You are not logged in.
Pages: 1
Before we terraform Mars - which will likely take decades and probably hundreds of years, we will paraterraform it...ie create spaces we can live, work and play in.
I think it's important pyschologocally for humans to know they can walk for many miles in a variety of different environments.
There will be many different structures: glass domes, glass-roofed gorges, underground habitats, tunneled spaces in mountainsides and surface habs. We need to connect them up with tunnels or surface pressurised walk/cycle ways. We need a basic design for the pressurised walkways which can be mass produced. They could also be used for airport-style indoor electric vehicles to move supplies around. Ideally probably a couple of metres across at shoulder height. A basic tube, part buried in the regolith with maybe a kind of rubberised base to create the walkway?
Let's Go to Mars...Google on: Fast Track to Mars blogspot.com
Offline
Like button can go here
I agree that this will be a need for the continuing settlement and exploration and for sustainability of the peoples of mars connecting of what we build to other activity but planning it from the start may not be possible if we are not staying in a single location but doing mars long term science sortie mission that are not permanent.
Offline
Like button can go here
I think this is basically correct - especially the emphasis on mass production. A factory capable of making polymer sheets which include UV protective outer layer and fibre reinforced plastic inner layer, is essentially a factory for producing land. My pet favourite idea was a mass produced steel rectangular frame, which could be covered in loose rock and regolith to counteract internal pressure. I wonder in fact if we could make such items from fired clay, given that the net forces are compressive. Very cheap and simple - just put hundreds of frames into a square lattice, cover them over with soil and bulldoze a gravity dam of soil around the edges.
For domes under tensile stress, cost is proportional to volume. So it would make sense to build relatively small domes and fill the volume with plants and useful structures. For gravity stabilized underground structures, cost is roughly proportional to land area, not volume. Therefore, we would seek to build structures with high roofs, to get the maximum habitable volume for the minimum investment of labour.
Last edited by Antius (2017-10-26 17:38:42)
Offline
Like button can go here
Pages: 1