nobody (2009), by Jaco Van Dormael
 * Red Faction (2001), developed by Volition, published by THQ
 * Red Planet (1949), by Robert A. Heinlein
 * Surviving Mars (2018), developed by Haemimont Games, published by Paradox Interactive
 * Terra Formars (2011)
 * TerraGenesis (2016), developed by Edgeworks Entertainment, published by Tilting Point
 * The Destruction of Faena (1974), by Alexander Kazantsev
 * The Expanse (2016–2021), airing originally on Syfy, then Amazon Prime
 * The Martian (2011), by Andy Weir (and the 2015 film, directed by Ridley Scott)
 * The Martian Chronicles (1950), by Ray Bradbury
 * The Sands of Mars (1951), by Arthur C. Clarke
 * The Space Between Us (2016 film), by Peter Chelsom
 * Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars (2005), animated science fiction comedy film by Warner Bros. Animation and Turner Entertainment
 * Total Recall (1990), by Paul Verhoeven
 * We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (1966), by Philip K. Dick

title: Colonization of Mars


text: User talk:68.156.178.60

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:68.156.178.60


text:
Talk:Alon Weinberg

700 votes certainly isn't worth more than a stub. I've trimmed the article a bit, but I think it could stand to be smaller. Wikipedia isn't a community message board. Imagine how little is written about political candidates in undeveloped countries. Brendan62442 14:20, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Brendan,

I have a solution to this problem.

I wrote the Alon Weinberg page when I was still fairly new to Wikipedia, and when the rules about minor candidates weren't really spelled out. Since then, group discussions have brought about a viable compromise.

A while ago, I created a page entitled Green Party of Canada candidates, 2004 federal election, containing mini-bios for several candidates in a list format. I've been meaning to transfer this information to that page for a while; since you've brought it up, I'll do it now.

This page will be kept only as a redirect, once I'm finished. CJCurrie 00:20, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

That sounds great. Brendan62442 01:15, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Alon Weinberg


text: User talk:66.255.182.226

title: User talk:66.255.182.226


text: Template:Australia-gov-stub

title: Template:Australia-gov-stub


text:
Sessions 2000

Sessions 2000 is the fourteenth studio album by French electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre, released on Disques Dreyfus and distributed by Sony Music in 2002. On January 7, 2003 was released in US. Sessions 2000 featured Francis Rimbert, and was recorded at Croissy studio and later mixed at Square Prod studio by Joachim Garraud. The album reached the 140th position in French charts.

Reception
Billboard write that the "tracks all share a certain cinematic scope, which is not unusual for ambient tunes, but Jarre has put a good deal of effort into evoking a pensive, understated, jazz feel that, at times–particularly on “March”–is reminiscent of Miles Davis’ late work." Also added that "he's created a deeply nuanced soundscape that invites repeated listening".

Lorna Palmer from BBC commented that "the album is laced with acoustic instruments (a mix of live playing and samples) placed over a backdrop of seamless ambient electronics and soft trip hop grooves, with chilled jazzy undertones throughout." PopMatters described it as "an enjoyable and very listenable experience." Amy Hanson of AllMusic stated that "Jarre's six-track view of a year is energetic, invigorating, and after-dinner-drink smooth."

Personnel

 * Jean-Michel Jarre - keyboards, synthesizer, sound programming
 * Francis Rimbert - keyboards, sampler, additional programming

Equipment
Equipment instruments used in the album:
 * Roland XP-80
 * Eminent 310U
 * ARP 2600
 * Minimoog
 * Korg KARMA
 * Novation Digital Music Systems Supernova II
 * microKORG
 * Roland JP-8000
 * Korg Mini Pops 7
 * Digisequencer
 * E-mu Systems XL7
 * Roland Handsonic
 * EMS Synthi AKS
 * EMS VCS 3
 * RMI Harmonic Synthesizer

title: Sessions 2000


text:
User talk:I Typed For Miles

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! Alai 14:25, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
 * Help pages
 * Tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Manual of Style

title: User talk:I Typed For Miles


title: User:Violetriga/Templates6/featured


text:
Talk:Sessions 2000

Track titles
I think the initial removal of the title for track 2 was valid, but I also think that the information still needs to be present in this article - a reader should not have to look through all the other albums - in this case, the latest compilation Essentials & Rarities, with JMJ's own sleeve notes giving the name - to see if they have another name. Indeed, they may assume that no other name has been given to any of them, whereas at least that one track does!

I hope the way I've got round this "problem" is a fair compromise, as it visually leaves the track listing as per the album, but with the name accessible in a footnote.

