iBots On Mars

Read the book, Join the Project

This project will help people around the world imagine, create and fabricate fully autonomous Martian robots. Their initial purpose is to find, refine and manufacture almost everything needed before the first Martian colonists arrive as early as 2029.

The goal is to create and fabricate teams of intelligent robots, or “iBots” that successfully demonstrate their ability to function together first on Earth, then on Earth’s moon, and then on Mars in time for the 2026-2027 Mars launch window.

Imagine a team of three iBots who work together to find, harvest and transport raw minerals and materials needed to fabricate almost everything Martian colonists will need when they arrive.

A key requirement of project members is to stop thinking like an Earthling and start thinking like a Martian. For example, why would anyone build stuff on Earth and lift it out of Earth’s gravity well at tremendous expense when you can build it on Mars with what is already there?

iBot team contests are scheduled to be held every six months, starting 1 July 2023 in Columbia. South Carolina at the Riverside Golf Center. Here are the contest dates working backwards from a January 2027 launch date:

• 1 July 2023 – Earth: Basic iBot Concepts Demonstration
• 1 January 2024 – Earth: Advanced Search Demonstration
• 1 July 2024 – Earth: 1st Gen iBot Prototype Demonstration
• 2 November 2024 – Earth: 1st Gen iBot Prototype launch
• 13 May 2025 – Mars 1st Gen iBot Experiment arrives on Mars
• 1 July 2025 – Earth: 1st Gen iBot Advanced Mining and Harvesting Demonstration
• 1 January 2026 – Final Field Test before Moving 1st gen production iBots to Mars
• 1 July 2026 – Earth: Field test 2nd Gen iBots
• 10 December 2026 – Earth: Launch 2nd Gen iBots to Mars
• 20 June 2027 – Mars: Begin 2nd Gen iBot onsite operations
• 1January 2027 – Earth: Final Test 3rd Gen iBots
• 1 July 2027 – Mars: Peer Review 1st and 2nd Gen iBot Performance on Mars
• 31 December 2028 – Earth: Launch 3rd Gen iBots to Mars
• 27 July 2029: – Mars: Begin 3rd Gen iBot Operations on Mars
• 16 January 2029 – Earth: First humans leave for Mars
• 11 July 2029 – Mars: 1st Martian Colonists Arrive on Mars
• 12 July 2029 – Mars: iBots meet and greet their new friends, Big Party!

As part of this project we are also writing an iBot science fiction novel entitled iBots on Mars which has been great fun. Click the link below to read a sample chapter where the two iBot brothers, Bot and Hopper, and their sister Scout recover Opportunity and Spirit, their grandparents, upgrade them and they become part of the iBot family. There is also an overview document that will become the preface to the novel and an imaginary Scope of Work for an enormous hydropower project (serously?) on Mars.

Fellow authors are most welcome to contribute your own iBot creations and chapters. If interested please send email to: mark.fowler@ibotsonmars.com