Some images of the two underground cities that feature in The Hobbit. Whilst this is complete fantasy, I wonder if we could build underground cities like this on Mars? I especially like the Elvish great hall, images 22 and 42, with its Gaudiesk tree-like supporting columns.
We would probably build this under a dome, rather than actually carve it out of a mountain. The dome itself would be a cast iron or cast basalt geodesic. The structure would be covered with sand bags and then a thick layer of regolith, to counteract internal air pressure. The inside surface of the dome would then be plastered, to provide a smooth, impermeable finish. The internal structure could then be made from cut stone and adobe bricks.
https://mcdn.wallpapersafari.com/medium … BTmvyl.jpg
https://mcdn.wallpapersafari.com/medium … Q296DK.jpg
By tapering outward the compacted regolith covering the dome, the compressive stress in the regolith can be kept constant, allowing it to support its own weight and the weight of the sand bags.
The cast iron dome only needs to support its own weight. The compressive strength of grey cast iron is 570 - 1290MPa. Its density is 7500kg/m3.
https://www.makeitfrom.com/material-pro … Cast-Iron/
Running these numbers under Martian gravity gives a maximum possible radius for a cast iron dome of 17,902m. This indicates that we could build domes of almost arbitrary size on the surface of Mars, provided that they remain compressive rather than tensile structures. A 1km diameter dome would have 261,800,000m3 of habitable volume. If this was decked, with 5m between decks, total floor space would be 52.36km2. That is enough for a sizable city. Maybe using cast basalt or shaped stone building blocks, we could fashion the sort of spacioys stone halls like tbe images shown above.
Building volumetric cities of this size starts to present problems for waste heat disposal. This is where it helps to be located on a planet with substantial ice reserves. The ice filled craters of Mars could function as ice covered cooling ponds, with liquid water pumped through the city to remove heat. The resulting lake coukd serve three functions simultaneously. It will remove heat from the city, keeping it cool. Algae in the lake will generate oxygen, which will serve the respiratory needs of the city. Finally, any fish introduced to the lake couod provide a food source.
]]>Cave Lifeforms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjPGKZp4JwM
CAVES 2011 mission accomplished: cave crew astronauts return to Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T8-Csf4ThM
ESA astronauts Tim Peake and Thomas Pesquet, Randolph Bresnik from NASA, Norishige Kanai from Japan and Sergey Ryzhikov from Russia went down to partly unexplored caves in Sardinia on 17 September 2011. They lived and worked in the dark and humid underground environment for six days on ESA's CAVES 'mission'.
The cave-a-naut in the extreme environment training of the European Space Agency's Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behavior and performance Skills (CAVES), in Sardina, Italy
a surge in NYC crimes
NYC subway violence surge came after police patrols plummeted to levels not seen since de Blasio administration
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/nyc-subway-vi … 44018.html
FBI raids Bronx homes of Mayor Eric Adams top aide Winnie Greco
https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-raids-home-e … 11950.html
— the third federal investigation linked to NYC mayor
Cebu City, a highly urbanized city, the capital of the Cebu Province and a population of 964,169 people main domestic shipping port and is home to about 80% of the country's domestic shipping, Cebu City is the prime trading center of the southern Philippines.
67.5-km subway system proposed for Cebu
https://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/675-km- … d-for-cebu
Thai cave rescue victims now - from professional football careers to tragedy
]]>14 slides
]]>Thank you for this important contribution to the topic ....
While #79 comes across to me as showing the downside risks of life in extreme environments, it appears that some organizations have learned how to achieve success. I'm thinking in particular of submarines which are mobile "caves" without sunlight, where personnel spend months at a time. The military seems to have found ways to make such a life tolerable, or perhaps even attractive for carefully selected persons.
A possible technique that might be worth considering, is to generate a bath of visible light that is a near match to our familiar Sun's radiation.
Please keep an watch for any articles that may exist, reporting on experiments with simulated sun light to improve morale in situations where natural sunlight is not available.
This forum contains at least one article about successful adaptation to life without sunlight in polar regions.
(th)
]]>Mental health, physical symptoms and biomarkers of stress during prolonged exposure to Antarctica's extreme environment
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a … 652100062X
“You sound so down” – how AI technology developed in Antarctica can help diagnose depression
https://semmelweis.hu/english/2023/03/y … epression/
A lack of sunlight may cause winter-onset SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)
Effect of sunlight exposure on cognitive function among depressed and non-depressed participants: a REGARDS cross-sectional study
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2728098/
Perhaps Robot Doctors can give Assessment of Mental Health in Expeditionary crew, AI software artificial people who give services in Mars, Titan, Europa etc
another topic
Good Health in Transit to and From Mars
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=9672
2NH3 + CO2 = H2N-CO-NH2 + H2O
The reaction is endothermic, but needs high pressure to take place at a decent rate. Presumably we will be making ammonia on Mars and CO2 is everywhere. If oxygen is produced for human breathing, then waste hydrogen can be converted first to ammonia and then to urea.