Regards, --  Phantom Steve .alt/ talk \[alternative account of Phantomsteve] 00:43, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

title: Talk:Sessions 2000


text:
Talk:Reverend Mother (Dune)

Identifying
Should it be mentioned that the sect that produced the 'wild' reverend mother is the remanants of the nation of Israel? And isn't that a little misleading, since I'm pretty sure the Fremen's Sayyadina were darn close to Reverend Mothers themselves. -- Maru Dubshinki

Not just RMs in Other Memory?
As far as I can see from the books, the newly minted RM gets the memories of the entire female line, not just other RMs. Right? Shouldn't the article be changed? JByrd (talk) 02:23, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

title: Talk:Reverend Mother (Dune)


text: File:King george v school logo.png

title: File:King george v school logo.png


text:
User:Violetriga/Templates6

"Developed solution"

My final submission for the template competition is based on my "Simple" design but introduces a few pastel shades. Active discussions (FAC, FARC and PR) stand out more than inactive ones, with projects having their own shade and press and comments being a neutral grey.

title: User:Violetriga/Templates6


text:
User talk:Averroes~enwiki

Welcome to the Wikipedia
I noticed you were new, and wanted to share some links I thought useful:

 * Tutorial
 * Help desk
 * Foundation issues
 * Policy Library

For more information click  here . You can sign your name by typing 4 tildes, like this: ~.

Sam Spade Apply now, exciting opportunities available at Spade & Archer! 14:28, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Averroes. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Averroes~enwiki that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name. If you think you might own all of the accounts with this name and this message is in error, please visit Special:MergeAccount to check and attach all of your accounts to prevent them from being renamed.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 22:15, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 10:47, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Averroes~enwiki


text:
Raymond Klibansky

Raymond Klibansky, (October 15, 1905 – August 5, 2005) was a German-Canadian historian of philosophy and art.

Biography
Born in Paris, to Rosa Scheidt and Hermann Klibansky, he was educated at the University of Kiel, University of Hamburg and Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, where he received a Ph.D. in 1928. From 1927 to 1933 he was an assistant at the Heidelberg Academy and from 1931 until 1933 he was a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Heidelberg. In 1933 he was no longer able to teach since he was a Jew. He was married to Ethel Groffier, a professor in the Law Faculty, and died two months short before his hundredth birthday.

In 1933 he moved with his family to Italy and then to Brussels finally setting in Oxford, where he was a lecturer at Oriel College, Oxford, from 1936 until 1946. He became a British citizen in 1938, and during the Second World War was attached to the Political Warfare Executive, based at Woburn Abbey. He worked at first on Germany, then on preparation for the allied invasion of Italy, and after the war on the denazification programme in Germany.

In 1946 Klibansky became the Frothingham Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at McGill University; he also lectured at the Université de Montréal.

From 1966 to 1969 he was president of the International Institute of Philosophy, and subsequently its honorary president. He was a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, from 1981 to 1995 and thereafter an honorary fellow of that college.

In 1999 he was made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec. In 2000 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in recognition for being "one of the greatest intellectuals of our time".

The Raymond Klibansky Prizes were formerly awarded each year for the best books in the humanities that had received support from the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme (ASPP), part of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. One prize each was awarded to the best English book and the best French book. The prizes are now called simply the Canada Prizes/Prix du Canada.

Selected bibliography

 * Ein Proklos-Fund und seine Bedeutung, Heidelberg 1929 (Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-historische Klasse, vol. 19, 1928–29, n. 5)
 * The Continuity of the Platonic Tradition during the Middle Ages, London 1939 (repr. 1981)
 * Le philosophe et la mémoire du siècle: tolérance, liberté et philosophie. Entretiens avec Georges Leroux, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1998
 * Idées sans frontières. Histoire et structures de l’Institut international de philosophie (with Ethel Groffier), Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2005
 * Idées sans frontières. Histoire et structures de l’Institut international de philosophie (with Ethel Groffier), Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2005

title: Raymond Klibansky


text:
User talk:Bradd260

BLAH!

title: User talk:Bradd260


text:
User:Proteus71

Proteus71 claims no supernatural abilities himself, he has been known to go through pizza and pho with preternatural skill (but not at the same time). He is the founding editor of The Doctor Who Ratings Guide.

Interests
Classic Literature: Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickens, Epic literature,  Shakespeare.

Modern Literature: Patrick O'Brian, J. K. Rowling, Jeff Shaara, Tolkien.

Film: Buster Keaton, Kurosawa, The Marx Brothers, Orson Welles.

Mathematics: Linear Algebra.

Music: Beach Boys, Beatles, Haydn, Mozart.

