Two Australian university professors, inspired by the novel "The Martian," have launched an online course for students who want to learn how to survive on the Red Planet.
Monash University, located in Melbourne, is offering "How to Survive on Mars: the Science Behind the Human Exploration of Mars," with a goal of teaching students -- and prospective Mars travellers -- how to survive on a planet that lacks water, breathable air, food and an energy source.
starts in October and lasts four weeks, with classes taking up an average of three hours a week.
The professors leading the course say they were motivated by the novel "The Martian," which revolved around an astronaut being forced to survive on Mars after a mission goes wrong.
"[The novel] presented the whole survival on Mars issue as an enormous problem-solving exercise," said chemistry professor Tina Overton.
Dr. Jasmina Lazendic-Galloway, an astrophysicist at the university, agreed, adding that the novel represented the more hands-on aspects of science.
The teachers stressed that the course will focus on basic science, with students having to learn about producing water, oxygen, food and energy in an inhospitable climate.
"Most people would think understanding the science required to survive there is beyond them, but you can actually break it down into pretty basic science," Overton said.
Each week will focus on one of the four skills needed to survive on Mars: the first week will look at how to create water; the second on how to create power and harness it; the third on why humans need oxygen and how to generate it; and the fourth on how to produce food.
The goal, she says, is to help encourage a love of science in more students.
"Science is often taught in a very dry way or people think it's just inaccessible to them," she said. "So by presenting the science in a very accessible way and also in a very inter-disciplinary way, we hope that people will be inspired to learn more."
The course will feature presentations from Mars geology experts, biologists as well as a physicist who spent time in a simulated Mars environment.
Overton admits that the timing is helpful for the course, with the planet being the focus of several publicly and privately funded expeditions.
NASA has already begun training astronauts in simulators developed by Boeing for trips to Mars and beyond.
Mars One -- a Dutch organization -- is recruiting volunteers to help create a permanent human settlement on Mars, with the trip being financed by private investors.
The course currently has a couple thousand students registered, with educators hoping to hit the 10,000 mark before registration closes in six weeks.
If the course is successful, Overton says the next step would be creating a course to teach people how to go beyond surviving on Mars and develop the skills needed to build a colony on the planet.
