It’s going to be a long time before humans step onto the Martian surface for the first time, let alone live on it as we do on Earth. However, NASA seems to have made many of the necessary plans to prepare for the arrival of humans on the Red Planet, as these NASA-approved 3D Homes are to contribute to the architecture on Mars.
Back in 2015, NASA launched a design competition for the most creative and innovative homes that could be used on the Red Planet. Architects and technology experts embarked on endeavors to design homes suitable for the life of humans on the Red Planet.
The houses which represent the first forms of architecture on Mars would need to be eligible for 3D printing, as NASA has plans to send rovers with large-scale printers which would build those homes. These NASA-approved 3D homes would need to be ready for humans to visit.
Last month, a company called AI SpaceFactory had the winning design called “Marsha.” The winning design prototype sports cone-like facilities that measure 15 feet in height and 8 feet in diameter, a one-third scale version of the future design. Their flexibility allows them to be printed in only 30 hours while offering a “tiny bubble of Earth on a distant world.”
The homes are equipped with spiral staircases which connect four levels, one of each being specialized for certain activities. The ground floor boasts a sealed hatch designed for entering the pod in space suits, while astronauts living in those homes will have laboratories designed for experimental activities.
Other levels are equipped with a kitchen, a garden which can be used for growing plants, and a personal gym for exercising and different recreational activities. There will be four sleeping pods, which consist of private living areas that boast a bed and a desk.
All levels will have windows which would enable natural lighting inside the pod, but it’s important that it’s made of protective layers which will protect the crew from the harmful effects of solar and cosmic radiation. This design agency which won the NASA-approved design for architecture on Mars succeeded in beating 60 other teams, receiving a $500,000 award for their prototype.
The team wants to use biopolymer composite of basalt fiber and bioplastic, according to CNBC, which is designed to be more durable and protective, compared to the designs that used concrete. After the plans for the next lunar mission for 2024, NASA plans to land humans on Mars in the 2030s. Before that, a rover will be sent in 2020 to explore Mars and determine the weather conditions such as winds, radiation and dust environment.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has never hid his sheer excitement toward the colonization of the Red Planet, tweeting back in March that there could easily be an entire Martian city by 2050, if we’ll try hard enough. That said, the NASA-approved 3D homes architecture on Mars could become an actual thing soon.
It’s possible to make a self-sustaining city on Mars by 2050, if we start in 5 years & take 10 orbital synchronizations
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2019