Radio: The Goon Show, The Navy Lark

Television: Doctor Who, The Prisoner, Quatermass.

...plus Bigfoot.

Contributions to Wikipedia
All over the map. He is proud of the work that he and others have done on Buster Keaton, Mason & Dixon, and The Daleks' Master Plan.

Saving Wikipedia by Deleting Articles
There's a new breed of editor on WP: they delete everything that's not cited. They allow very little room for negotiation, ignore some of WP's rules (WP:IAR), and have had one minor victory already. They are now working on Chuck Cunningham Syndrome and The Goon Show.

Is this a conspiracy? No. WP at-large is seeking to redeem itself in the eyes of its pro-Britannica critics. To do so, every nut and bolt must be tightened in order be considered legitimate. These editors have undertook this mission on behalf of the The Powers That Be who would sacrifice interesting information for the sake of accuracy. Is this bad? No, but it's not the policy of a Wiki that I want to spend time working on. Didn't Jimmy Wales say that Nupedia was no fun because it seemed like he was back in school? What will WP when a bunch of Rule Zealots who think they are as competent as librarians take over? (I'm married to a librarian — from that alone, I can say these Rule Zealots don't have the first clue about managing information, let alone volunteers.)

If the Rule Zealots take over, I hope to start my own Wiki. It would definitely include the aforementioned articles. Perhaps others. But it will be small and not compete directly with WP. If WP wants to be a site where you can find everything you need to know on Political parties in Estonia, the Keukenhof flower garden, and zithers, more power to it. We need that in this world. But we also need a place for trivial subjects such as TV characters who disappear without a trace and British radio comedies from the 50's.

I'll post developments here, if any.

 * I endorse your idea to have a separate Wiki for CCS and other things.

 * In general, I think Wikipediatrix has a point that such listings can be a magnet for lots of subjective fancruft. And that we really don't have a clearly enforceable defintion of CCS (Consider unexplained absences, like my favorite: Zara Cully from the third (or fourth?) season of The Jeffersons. The aging actress was sick in real life and continued to be in the credits as a regular. But, considering how frequently she was in the show in previous seasons, and how large a role her character played, it is extremely surprising that she isn't even mentioned all season until she returns, in a wheelchair, near the end of the season. How does that fit? It's too short to be Lazarus Cunningham).

 * But the first point can be dealt with by someone (or some people) watchlisting the article in question and aggressively making sure stuff is sourced or fits the definition, and the second ... well, if we went with my proposed name change we wouldn't necessarily be bound by some hard-and-fast rule but we could note all the nuances. I think 'atrix's opposition is to the very idea of this. But we don't refuse to run articles on undeniably notable things just because of the maintenance problems they would create (if so, we would have had no articles on high schools). I wish she'd say so.

 * And I really think her editing style merits an RFC at some point. She does the easy work of tagging but never hangs around to finish the job (I am beginning to think use of some of those maintenance templates should be restricted to admins), usually thinks her snotty edit summaries are sufficient to establish consensus and refuses to respond to complaints. Daniel Case 18:46, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

title: User:Proteus71


text:
Megavision

Megavision may refer to:

 * MegaVision, an American manufacturer of imaging systems
 * Megavisión El Salvador, a Salvadoran broadcasting company
 * MEGA (Chilean TV channel) or Red Televisiva Megavisión

title: Megavision


text:
The Oracle, Reading

The Oracle is a large indoor shopping and leisure mall on the banks of the River Kennet in Reading, Berkshire, England. Partly on the site of a 17th-century workhouse of the same name, it was developed and is owned by a joint venture of Hammerson and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

History
The Oracle takes its name from the 17th century Oracle workhouse built by funds from a local man, John Kendrick. This once occupied a small part of the site now occupied by the shopping centre.

In 1997, the property developer Hammerson acquired a 22-acre site of largely derelict land immediately to the south of the town centre. Most of this site was previously occupied by Simonds Brewery (latterly owned by the Courage brewing company) and by the Reading Buses depot (formerly the Reading Corporation tram depot). The brewery had earlier relocated to a new site adjoining the M4 motorway, whilst the bus depot was relocated to a location just west of the town centre as one of the first phases of the redevelopment.

Hammerson's strategy was to create a combination of big-name retailers at the new centre, including a number of international retail banners fairly new to Britain. The merchandise mix had a strong emphasis on fashion and is slightly higher-end than the average for Reading's main street shops. Peter Cole, the development director for Hammerson said "We were looking to bring in a retail mix that would enhance what was already there – we wanted to get the right caliber retailers to suit the slightly higher-end shopping demographic of the area."

