A City Rises on the Plain...

SpaceNut · 2025-12-15 18:10:22

Key Takeaway: If Earth engineers can manage the air quality for 76,000 people in that volume, we can certainly manage the "internal weather" for our proposed village.

The air volume inside the Caesars Superdome (formerly Louisiana Superdome) is a massive quantity, often cited as over 125 million cubic feet or sometimes specified as around 2.4 x 10^6 m³ (2.4 million cubic meters), encompassing the entire vast interior space, which is cooled by a huge 9,000-ton air conditioning system.
Key Figures:
Volume: ~125 million cubic feet (or ~2.4 million cubic meters).
Cooling Capacity: 9,000 tons of air conditioning.
Area: The arena floor alone offers 166,180 square feet (3.8 acres).
This vast space, designed to hold tens of thousands of fans, requires a significant cooling system to maintain comfortable temperatures

That is an air exchanger system that uses the total earth atmosphere for the exchanging source. Mars doe not have that.

tahanson43206 · 2025-12-16 13:51:38

For SpaceNut re #151 ... thanks for following up on the New Orleans Superdome !!!

GW Johnson has been thinking about the dome ... he's written about dehumidification recently, and this post is about the buttress concept.

I note that this is NOT what Calliban is proposing, but it is good general engineering information to have in mind.

Calliban is NOT talking about a vertical wall, as the images we have posted show clearly.

Here is GW's update:

file.php?id=134

As a reminder: file.php?id=4

(th)

SpaceNut · 2025-12-16 15:09:36

That is the nature of the starting of the parabolic shape but that's as far as it goes.

GW Johnson · 2025-12-17 10:11:25

If the dome shape is parabolic, where it contacts the foundations will be nearly vertical. I looked at the vertical case just to see how bad things could be.

It is not my intention to design or redesign this habitation. This is Calliban's idea. I just thought of something he should be worrying about; and maybe he has already done that.

I'm not sure who suggested vapor compression dehumidification first. But since this thing is to be built in a cold place, I suggested an easier-to-build, lower-energy-cost means to dehumidify.

GW

SpaceNut · 2025-12-20 10:33:39

I was about town today and looked at the brick structures that I have to view the methods employed in construction.

the brace build outs are part of its thick wall construction. which have granite corner footing stone and angled head toppers as well.

nh-farmington-first-congregati.jpg?w=1000&h=-1&s=1

The other buildings with in the area are only 3 stories high.

SpaceNut · 2025-12-21 11:39:58

I do not know if this will work but here is the facebook page.
First Congregational Church of Farmington NH

The page does have the internal roof support beams going into the brick column supports.

tahanson43206 · 2025-12-21 12:28:52

There is a surprising amount of information available about the historic church SpaceNut showed us in Post #155.

Here is a summary prepared by Google:

AI Overview
The current red brick building for the
First Congregational Church of Farmington, NH was constructed in 1875, featuring Gothic Revival architecture designed by Frederick N. Footman for a congregation established much earlier, in 1819. It's a significant local landmark, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.
Construction Year: 1875
Style: Gothic Revival
Architect: Frederick N. Footman
Significance: Oldest church building in Farmington, NH.

it seems to me a building that looks like this might fit into the landscape Calliban has imagined.

However, the buildouts do not carry load. They are purely ornamental, intended to invoke memory of architectural styles well established in Europe.

1877 was after the Civil War after all, and modern inventions were available to assist the architect in planning the building.

In order to bring this topic back to the title theme: The roof in the church from 1877 does NOT show us a roof treatment that is a good fit for Calliban's Dome.

Members of NewMars forum have every opportunity to come up with a roof treatment that ** does ** make sense in the Mars context.

Calliban has imagined iron beams, and it is possible to make steel with iron from the regolith and carbon from the atmosphere, so steel is possible.

The roof inside the dome is purely ornamental in any case. It would keep birds out, if any are allowed to fly loose inside the dome.

Update: Before asphalt shingles became popular, slate roofing was the state-of-the-art for much of the US, as was true in England and Europe before.

It might be practical to cut basalt into slate thin sections, and if so, then those would certainly work well for ornamental roofing.

SpaceNut, I'll bet that church had a slate roof in 1877! The slate roof would have lasted 100 years, and then been replaced in 1977 with an asphalt roof.

(th)

SpaceNut · Yesterday 11:44:30

We have started to give itemized things required to ensure safety.

So lets plan for "clark's calamity", when bad luck is all you have

Methane backup not nuclear vs solar

Planning of cargo as noted must be planned for as Constructing a human mission, a tonne at a time

Fire on the ISS, lunar base or Mars habitat or domes

There are many products and reuses that are all part of the planning for man to use the large Dome.

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#151 2025-12-15 18:10:22

Re: A City Rises on the Plain...

#152 2025-12-16 13:51:38

Re: A City Rises on the Plain...

#153 2025-12-16 15:09:36

Re: A City Rises on the Plain...

#154 2025-12-17 10:11:25

Re: A City Rises on the Plain...

#155 2025-12-20 10:33:39

Re: A City Rises on the Plain...

#156 2025-12-21 11:39:58

Re: A City Rises on the Plain...

#157 2025-12-21 12:28:52

Re: A City Rises on the Plain...

#158 Yesterday 11:44:30

Re: A City Rises on the Plain...

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