Mason Korea Seminar Series

An Exploration of Mars Colonization with Agent-Based Modeling

Monday, March 11, 2024 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM KST
Mason Korea (119 Songdomunhwa-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, Korea), Zoom

Establishing a human settlement on Mars is an incredibly complex engineering problem. The inhospitable nature of the Martian environment requires any habitat to be largely self-sustaining. Beyond mining a few basic minerals and water, the colonizers will be dependent on earth resupply and replenishment of necessities via technological means, i.e., splitting martian water into oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for fuel.

Our goal is to better understand the interactions of future Martian colonists through an Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) approach. Accounting for engineering and technological limitations, we draw on research regarding high performing teams in isolated and high stress environments (ex: submarines, Arctic exploration, war) to include psychological components within the ABM. Interactions between agents with different psychological profiles are modeled at the individual level while global events such as accidents or delays in earth resupply affect the colony as a whole. We seek to identify areas of consideration for planning a colony as well as propose a minimum initial population size required to create a stable colony.