The main shopping malls comprising phase I of The Oracle were opened in September 1999, followed in November by the Riverside restaurants, pubs and cinema that made up phase II. Once phase I was complete, the way was open to relocate the Debenhams department store from its previous location on Broad Street into the centre. This in turn allowed for the redevelopment of the old Debenhams site as phase III of The Oracle, linked to phase I by a bridge over Minster Street. Phase III provided The Oracle with a direct link to Broad Street, and was opened in May 2000 by The Princess Royal.

Stores and facilities
The centre contains 90 shops, including department stores from the Next plc (136000 sqft) and House of Fraser (150000 sqft) chains. A third and larger department store, John Lewis & Partners (formerly Heelas) is adjacent to the Minster Street entrance but not part of the centre itself. There are also 22 restaurants, cafés and bars along the riverside of the Kennet, and an 11-screen Vue cinema. The Oracle increases Reading's retail footage by one third, and it has attracted some retailers who would otherwise not have located in Reading.

The Oracle Riverside area, with its restaurants and bars, spans the Brewery Gut, a particularly narrow stretch of the River Kennet. The layout allows space for outdoor tables, and there is granite stadium-style seating. Two bridges have been installed spanning the Kennet—Cooks Bridge, a straight footbridge which links The Riverside Car Park to House of Fraser, and Delphi Bridge, an ellipse bridge providing access from the Vue cinema to Debenhams.

The Free Form Arts Trust were appointed as the arts agency, with responsibility for the appointment and contractual arrangements with artists. Specially commissioned artworks include the Crystal Beacon, a reflective translucent prism by Welsh artist John Gingell that tops off the multistory car park.

The overall centre design concept was created by Haskoll & Co., London. They were called in to design a "retail for leisure" concept, linking the site to a heritage trail around the town.

The Oracle also provides two large car parks providing 2300 spaces. In line with other car parks in central Reading, charges are comparatively high, especially for long term parkers.

Awards
In 2002 Reading was named eighth best town centre in the country. In 2007 the Oracle centre was ranked 16th in a league table of best performing retail centres in the UK compiled by economic analyst Experian. In a separate poll carried out by Verdict, Reading was placed 10th in the table of UK shopping destinations.

 * 2000 BCSC award for best new centre
 * 2001 ICSC award for best International Shopping Centre
 * Secure Car Park award 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014
 * Loo of the Year Awards 2001 and 2002
 * 2003 BCSC Best Advertising Campaign
 * 2007 BCSC 'Established Centre' Gold Award
 * ROSPA Gold Award 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
 * Investors in People Award

References in popular culture
YouTuber and amateur pianist Joe Jenkins recorded a video titled 'Playing MEGALOVANIA in a mall until someone asks me to stop'. He lasted just under 2 hours until a security guard approached him and told him to stop.

title: The Oracle, Reading


text:
Jamie Wyeth

James Browning Wyeth (born July 6, 1946) is an American realist painter, son of Andrew Wyeth, and grandson of N.C. Wyeth. He was raised in Chadds Ford Township, Pennsylvania, and is artistic heir to the Brandywine School tradition — painters who worked in the rural Brandywine River area of Delaware and Pennsylvania, portraying its people, animals, and landscape.

Early life
James Wyeth is the second child of Andrew and Betsy Wyeth, born three years after brother Nicholas, his only sibling. He was raised on his parents' farm "The Mill" in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, in much the same way as his father had been brought up, and with much the same influences. He demonstrated the same remarkable skills in drawing as his father had done at comparable ages. He attended public school for six years and then, at his request was privately tutored at home, so he could concentrate on art. His brother Nicholas would later become an art dealer.

Artistic study
At age 12, Jamie studied with his aunt Carolyn Wyeth, a well-known artist in her own right, and the resident at that time of the N. C. Wyeth House and Studio, filled with the art work and props of his grandfather. In the morning he studied English and history at his home, and in the afternoon joined other students at the studio, learning fundamentals of drawing and composition. He stated later, "She was very restrictive. It wasn't interesting, but it was important." Through his aunt, Jamie developed an interest in working with oil painting, a medium he enjoyed at a sensory level: the look, smell and feel of it. Carolyn Wyeth and Howard Pyle were his greatest early influences in developing his technique in working with oil paint. While Jamie's work in watercolor was similar to his father's, his colors were more vivid.

As a boy, Jamie was exposed to art in many ways: the works of his talented family members, art books, attendance at exhibitions, meeting with collectors, and becoming acquainted with art historians. He also developed an offbeat sense of humor, sometimes veering to the macabre.

