Mars Colony

By:  | August - 17 - 2018

Editors’ Choice
2018 Skyscraper Competition

Bowen Li
China

In this era, population explosion, terrorism, energy crisis, environmental pollution and nuclear weapon like a huge cloud head over us. Faced with these threat, we are exerting our effort to ease conflicts while we still need expand our living space. Fortunately, the great progress of technology in various fields is bringing about new possibilities. People had left footprint on the moon fifty years ago. Now, landing on the Mars is appealing such as Elon Musk’s Space X plan, if so, this will be a big step for human.

Apart from space technology, before we land on the mars, we need figure out a series of ways to support human living on such extreme environment including getting water, producing oxygen, acquiring energy and so on. Some scientific evidence have revealed subsurface water ice exist in some impact crater on Mars. In this light, the project try to discuss a way to build a big space in a typical impact crater selected by scientists in which hold enough subsurface ice water even flow water to support the Mars Base. Besides, the crater rim uplifted structurally by impact could be reinforced as the boundary of community, which protect the site from being damage by frequent storm on Mars.

Since the atmosphere on Mars is very thin and contains very little oxygen, we need enclosed interior space meanwhile allowing the nature light enters. In order to create a huge space, there is a need to design a huge structure system formed by interconnected domes. The structure concept is inspired by the classic Pendentive and Cross Arch structure. Use the high-rise buildings as the columns to constitute a hexagon-grid structure to support the light-weight steel structure ETFE dome, by which insulate the site from the outside environment.  These high-rise buildings vary in functional so they provide people various space like living, work, education, business, research and entertainment. Furthermore, the whole site would be divided into three annular regions, the center ring is for public service, the middle ring is for residential and commercial, the outer ring of the community would set up several auxiliary building for food production, energy supply and water treatment, there would be also ring area for Agricultural Planting.

Apart from the using function, the skyscrapers are designed as machines powered by solar and nuclear, which could transform the outside air to fresh air with the same oxygen ration as the Earth atmosphere. Meanwhile, the buildings deep root in the underground to pump the subsurface water acquired by ice-heating process. In case that there is a possibility that we can produce metals particularly Steel, Aluminum and Magnesium from in situ resources by smelting method while the Mars’ gravity is much smaller than Earth. The buildings’ façade and structure unit could use magnalium as main material, meanwhile, the architectural plane of the skyscrapers also use hexagon as motif, through gradient transformation and rotation, the buildings would jointly support the entire dome while well spread the oxygen to the inner space. Some materials and units also could be produced by 3D printer on the Earth or the Mars.

The exterior of base is covered by ETFE film that filter the radiation, which is designed to have high corrosion resistance and strength over a wide temperature range, it also hold a high-energy radiation resistance properties that protect people who living in the Base.

The huge semi-underground space would provide people first come to the red planet a big community, in which build a life-support system to meet their daily life.

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