Centuries ago, Sir Isaac Newton said of his many discoveries that if he had seen beyond, he would only be “putting himself on the shoulders of the giants.” In the 21st century, companies and nations traveling in space may soon have a similar feeling creeping into the thorns as they transplant the bloody edge of an entire scientific system to sow the first human cities on Mars.
This titanic effort will involve such advanced scientific fields that some have not yet matured. “There are some critical technologies that are still unresolved. One of them is the tunnel, one of the most important factors, you have to have the right solutions for the tunnel,” said the founder and head of the architecture team. of ABIBOO, Alfredo Muñoz, interview with Interesting Engineering.
And inside these tunnels, ABIBOO plans to install huge connected buildings in larger “macrobuildings” through networked tunnels holes in the face of the Martian cliffs. But before excavations begin, technology must adapt to theory, ideal sites need to be explored, we need to transport equipment and construction equipment, and produce sustainable materials from the Martian environment. In short, we need to build cities.
A Mart.
Building sustainable cities on Mars
“We need to be able to transfer initial assets: Elon Musk, SpaceX and other entities will be critical because Nüwa City is just the beginning of a large-scale operation,” Munoz said. But before the 250,000 residents can be installed, the initial team of space engineers will face a colossal challenge. “We only have one window of opportunity every two years and, to bring the city to a critical mass, we will require high exponential growth until we have the technology for transportation.”
The first city on Mars will be called Nüwa and will involve 10.8m diameter tunnels, “even with current technology it could be solved.” For decades, the most difficult problem conceiving a colony on Mars was moving enough material to another planet. While a substantial amount of fuel and money can be saved by launching a mission to settle Mars from the Moon, it is not very feasible to move enough material even to some islands in the city, approximately 54, 6 million kilometers (54.6 million km), at least. on the red planet.
The core project of the Nüwa City project is crucial to “build and operate with few resources provided from Earth. We have to produce materials on Mars, so we have five different cities. The total amount of resources cannot be obtained at one location.” On Earth, sustainability means not wasting energy or resources when the same or similar goal can be achieved locally, without polluting the environment. “Why do we want to bring materials from Bali to New York when we can manufacture in New York?” Munoz asked rhetorically. It’s about “not only not harming the environment, but also doing a lot with a little bit”.
The trick is to build the city on Mars “without damaging the water we will use, and in an economical and scalable way,” Munoz said. “It’s not just about the environment, it’s also about using it wisely,” Munoz said.
Oxygen, water, carbon dioxide and a lot of steel
However, for any city to thrive (on Mars or Earth), you need a lot of water and carbon dioxide (CO2). “Steel is the most widely used material for civil construction in the city. Another essential element in a critical path for Nüwa is the transformation and manufacture of oxygen,” Munoz continued. While there have been many proposals to generate oxygen with vegetation, for Munoz and ABIBOO, this is not enough to support a human city. “Based on the life support systems we’ve analyzed, [vegetation-generated oxygen] “NASA’s Perseverance rover will conduct experiments to test various methods for obtaining oxygen on Mars. ABIBOO’s basic scientists were thinking about transporting used air and breathable air. […] it’s almost the same idea as a fridge. “
“Most of the hard work through civil engineering would be done through robotics,” but “it wouldn’t be possible for humans [all] work work: they can supervise robotics, “Munoz said. While building next to a cliff with robots on Mars is not a new idea, ABIBOO’s plan on what to install in the tunnels is “. Macrobuildings are basically a term we created: a really big building made up of modules, where each module is a building in itself. ”These are giant LEGO blocks, with central heating.
“Macrobuildings” designed to nullify all challenges on Mars
Each macroconstruction will be 800 m wide, 200 m high and 150 m deep, approximately the width of Central Park, in New York City. “All macrobuildings are made up of 12 modular buildings, each of which is made up of 3D tunnels that relate to each other,” Munoz explained. But this is not a plan to repeat the cookie-cutter aesthetic of gentrified neighborhoods. “All modules are different from the others,” with 12 different models to change the pattern and create a unique architecture.
Functionally, the megaforaments will incorporate residential and work modules: mixed, but conceptually, with some more residential and others more commercial. “Each macro-building is different from the others,” which makes for “enormous diversity because none is equal to another.” The arrangement of the modules is not defined, as the tunnels will be connected in different relationships, requiring a unique solution for each macroborrelation.
The decision to build next to the cliffs is an education, as problems abound on Mars. Flooded by solar radiation, cliffs can provide a natural shield at higher radiation levels than anywhere else on Earth. Another problem is air pressure (or lack thereof). “[I]n contrast to problems on Earth where buildings fall, on Mars, buildings can explode due to pressure. Humans and animals need just over 0.7 times the atmospheric pressure “from Earth to sea level.” We have 80% atmospheric pressure inside buildings “and in a Martian atmosphere, if you continuously inflate a balloon towards that internal pressure,” in some “This would cause a bad end for any city on Mars.
“The bigger the building, the more pressure: it increases the amount of structure we need for the building, as well as fixing it to the ground,” because if a building contains air with a pressure higher than the outer atmosphere will finally rise into the Martian sky. This means that the manufacture of chemicals will have to pass inside thick silos, to prevent an explosion of the pressure differential. Other problems on Mars include less gravity and loss of thermal heat to the external environment. Building underground, “solve many of these problems,” Munoz said.
Nüwa could become the most advanced city ever built
However, growing up in an underground cave is not ideal for emotional well-being and will probably not motivate most to move to Mars. “So we’ve turned it 90 degrees. Everything is underground and since we have access to the other side of the cliff, we can penetrate the cliff and provide direct light, while fully protecting people from some of the challenges”. Vegetation for food can be grown over the city, on a table for a “huge concentration of energy for plants. Access to humans is not allowed and plants do not need much pressure.”
However, there have been other proposals to build cities on the cliffs of Mars in the last decade. A concept from the City of Mars design competition in 2016 gave a point to the ancient city of Petra in the Jordanian desert. But ABIBOO’s proposal goes a step further. “It is not uncommon to provide a solution to Mars that backs up all realistic solutions in fields from life support systems, planetary geology, astrophysics, space engineering, biology, artists, architects, astrobiology, mining experts , psychology, etc. space law “and more. SONet, a multidisciplinary team focused on sustainable settlements in other worlds, provided this scientific experience. In Nüwa and other future Martian cities, ABIBOO aims to use architecture as a means to build a creative identity, mixing science and art, “in order to be able to create a more emotional connection with the place where we live.”
In late March, ABIBOO estimated that construction of the city of Nüwa could begin in 2054. But until we can put astronauts on the surface of Mars, it’s hard to predict when things can move forward with certainty. “All critical paths begin in the laboratory – [it] It seems realistic to say we could start in 2054, but it depends on those other parts. If one of them is delayed, then they all are, “Munoz explained. For example, if SpaceX CEO Elon Musk decides to delay plans for Mars, ABIBOO may change strategies.” We have to rely on the analyzes made by previous astronauts Mars: we will not be able to develop the city of Nüwa until we find the right location. “But once construction begins, the most technologically advanced human city can have a one-way change of direction: from Earth to Mars.