For at least three years in the early 1960s, when Wyeth was in his middle to late teens, Wyeth painted with his father. Of their close relationship, Wyeth has said: "Quite simply, Andrew Wyeth is my closest friend – and the painter whose work I most admire. The father/son relationship goes out the window when we talk about one another's work. We are completely frank — as we have nothing to gain by being nice." At age 19 [about 1965] he traveled to New York City, to better study the artistic resources of the city and to learn human anatomy by visiting the city morgue.

Marriage
In 1968, Wyeth married Phyllis Mills, daughter of Alice du Pont Mills and James P. Mills and one of his models. He did not produce any children during his marriage.

Though she had been permanently crippled in a car accident and used crutches (and later a motorized chair) to get around, Wyeth found her to be a strong, determined woman whose elusive nature meant that he continually discovered something new about her. Mills is the subject of many of his paintings (which usually depict her seated) including And Then into the Deep Gorge (1975), Wicker (1979), and Whale (1978), as well as, by implication, his painting of Phyllis’ hat in Wolfbane (1984).

Phyllis had worked for John F. Kennedy when he was a senator and president. She has served on several boards, including "the National Committee for Arts for the Handicapped (aka VSA (Kennedy Center)), the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Natural Resources Defense Council. A steeplechase rider when young, before her crippling accident, she later took over her parents' thoroughbred horse racing and breeding interests, winning the 2012 Belmont Stakes with Union Rags. She died January 14, 2019 at their home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

Homes
In the 1960s Jamie purchased the Lobster Cove property on Monhegan Island in Maine, which had previously been owned by Rockwell Kent, the famed American painter of modernist wilderness landscapes admired by his grandfather and succeeding generations. Jamie has painted many of the local people on Monhegan Island.

He has a home at Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania on the Brandywine. In the 1990s his parents, Betsy and Andrew Wyeth, sold Jamie the Tenants Harbor Light on Southern Island in Maine that they had owned since 1978. The light station has been inactive since 1933. It provides him the solitude and subject matter he most enjoys for his work, most of his painting is done at Tenants Harbor; the rest is done at Chadds Ford.

Style and technique
Early on, Wyeth became interested in oil painting, his grandfather's primary medium, although he is also adept in watercolor and tempera, his father's preferred media. In describing his aunt's way of thickly applying oil to her palette, he stated, "I could eat it. Tempera never looked particularly edible. You have to love a medium to work in it. I love the feel and smell of oil."

In addition to studying his aunt's oil technique, he also admired his father's and grandfather's work, and that of Howard Pyle, his grandfather's teacher, as well as American masters Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins. What inspired Wyeth most was not the subject matter or technique of his grandfather, but his "sense of total personal involvement with and intuitive grasp of his subjects". Jamie Wyeth adopted a wider palette of colors than his father's, which was closer to his aunt's and grandfather's color choices.

Wyeth's artistic reach is broader than his father's and grandfather's. He excels in drawing, lithography, etching, egg tempera, watercolor, and mixed media. Though grounded in this family's artist tradition and subjects, and bound by the same solitude of his art, his wider travels and experiences have shaped a more rounded artist. In travels to Europe, he studied the Flemish and Dutch masters, and learned the intricate and exacting process of lithography, producing a substantial amount of graphic work.

On portrait painting, Wyeth said, "To me, a portrait is not so much the actual painting, but just spending the time with the person, traveling with him, watching him eat, watching him sleep. When I work on a portrait, it's really osmosis. I try to become the person I'm painting. A successful portrait isn't about the sitter's physical characteristics — his nose, eyeballs and whatnot — but more the mood and the overall effect. I try not to impose anything of mine on him. I try to get to the point where if the sitter painted, he'd paint a portrait just the way I'm doing it."

Like his aunt Carolyn, Wyeth enjoys painting domestic animals, such as chickens, dogs, pigs, and horses. He pays particular attention to the texture of the animal's fur or feathers, the glossiness of its eye, the grass around its feet. To create the desired effects, he uses brushstrokes for texture and varnish for sheen. Wild birds that appear frequently in his work are the common seagull and the raven, the first of which also features in his Seven Deadly Sins series. Pumpkins also have appeared in several paintings, often carved into jack-o-lanterns as if for Halloween. Other repeated subjects include tree trunks, and their exposed tangled roots, or tree stumps.

Since the 1970s, Wyeth has often painted on corrugated cardboard, liking the rough striated effect cardboard gives his paintings and now using an archival variant as a substrate. Wyeth has also depicted cardboard itself in conventional canvas paintings, such as the painting 10W30 (1981), depicting a pair of chickens nesting in a discarded carton that once had held 10W30 grade engine oil. He also uses thick, opaque watercolor pigments, straight from the tube, creating effects similar to oil paints.

