Martian House Design

originally posted by: MysterX
This isn't a good design.

Building deeply underground would make seriously good sense, in terms of both radiation protection and to mitigate the temperature swings.

The deeper you go into the ground, the more stable the temperature is, regardless of what it is on the surface.

This ball shaped 'house' might be suitable for a kind of porch into the starwell that winds down into the proper house, or as a kind of emergency shelter while the UG house is being built, but IMO that's about it.

Exactly what I'm thinking!

no thanks

It's good that the walls are 2 feet thick. Not only do you have to worry about radiation, but small meteorites. The atmosphere on Mars is very thin, and the little rocks that burn up in Earth's atmosphere will strike ground on Mars.

I don't think the outside should be the same color as the surrounding rock though. If you travel a mile or two away, what do you use to get back? A compass? Nope. GPS? Nope. A map? It all looks the same. There are no roads, no landmarks, just countless miles of dust and red rock.

You might want the outside of the house to be teal or something. Something bright and cheery that stands out. And then just not go out of eyesight.

Also I'm not sold on the 3D printer idea. They need to come a long ways before they can make actually useful tools. Sure you can make a plastic-like amalgam that resembles a tool now, but it will break if you actually try to use it like one. Also if it's for replacement parts what if you need something that's not in the program? Do your martian colonists need to be master CAD users too? IMO send them over with a good toolbox and extra real parts.

Meh. I wouldn't want to be one of the first there, living in a bubble. Maybe someday, if it was terraformed. But none of us are going to live that long.

a reply to: Spacespider

Very intriguing, notice how the sand drift's seem to have blown around it, how deep this ruin goes is an interesting thought given that it appears to be near the apex of a dune and almost as if the dune has buried the rest of the structure, the two tailing fan's of sand that lead away and down slope are also intriguing as they suggest a sold structure that his may be the top of projecting just above that dune.

How old, if it is not buried into the dune and sitting just on top then maybe it is surprisingly recent, kind of like an arctic research facility on mars but why there?, if it is buried in the dune then maybe very old and perhaps indicative of other structures beneath that martian sand and dust.

Personally I believe mars was destroyed deliberately though most of the planet probably suffered an earlier devestation it may have still been semi habitable until a hydrogen bomb about the size of the empire state's building was used then a slightly smaller one at another location and my believe is based on this.
www.inquisitr.com...
mysteriousuniverse.org...

Remember the three world's mentioned in the Mahabarata and the weapon that could destroy them, the light of ten thousand sun's and the great wind that threw the entire army into the air and poisoned the water and the land, I believe those three world's were Venus, Earth and Mars, only the earth survived but were we winners in a war of annihilation between the earth and these two other once habitable world's or colonies (or was the earth the colony?) or could they have been the victim's of an outside aggressor from outside the solar system, perhaps a predator race whom only left what was left because they believed we had been destroyed and could not recover to a level that may have potentially been seen by them as a threat and indeed it seem's we were indeed no threat and still are not as how far have we been reduced from such a solar system spanning civilization if indeed this is the case?.


And LostBook sorry to drift a little there, that is a very intriguing design but I would assume it would be more feasible to move something akin to the subterean drilling machine there to make underground tunnel's in the well shielded upper rock strata beneath the surface.

This igloo look's too small to be feasible for prolongued use but obviously to gain a foot hold as a temporary structure it may be ideal, even two years on mars would cause significant muscle and bone density wastage so a much more rigorouse fitness regime than a simple excercised machine would provide may also be necessary especially for those that wish to return to the earth in a fit enough state to be able to re-acclimatize rapidly.
I believe also there may be a potential for much thinner sheilding using EM technology's but even the ship's carrying people there will still need much heavier shielding than the earth orbiting craft or the short duration apollo mission's ever did.

So subteranean or rather sub martian dwelling is more as they shall require in order to develope substantial facility's that will meet there actual need's for prolongued martian existance and properly viable colonization, we do it here on earth for other reason's such as in Australia were opel mining is lucrative but in some of the most hostile territory as far as temperatures and parched conditions' are concerned, man made caves are the answer there but for quite different reason's, the stable and much cooler temperature being the main one.
en.wikipedia.org...
metro.co.uk...

a reply to: lostbook
With walls that thick you might as well make the dwellings underground.

Winds are unlikely to be a problem on Mars, while there are so called dust storms, they are not dust storms in the same sense as we have them on the Earth, or as depicted in the movie The Martian... Truth is the atmospheric pressure on Mars is 1% of that on the Earth, it means that the atmosphere contains roughly 1% of the energy density and thus is required to be blowing about 100x faster in order to produce a similar effect as it does on Earth.

Hense the phrase dust storms... not Sand storms.

So this idea that the dwellings would have to somehow be built to withstand wind is just simply not the case.

Radiation and Temperature swings... yes... winds... no

And yet, they'll probably end up with a simple underground labyrinth style cavern or maybe a big bubble like from Total Recall.

Graphene aerogel and metal foam.

If you are going to haul your butt seven months across space you are going to need the least amount of material that gives you the biggest bang for the buck. That is where metal foam would come in handy. Aerogel keeps you warm as it is a good insulator (what the space suits have in them).

The graphene itself. You can mine CO2 directly from the atmosphere and convert it over to graphene powder and/or carbon nanotubes. Add that to carbon fiber and you have thin, strong, light weight, building material. Next you make that modular kind of like a big snap together model. Biggest bang for you buck as far as interior space will be a geodesic dome. Why cover it in mud? Just make another larger dome around that one! Double protection.

You can also convert CO2 over into concrete so there is your 3D printing material right there. First they need 3d printing for large structures to be better as it was originally designed for small items. You cannot sit around and wait a whole day to print a brick! You need either panels being stomped out or printed in minutes.

You will also need energy storage of some sort. Once you start generating electricity you probably do not want to stop. Trapped field magnets are going to an essential tool to keep generator size down. Probably going to need efficient light bulbs too (again, graphene). Food, waste, recycling, up cycling, water, air,...

I think 2030 is too optimistic given our state of the art tech. Probably will be pushed back another 10 years. But that should still be in my life time!

originally posted by: lostbook
We could be living on Mars by 2030 – in this house.

Never happen.

So, did anybody watch Nat Geo's show, Mars last night?

Horrible show really. Too much Elon Musk talking. The fake scenarios are about as realistic as one of those Airport movies from the 1970s. And they made it all too touchy feely for anything close to being scientific. Will not watch another episode!

Anyway, the part that was interesting was sending a robotic crew prior to the human crew. They would lay the ground work for future habitats. Get solar panels (nope, too heavy) set up, and build a few temporary houses. They were not rock igloos either. They were panels and they made a geodesic sphere on a platform (again, too much work when all you need is a dome and not a whole sphere). Same ideas as I posted as far as "food, water, air" but no mention of "up cycling" (I will state it again, I do not like Elon Musk and think he is kind of an idiot). If you are going to produce something why not take the waste product and turn that into something useful too? It is a no brainer if you can not run down to Lowes to get a bolt cutter and some light bulbs. Plus, just in case one day you can terraform the planet you do not want a bunch of industrial waste laying around ready to poison you when you finally take off your space suit and run barefoot through the moss.

Anyway, thought that was a partial good idea there. The show does not make me want to rush out and volunteer though. And now I am thinking, 2050-ish is the better bet.