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Quite simply, given considerations like radiation protection, locations of scientific interest, local resources for building construction, water, propellant production, mining, etc, what would be the best place on Mars for establishing a base?

I am running under the hypothetical situation in which SpaceX has partnered with NASA sometime in the early to mid 2030s to land humans on Mars, and now other companies, like Relativity space, are now joining in on Mars exploration.

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    $\begingroup$ Phobos. The low gravity makes it easy to land and launch from. An excellent staging area, $\endgroup$
    – Justin Thyme the Second
    Oct 16, 2021 at 15:05
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    $\begingroup$ For such a scenario, SpaceX would not be a partner with NASA, they would be a contractor. NASA is a state run agency and it's only going to partner with another entity of a similar type (like the ESA). No government is going to want a commercial company effectively owning part of a base on another planet (or the means to supply it). $\endgroup$
    – StephenG - Help Ukraine
    Oct 16, 2021 at 17:19
  • $\begingroup$ This question might also be a good fit for the space exploration stack exchange, FWIW. $\endgroup$
    – Starfish Prime
    Oct 16, 2021 at 18:01
  • $\begingroup$ @Starfish Prime - well I'm thinking of specific things like a SpaceX and NASA joint mission for my story, and I feel like on space exploration se some people might not include commercial space in their answer to be more "objective" or something - ie, I want a specific scenario, not what is considered realistic by the academic community. $\endgroup$
    – WasatchWind
    Oct 16, 2021 at 19:31
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    $\begingroup$ @Current sounds like you haven't looked at the sort of answers and people the site has ;-) $\endgroup$
    – Starfish Prime
    Oct 16, 2021 at 22:02

3 Answers 3

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the hypothetical situation in which SpaceX has partnered with NASA

Instead of hypotheticals, why not look at the work they've already done together?

This 2019 Business Insider article (paywalled, alas, though you can find text-only versions of the article in some less reputable places I shan't link to, just in case) took a look at some of the HiRISE image requests made by a NASA scientist in relation to some work with SpaceX, the precise details of which were under NDA. The current list of locations of interest is here, but the original article included this nice map:

[elevation map of Mars showing the nine candidate landing sites SpaceX is considering for its first Martian voyages of Starship

The two big peaks you can see there are Elysium Mons at the left, and Olympus mons at the far right. Most of the regions of interest are in Arcadia Planitia, based on the belief that it will be easiest to obtain water from there, which you'll be needing in order to do stuff like make rocket fuel to travel to and from Earth economically.

There's a secondary benefit about the Arcadia site, which is that it is in a relatively low-lying area of Mars which means that the atmosphere is thicker and so the cosmic radiation dosage is somewhat reduced:

a map of cosmic radiation exposure on Mars' surface, in rem/yr

This map doesn't conveniently match up with the google-mars generated image above, but you can just about see Elysium at the upper-right of the left hand hemisphere, and Olympus Mons just left on centre on the right hemisphere.

Whilst there are tradeoffs to be made (thicker atmosphere means more problems from dust storms) there's clearly good reason to be visiting that part of the planet.

As for science... well. Everywhere on Mars will be interesting to some degree... whilst other places might have greater interest, you still need to be able to support scientific investigation of those places, and teleoperation of robots or even visits in person will be vastly easier given a decent base camp to work from, and that'll be the main driver of early manned stuff, I'll bet. Putting boots on Mars will be too difficult and too expensive otherwise.

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For a permanent base, it would be convenient to have water nearby!

This is the North Pole of planet Mars,

The martian north pole

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  • $\begingroup$ Yeah, I was thinking that like the Moon, the poles would be a great place. Of course, increased cadence of Mars exploration could show water deposits near more scientifically interesting areas. $\endgroup$
    – WasatchWind
    Oct 16, 2021 at 9:32
  • $\begingroup$ It better be good ! human settlements and crop will need a lot of water to allow humans to live comfortably. Maybe it would be advisable to allow for traffic, or flight. Being able to move around on the planet quickly, to gather resources. At lower altitudes, temperature will be far more suitable for crop, but these regions will be quite hostile, with storms. Greenhouses (automated?) will be needed for isolation and heat to grow crop fast. Having some nuclear facilities near the polar settlements would be required for heating too. $\endgroup$
    – Goodies
    Oct 16, 2021 at 10:25
  • $\begingroup$ Correction: the word "altitudes" should be replaced by "latitudes" in above comment ;) $\endgroup$
    – Goodies
    Oct 16, 2021 at 10:33
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    $\begingroup$ The "ice" at the Martiian poles is carbon dioxide. It builds up in the winter (not by snowing, but by the atmosphere directly freezng) then evaporates in the summer. When it evaporates, deep fissures are formed, meaning that the surface would be unstable and standing on it would be dangerous, as you could fall through at any time. $\endgroup$
    – Level River St
    Oct 17, 2021 at 9:10
  • $\begingroup$ It's not on top, it is below the surface.. and possibly fluid.. science.org/content/article/… $\endgroup$
    – Goodies
    Oct 17, 2021 at 9:45
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Considering that the first settlers will have to deal with an hostile environment, a plausible location could be at the bottom of Valles Marineris, where atmospheric pressure is about as double as on the martian surface (see my other answer).

Though not favorable to life, a lower pressure differential between inside and outside means a lower stress on the structures where the settlers reside and therefore a higher reliability of the same structures.

There would also be a slightly better protection from solar radiation, due to the thicker atmospheric layer above their head.

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    $\begingroup$ I bet there is some ice down there too. $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    Oct 16, 2021 at 22:02
  • $\begingroup$ On top of that the vale is quite equatorial, so despite the lower elevation it may be more favorable for launches to space. $\endgroup$
    – The Square-Cube Law
    Oct 16, 2021 at 22:26
  • $\begingroup$ @Willk there are theories that you can sometimes get small amounts of actual liquid water down there for short periods of time... hygroscopic salts in the sand at the bottom of the valleys, and occasional volumes of (relatively) dense, moisture rich air might cause hypersaline brine to form on the surface. $\endgroup$
    – Starfish Prime
    Oct 17, 2021 at 8:55
  • $\begingroup$ @StarfishPrime /hypersaline brine/ - Martian pickles! $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    Oct 17, 2021 at 14:15

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