To minimize interruptions while painting outdoors, Wyeth paints from within an unassuming, weathered fish bait box, much like a hunter uses a hunting blind.

Early
With advice from his father, always his closest friend but always frank, Wyeth quickly developed his technique and style. In 1963, at the age of 17, he painted Portrait of Shorty, a bravura minutely detailed portrait of a local railroad worker. Shorty was a man who lived for 20 years in Chadds Ford, in a humble hut as a hermit, only speaking with a local store owner. The composition of an unshaven Shorty against an elegant wing chair is unexpected. Joyce Hill Stoner, art historian and paintings conservator, found it has the "exactitude characteristic of sixteenth-century German oil technique".

Lincoln Kirstein, a family friend of the Wyeth family, was the subject of his first major portrait of a prominent person, titled appropriately, Portrait of Lincoln Kirstein. Kirstein was impressed by the portrait, and declared Wyeth the finest American portrait painter since John Singer Sargent. Kerstein's quote made it into the catalog for his first one-man exhibition, at the Knoedler Gallery in New York in 1966. Landscapes and portraits of people from the Chadds Ford area were presented at the exhibit.

"Eyewitness to Space"
From 1966 to 1971, Wyeth served in the Delaware Air National Guard. Although at one point he was scheduled for immediate deployment to the Vietnam War, flights were cancelled for noncombatants. During that period, he painted Adam and Eve and the C-97 (1969), depicting the Biblical couple astonished by a Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter cargo plane flying overhead. The painting was executed using military-standard oil paint on a piece of parachute cloth measuring 10 by.

His assignment changed when he was granted top security clearance and took part in "Eyewitness to Space", a program jointly sponsored by NASA and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., to depict the activities of the Apollo Moon mission through an artist's perspective. A total of 47 artists were involved in the "Eyewitness to Space" program, including Robert Rauschenberg, Lamar Dodd, Norman Rockwell, and Morris Graves. Participants met astronauts at launch sites, such as Cape Kennedy, or rode helicopters to observe the pickup of astronauts. Of the works developed, the National Gallery of Arts chose 70 paintings, sculptures, and drawings for "The Artist and Space" exhibit that ran from December 1969 to early January 1970.

Political portraits and works

 * Draft Age (1965), made during the Vietnam War, portrays a friend as a rebellious, proud young man who might be required to serve his country to protect values that he may question. Made in oil, the picture shows mastery of the subject, message and medium beyond the artist's 19 years.
 * Through his acquaintance with the Kennedy family, Wyeth was commissioned to do a posthumous unofficial Portrait of John F. Kennedy (1967), with the understanding that he would keep it if it was not accepted by the surviving family. Both brothers Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy posed for Wyeth, and he studied photographs and films of the deceased president for three weeks. He attempted to portray JFK early in his presidency, perhaps in a moment of doubt or indecision over the Bay of Pigs Invasion, with the burden of power weighing on him. Jackie Kennedy thought the portrait accurate, but RFK and other family members did not like the less-than-triumphal depiction. The painting did not hang in the White House, and after stays at the French embassy in Paris, France and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, it was on loan from the artist to The Vice-President's Residence Foundation in Washington, D.C. Through great public acceptance, it has become one of the most famous images of JFK, including use on a 1988 postage stamp issued in Ireland. In 2014, the artist gave the portrait as a partial gift and partial purchase to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
 * Harper's Magazine engaged Wyeth as a court artist for the Watergate hearings and trials that included US Senate and the Supreme Court proceedings regarding the impeachment of President Richard Nixon, including the tense courtroom scenes in Judge John J. Sirica's trial of John Ehrlichman, G. Gordon Liddy, and other Watergate defendants.
 * In New York during the 1970s, Wyeth painted president-elect Jimmy Carter.
 * In 1984 he painted Night Vision to commemorate the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This piece depicts a soldier of the Vietnam era as though seen through a Starlight scope or similar night vision device. It was later reproduced as a signed limited edition and sold to benefit the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, colloquially known as "The Wall".

