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#1 2021-08-20 18:04:51

louis
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2008-03-24
Posts: 7,208

Mars City Nuwa

A fairly detailed proposal for human settlement on Mars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55Oa4TEwhBA

Always interesting to see how other people perceive Mars urban development.

Personally I think the tunnelling in caves approach is misguided.

Firstly it offers no additional protection compared with regolith cover or other free standing designs. Secondly it creates a negative psychological profile of the city and of Mars - the idea it is a particularly dangerous environment that requires us to hide away. Finally it create extra risk in terms of tunnel collapse; if you are creating one tunnel on top of another, to produce a city, there could be a multiple collapse with mass casualties, remembering that Mars habitats that crack will create major risk for humans.

Far better to have a sort of organic growth I think, beginning with imported habitats that can be covered in protective regolith before we move on to other structures using eg Mars cement and concrete, Mars brick, steel and glass, and cut and cover.

The organic growth model, where you spread out from your initial starting points (the Spaceport and your original base) allow also for safe distancing of industrial facilities (eg rocket fuel manufacture).

I couldn't understand why the Nuwa folk want solar backed up by nuclear if we are already going to be producing methane and oxygen for Starship flights in huge quantities (so we will have a perfect energy storage system in place). And if there is an easy nuclear power solution, why not just put that in place and provide 24/7 power rather than invest in solar?


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