How Should We Design Cities On Mars?
The challenges of living on Mars will no doubt rewrite some of the rules of urban design. But by redefining how we interact with nature-and with ourselves-space colonization offers a broader chance to remake urbanism itself, writes the Earth Institute's Sarah Fecht.
From article, (The first habitats on Mars or the moon will likely be similar to those four-person spaceships: small and cramped, with social life centered around the kitchen table. For long-term stays, these pill- or dome-shaped aluminum cans and inflatable structures would need to be covered with a thick layer of rock and dirt to protect the crew from deep space radiation as well as extreme temperature shifts.
During these early years of interplanetary exploration, private space may be just as much a concern as public space. Starting in August 2015, Bassingthwaighte and five others spent 12 months cooped up in a simulated Martian habitat in Hawaii called HI-SEAS. The habitat was designed to be as open as possible to combat the quasi-astronauts’ sense of confinement, but as a result, nearly every part of the habitat was visible or audible from everywhere else. “We actually didn’t have nearly enough private space,” says Bassingthwaighte. “It was one of the bigger stressors after a while. It’s very hard to get into a place where you can unwind and let down that last psychological wall…. That constant stress will definitely contribute to aggravations or misunderstandings.”
An architecture student at the time, Bassingthwaighte wrote his doctoral dissertation on how he would improve the design of this mock Mars habitat. He suggests keeping the large open common room, but making it convertible into smaller, more private spaces, so that the area could be used for events like soccer practice and movie night, or provide private areas for people to draw or read (or perhaps write their 305-page dissertations). Since permanent residences on Mars will need to be buried beneath several feet of soil, Bassingthwaighte would use virtual reality to help people escape that closed-in feeling, and a CoeLux artificial skylight that “perfectly replicates the look and feel of natural sunlight. It tricks your mind into thinking there’s a much larger space just on the other side of the [simulated] glass.”
Looking decades or even centuries into the future, the Musk-founded Space Exploration Technologies Corporation—popularly known as SpaceX—hopes to send colonists to Mars in droves. The company hasn’t unveiled details about the innards of its mega-sized colonial ship concept, other than a sleek white interior with large windows, but the 100-person spaceship Musk envisions would obviously need large gathering spaces. Like soldiers on military aircraft carriers (known as “cities at sea”), these Martian colonists would probably pass the time socializing in common areas such as a gym or cafeteria.
Yet Hollander thinks these sorts of sleek white “futuristic” spaceship interiors, depicted everywhere from 2001: A Space Odyssey to The Martian, are too sterile for a years-long journey. “Everything looks like it’s made by machines,” he says. “There’s no details, nothing intricate, even though that’s what we really want.” Some concepts include natural materials like wood veneer and woven fabrics, “to create a greater feeling of home and, since monotony is a potential psychological issue, for visual and tactile stimulation.”
As the Mars bases grow and humanity establishes a more permanent off-world settlement, public gathering spaces will likely become more important. Jason Crusan, director of NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems division, speculates that these crews may live in independent habitat modules, landed across multiple missions and amassed into one general area, similar to a trailer park. Newer buildings would be constructed from glass or concrete made on Mars. This homegrown masonry and 3D printing would allow for the creation of larger gathering spaces that could bring together the growing Mars population under one roof to maintain a sense of community, and to make decisions that affect the entire group. These areas will no doubt be the gathering spaces where the foundations of Martian civilization are laid. And if these far-flung societies can become stable and self-sufficient, they will surely attract other explorers, entrepreneurs, and free thinkers over time.
before reaching Mars, a settlement on Earth’s moon could more quickly and easily grow into an economic center, thanks to its proximity. Using essentially the same infrastructure as a Mars base, these lunar colonies would likely start out as research outposts that grow into industrial towns mining for helium-3, an isotope that could fuel fusion reactors, and water, which can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen, aka rocket propellant. People like the European Space Agency’s Johann-Dietrich Woerner and George Nield from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration envision these bases growing into an off-world marketplace, perhaps transforming the moon into a bustling gas depot where Mars-bound spaceships could top off their tanks before the long journey ahead.
If the lunar industries really do take off, the people working there, and their families, will need apartments, offices, farms, and assembly halls to form a functional society. Sherwood thinks those amenities could pave the way for lunar tourists, which in turn could lead to more development, including theaters, pools, restaurants, hotels, bars, and arenas for playing low-gravity sports.
Some folks even want to establish parks on the moon to protect historical areas like the Apollo 11 landing site. While the views from these outdoor spaces will no doubt be incredible, they could only be enjoyed from inside a spacesuit, cut off from your companions except by the radio in your helmet. Nevertheless, by the standards established in the Outer Space Treaty, such “supranational parks” may best represent the lofty ideal of outer space as shared treasure, to be enjoyed by all of humanity.
While Martians will need greenhouses to grow their food, neither recreational indoor parks nor installing greenery in the public spaces would be practical in Mars habitats for a while—it would be too difficult to regulate the moisture and oxygen levels in those areas. But there are other ways to make a space feel natural. Bassingthwaighte recommends locating the greenhouses next to the gathering space, separated by clear glass. That way, the food crops would be visible from the public space, replicating the relaxed stimulation that nature can provide, while maintaining the ideal air quality in each separate space. Hollander suggests designing with fractal patterns, curves, interesting textures, the color green, and maybe even piping in the sounds and smells of Terran nature.
Though these indoor public spaces will be largely unlike any domicile our species has built before, Sherwood recommends looking to history for inspiration. Roman outdoor spaces were essentially enclosed “rooms” for public rituals, proving that interior urbanism “can nonetheless be grand and theatrical and promote civic life.” Medieval and Gothic architecture, he notes, show that “we can use precious but dangerous external views sparingly, yet still be emotionally and spiritually inspiring.” Islamic courtyards bring nature into the center of the home, and modern-day shopping malls provide an airy indoor space for entertainment, exercise, and socializing.)
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