Main body of work

 * Portrait of Andrew Wyeth (1969) depicts his father with a sober expression. His eyes, something Wyeth focuses on to indicate character, are determined and focused. The ruddy face of his father, and the large buttons of his naval coat, with all else in black, suggest that the subject had just arrived home fresh from a brisk walk by the sea.
 * In New York during the 1970s, Wyeth painted Andy Warhol, Rudolf Nureyev and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Wyeth and Andy Warhol exchanged portraits of each other. A 1976 show featuring the portraits, at the Coe Kerr Gallery in New York, has been credited with reviving the popularity of the genre, after a period of being eclipsed by Abstract Expressionism. Curator Wendy Wick Reaves has said of the pair: "They were considered polar opposites. Andy was called the Patriarch of Pop, and Jamie was called Prince of Realism. ... Both had become enormously famous but also had endured extraordinary critical censure for the way their art was done. And they had a lot of interests in common: They collected Americana; they were interested in death and morbidity. They really got along splendidly." In Portrait of Andy Warhol (1976), Warhol seems to be "caught off guard without his personal persona". Nureyev's portrait reflects an intense man. Wyeth was fascinated by Nureyev, and found him to have an animal-like presence and strength that is captured in the portrait.
 * Apart from visits to New York, his primary subjects in the 1970s and 1980s were the people, animals, and landscapes of his Pennsylvania home and of Monhegan island in Maine.
 * Some of Wyeth's most famous animal portraits are: Portrait of a Pig (1970), Angus (1974), Islander (1975), and 10W30 (1981). Wyeth knows the animals that he paints and the work grows out of their kinship. When painting animals Wyeth changes the textures of the paint to reflect fur, wool, or feathers.
 * Wyeth's self-portrait Pumpkinhead — Self-Portrait (1972), depicting a figure in black standing in a field with a pumpkin over his head, is as self-effacing as his father's self-portrait Trodden Weed (1951), showing only Andrew's legs from the knees down. Jamie Wyeth submitted it to the National Academy of Design as a required response to his invitation to join, but it was rejected. He then submitted a half-length nude self-portrait against a dark background, securing his membership at the young age of 23.
 * Kleberg (1984), portrays a yellow Labrador adorned with a comical black ring drawn around one eye, sitting next to a traditional skep beehive. The painting captures Wyeth's love of animals, but also reflects some of Wyeth's favorite books, visible on a bookshelf in the background. Titles of books indicate the close connection to his family: Treasure Island, illustrated by his grandfather, N. C. Wyeth; Christina's World made by his father; and The Stray, written by his mother, Betsy Wyeth and illustrated by Jamie Wyeth. Other individuals who earned his respect are represented: Howard Pyle in Pyle's Book of Pirates, Lincoln Kirstein's Lay This Laurel, and a biography of John F. Kennedy. Favored books include The Magus by John Fowles, The Wanderer by Alain-Fournier and the 1908 children's book The Wind in the Willows.
 * Much of his output since 1990 was created at Tenants Harbor. Wyeth's fascination with island life is revealed in its more disturbing form in If Once You Have Slept on an Island (1996) which depicts a young woman sitting on a tousled bed who appears sad and exhausted from wild dreams. The title was derived from a poem by Rachel Field with the opening lines: "If once you have slept on an island, You'll never be quite the same."
 * Screen Door to the Sea, painted in 1994, is also representative of this era. This painting features a teenage islander who Wyeth painted a number of times, named Orca Bates. On painting him, Wyeth has said, "I see a distinct islandness with islanders, a certain edge. Am I putting that into them? I don't care, as long as something comes out of it." This painting is representative of an "elusive form of realism", typical of later works by Wyeth. Though grounded in portraiture, the painting's details suggest a narrative.
 * In 2002, Wyeth followed up with another humorous self-portrait Pumpkinhead Visits the Lighthouse.
 * Inferno, Monhegan (2005) depicts a semi-expressionistic chaotic scene of a young boy stuffing decaying garbage into a beachside incinerator, surrounded by a screaming flock of seagulls trying to snatch pieces of leftover food. This large 60 by painting was executed on corrugated cardboard with thick opaque watercolor pigments, and its completion was documented in a short film accompanying a 2014 traveling exhibition. The work is a reinterpretation of earlier paintings, such as Cat Bates of Monhegan (1995) and Harbor, Monhegan (1998), which show the same scene in a more realist style.
 * A Seven Deadly Sins (c. 2005–2008) series of paintings depicts the traditional vices using expressive images of seagulls enacting each scenario. The series was inspired in part by Wyeth's memories of a parallel series done in 1945 – 1949 by New York magical realist painter Paul Cadmus.

Other works
Other noteworthy commissions in addition to Wyeth's portrait of JFK have been the design of a 1971 eight-cent Christmas stamp, the official White House Christmas cards for 1981 and 1984, and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver portrait for use on the 1995 Special Olympics World Summer Games Commemorative coin. He also lent his support to lighthouse preservation efforts in Maine in 1995 with his exhibition, "Island Light".