Another option for building materials on Mars is natural basalt rock, which is sawn into useful shapes. If we are building underground, we will presumably be quarrying this out anyway. Using diamond wire saws, we could machine stone into any shape we want. We could also carve it using milling machines and lathes.
https://www.timbertools.com/Dario-Diamo … anite.html
Whilst industrial diamonds are expensive, the mass of cutting tools is small compared to the amount of stone they can process. So it should be economically favourable to ship them from Earth to Mars.
]]>The idea of turning bulk raw materials into useful things is what you have presented, and I like that. By the way, Happy New Year.
I have a new combination to ponder on that relates to your post, it is not high creativity, but Mars may need a lot of low creation to be made more situatable to human needs and desires.
Coffee......
Pee Bricks are remembered: https://science.howstuffworks.com/envir … d-gold.htm Quote:
Bricks Made of Urine — Our Pee Is 'Liquid Gold'
By: Jesslyn Shields
I suppose we could also do that but I was thinking of trying Acetate, perhaps with a bit of Urine for fertilizer.
I think it very likely to want to grow Algae, Yeast, and Mushrooms at least with Acetate, so maybe also to make a modified pee brick including it? It would be an energy source. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2022/june/g … catalysis/ It may be that the acetate will eventually be able to assist vascular plants to grow as well. An organic fiber would be desired. Say Bamboo or Hemp. So then the bricks, having organic fiber in them may also be hardened using the Pee-Acetate Microbe Method (That is not tested or proven but is suspected to be possible). Quote:
Martian Soil Can Be Compressed Into Bricks Stronger Than Concrete
SPACE
28 April 2017
ByPETER FARQUHAR, BUSINESS INSIDER
An unusual material as you typically cannot add organic fiber to a hard brick, only a mud brick. That being due to bricks usually needing a high heat treatment.
But of course you post about simply using mud to make bulk items it perfectly valid still. I recall that the Martian materials can even be compressed into brick. https://www.sciencealert.com/it-turns-o … n-concrete
So, it appears that there may be a lot of raw materials available that may be of use.
And yes you post about making things out of Mud is a good one.
I am going to collect this into my other topic under terraforming as I want to tie it with Sandstone, Volcanic Ash Deposits, and ice bodies.
Done
]]>I can see this being especially important on Mars where we won't have abundant wood and the entire surface is covered in dessicated clay. On Earth this could have applications as well, as it allows the use of an abundant natural material and DIY to create things that may otherwise be unaffordable.
]]>Abismo: The story of a bottomless pit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9S6tT0Kocc
Edit:
spaceNut wrote:Aww. My villa is designed to be the first on Mars. I designed my villa to be a "get away" for myself, some place to take a beautiful woman, and a start on Mars. It's designed to support a dozen visiting scientists (eg NASA scientists) to study Mars, at a price. Cost of a single seat on Soyuz was $82 million US dollars in 2015. The last 2 seats cost $75 million each in 2017. Now imagine the price I could charge per seat for a trip to Mars! Including stay in a luxury villa on Mars, for a day, a weekend, a week, a month, or multiple months! I smell profit!
Since the book "Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson (1992) people have expected the first colonial transport will carry 100 settlers. My villa is designed to produce food, to be stored in a warehouse. This food could be purchased by new settlers. My intention is to have 26 months of food for 100 settlers before the first SpaceX colonial transport arrives. I also intend to mine Mars resources, smelt, refine, and manufacture components to build housing and life support for 100 settlers. Think of my warehouse as Lowe's or Home Depot or Menards or the Canadian company Rona. I wouldn't build habitats, but would have construction materials and tools to do so. The first job of new settlers would be to build their own housing. I would also produce propellant sufficient to refuel a SpaceX transport, so it could return to Earth.
If a billionaire wants to build an exclusive villa on Mars, I would be available as construction personnel and materials to build said villa. If that billionaire finds his plumbing fails on Mars, I would be available to fix it. Think of me as "Joe the Plumber" for billionaires on Mars.
My idea is a modification of the "Hillside Settlement" of the Mars Homestead Project. That isn't a coincidence, I was part of that project. Artwork was done by architect Georgi Petrov who got his Master degree in architecture from MIT for this, and artist Phil Smith. I couldn't do what they did; I'm a computer programmer and wanna-be aerospace engineer, not an artist. Some of the artwork from Mars Homestead...
If you have time, please go back and add a link to the RobertDyck series ... I remember it, but would have a tough time finding it.
(th)
]]>For the structure we are considering above, my preference would be to make the roof at least 10m high to the top of the columns and then another 10m to the crown of the arch. I would plaster the roof with a regolith-water mix and paint it blue. During the day, I would illuminate the blue roof with ground level LEDs. These could be powered by solar panels on the surface, with illumination levels driven by insolation on the surface panels.
Individual houses and other structures could be built under this structure using adobe bricks. As there will never be any rain within the structure, all of these buildings can be made entirely from mud brick. Upper floors will be supported by brick domes and vaults. Each structure will have a potted roof garden on its flat rooftop. So essentially, we build a town under the pillared roof structure and make the underside of the roof look like an Earth sky. We would plant trees and gardens between the buildings. We would need enough artificial light for these to grow.
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