Wyeth has illustrated three children's books, The Stray (1979), written by his mother Betsy James Wyeth, Cabbages and Kings (1997), written by Elizabeth Seabrook, and Sammy in the Sky (2011) about the loss of a beloved dog, by Maine author Barbara Walsh.

Wyeth has also produced detailed miniature dioramas (called tableaux vivants), including two 2013 works: one portrays Andy Warhol dining with friends at The Factory, and another depicts Lincoln Kirstein and other friends dining at a New York restaurant. These works were exhibited in a 2014 retrospective show.

Three of Wyeth original paintings "Snapper", "Red tailed Hawk" and "With Green Pepper" were destroyed by a fire which occurred at the Maine Wyeth Art Gallery in Port Clyde, Maine in September 2023.

Critical reaction
When Wyeth had his first exhibition in New York in 1965, he received a scathing review by the New York Times. His work was compared to that of his ancestors, neither of whom were considered contenders in the commercial business of modern art. Jamie Wyeth's critics level some of the same charges as they do against his father — to some, both artists seem anachronistic, too close to illustration, and out of touch with the 20th century evolution of post-Picasso modernism. He answers, "We're charged, my father and I, with being a pack of illustrators. I've always taken it as a supreme compliment. What's wrong with illustration? There's this thing now that illustrations are sort of secondary to art and I think it's a bunch of crap."

According to the Brandywine River Museum, "James Wyeth had earned national attention with a posthumous portrait of John F. Kennedy and other work. Later, he produced striking portraits of Rudolf Nureyev and Andy Warhol, studies for which are in the museum's collection. Since then, Wyeth has established a distinctive style, characterized by strong images and sharp contrasts in his landscapes and portraits. He is known for his monumental animal portraits, including Portrait of Pig and Raven in the museum's collection, which represents various stages in his changing style."

In "Jamie Wyeth: Proteus in Paint" Joyce Hill Stoner said of Wyeth: Jamie Wyeth lives on his own terms with a healthy respect for his heritage and a unique ability to translate acute observations into a spectrum of visual experiences in an impressive range of styles from the laser-like intensity of Portrait of Shorty to the archetypal but ironic encrusted image of an animal friend in Portrait of Pig to the eerie painterly dreamscape of Comet.

Ann Morgan, author of Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Arts, describes his style as one that follows the realistic style of his father, Andrew Wyeth, while venturing into "more psychologically fraught territory". When making portraits, Wyeth sees into the nature of an individual and portrays them with such detail and realism that the shocked subjects "often hid them up in their closets".

Exhibitions

 * Wyeth's work became more widely known after being shown alongside his father's and grandfather's art at an exhibition in 1971 at the newly opened Brandywine River Museum at Chadds Ford, the foremost repository for all the Brandywine artists. A highlight of the show was Wyeth's Portrait of Pig, a 7 by painting befitting its subject's size and status.
 * In March 1987, Wyeth traveled to Leningrad to attend the opening of An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art, a major exhibition of 117 works whose rural subjects proved very popular with the Russian people. In an earlier visit during the summer of 1975, Wyeth had been invited to the Soviet Union to tour the country's art museums, and he had taken the opportunity to meet with dissident artists. After his 1987 trip, he expressed astonishment at the newfound artistic freedom there, and also his concerns that Mikhail Gorbachev risked a repressive backlash against his new policy of "Glasnost" (this was several years before the failed 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt).
 * Since 1990, Jamie Wyeth has been presented at dozens of exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad.
 * Wyeth's works are presented at Mary Louise Cowan Gallery in Maine; exhibits have included: The Maine Influence: Selected Works by James Wyeth, and Capturing Nureyev: James Wyeth Paints the Dancer, and others.
 * In 2008, Wyeth's exhibition, Seven Deadly Sins, was held at the Adelson Galleries, New York.
 * Farm Work by Jamie Wyeth was a 2011 exhibit at the Brandywine River Museum.
 * In 2014, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston mounted the first major retrospective of Wyeth's work, which traveled to three other venues. Some critics gave mixed reviews, while others were more enthusiastic. The retrospective covered his entire career, from drawings made when he was two or three, to paintings and dioramas completed in 2013, and also resulted in publication of a large book-format exhibition catalog.

Museums and awards
Jamie Wyeth's works are in the collections of the Brandywine River Museum, the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Terra Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art, the National Portrait Gallery, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

In 1972 Wyeth was appointed a council member of the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1975 he became a member of the board of governors of the National Space Institute. He is a member of the National Academy of Design and the American Watercolor Society. He holds many honorary degrees including from Elizabethtown College (1975), Dickinson School of Law (1983), and Pine Manor College (1987).

title: Jamie Wyeth