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#26 2004-04-23 00:02:29

Mundaka
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Registered: 2004-01-11
Posts: 322

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

neutral


Macte nova virtute, sic itur ad astra

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#27 2004-04-26 04:07:45

Trebuchet
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Posts: 419

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

And Hobbits liked their holes comfortable, and considered a hole in the ground the very best of homes.

I forsee very weird, subterranean architecture to be the norm on Mars for a long, long time. The reason is simple: at first, it will be necessary, and the next generation of people will view it as only the natural and right way to live. Even today, with the same McHousing techniques from coast to coast, floorplans vary wildly from place to place for the simple reason that they echo older plans which echo older plans which in turn echo whatever plans were forced on the original houses by neccessity.

So houses on Mars will probably remain buried or semi-buried, and I predict this will hold true even if they terraform the place, although slight changes will probably be made to the exterior design over time.

I have one prediction/suggestion for Martian home design: an 'inside out' room. Basically, this would be a small greenhouse/atrium attached to or within the home. There would be a small plastic dome to keep the atmosphere in and some sort of plexiglass cosmic ray shield over that. What this room would have is a few plants and some grass and be done up to look like the *outside* of an Earth home. A patch of the old outside on the new world, so to speak. I got the idea from the house an eccentric millionaire built *under* Las Vegas. His house had a room done up to look like 'outdoors'. I imagine such a thing would be easy enough to build for a house, and it might even have a marginally useful purpose - you could grow herbs and flowers there, for instance, or keep a chicken in there.

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#28 2005-05-27 05:26:30

srmeaney
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Posts: 976

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

Considering everything we dont send as parts will be Underground, Nothing but Caves-Try Cooper pedy, Australia.

The Martian Ambassador to Earth? I suppose the Martian Embassy will be...Neo Charlamagne? A domed (and considering the fact that trueborn martians will be obsessed with public space, very spacey) central hall with ground level offices about it's radius. All faced in red rock and built with red brick but lined with opal... for as much colour as possible.
The entire building will sit in the middle of a fifty acre garden, in New York City, walking distance from the UN with a big open public plaza linking Both.

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#29 2005-06-10 07:29:59

Fledi
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From: in my own little world (no,
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Posts: 325

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

Pyramids would be great, they would give future generatins something to wonder about if the colony is ever abandoned.

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#30 2005-06-11 09:41:07

RobS
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Posts: 1,701
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Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

Architecture on Mars will be shaped by several key factors: materials, manpower, and conditions.

1. Wood will not be available, but plastic, steel (stainless, made from meteorites), sheet rock (made from sulphate deposits), concrete, glass, and bricks will be. Aluminum will be rare and expensive until a major plant to extract it can be made. Copper should be readily available; it's often associated with basalt, and basalr is common on Mars.

2. Manpower will be scarce and expensive. As much work as possible will be done in a shirtsleeve environment, NOT outside in spacesuits. Enclosed and pressurized construction areas also avoid extreme temperature conditions and other environmental hazards (peroxide-covered dust, for example). As much work as possible will be done in an automated assembly line fashion (the bigger the base, the more an assembly line can be adopted). Modular home construction on Earth may be a model for much construction on Mars, with entire airtight, wheeled housing and work modules ("trailers") completed in a factory and hauled outside through an airlock. Tunneling will be kept to an absolute minimum unless large, robotic tunnel machines are developed and imported (we don't have these machines on Earth now!). Tunnels are inherently hazardous and can't be pressurized until they're finished. They're also inherently explosive under certsin conditions; imagine a tunnel leaking air into the surrounding rock for months and months that suddenly depressurizes as a result of an accident. The air pressure in the surrounding rock will suddenly rush back in, blasting rocks and debris into the tunnel and possibly precipitating collapses.

3. The Martian atmosphere provides adequate protection against solar radiation and micrometeorites, but not against cosmic rays. Thus buildings will need a meter of rock or loose dirt over them to provide radiation shielding. They should be airtight and in turn be inside airtight enclosures, providing double protection against depressurization. If designed in this fashion, they can be surrounded by greenspaces, which is good for the human spirit.

4. Building design can be anything the inhabitants want, within the constraints of radiation protection and pressurization. I'd build them with large overhangs to reduce exposure to oblique radiation. I'd use flat roofs with gardens on top IF the buildings are within pressurized enclosures; there's no reason to waste the enclosed space with unused roofs. Pyramids are the worst shape, where space use and radiation protection are concerned. Greek-style pillars are unnecessary; if they're needed for decoration, they may be made of plastic! If one were to build with pillars, the pillars in lower Martian gravity would be thinner than on Earth, so the proportions would be different. It is likely, as Zubrin suggests, that much of Marsian architecture will have a mall-like feel, with large windowless spaces opening onto corridors with skylights. The exception will be construction inside domes/bubbles, which will open sideways to open spaces with windows.

5. Very large enclosures can be made "open floor." A very large bubble,with embedded cables, would be manufactured in a factory. Meanwhile, pile drivers will drive long nickel-steel stakes into the ground; pile drivers can be automated and require very little human supervision. The piles can be hollow; once they are in place the enclosure's embedded cables are dropped down into the hollow piles, then the hollow is filled with concrete to anchor the enclosure in place. The enclosure is initially pressurized with Martian air, which will rapidly leak downward into the ground, heating the regolith if the Martian air is heated. Once the ground has been warmed down several meters, water can be added to the enclosure. It will freeze up intersticies in the regolith deep down, allowing the enclosure to hold pressure more effectively. This system will require very large quantities of water; perhaps half a tonne per square meter. But if a Mars base is extracting large quantities of ground ice using spare reactor heat and extracting deuterium from the water, it'll have the water. Enclosures 50 to 100 meters wide--or more--and a kilometer long would be possible.

                    -- RobS

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#31 2005-06-11 12:37:40

Trebuchet
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Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

Wood will not be available...

Actually, bamboo would grow like crazy in a high CO2 'garden dome' and could be useful. It would probably be the only 'wood' commonly available on Mars, though, unless it's possible to genetically engineer trees to use C4 photosynthesis instead of C3 (which would probably make tree farm domes feasible... on a limited basis, and as a luxury good. No wood pulp paper here...)

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#32 2005-06-20 09:11:34

CanalBuilder
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Posts: 13

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

From the moment we start growing food we will start producing waste materials similar to wood pulp. Mixing this wood pulp with water and freezing it would create a material called Pykrete.

Pykrete has better physical and thermal properties than normal ice. While martian temperatures are still low, and where pressure is sufficiently high, these bricks would be stable and could be used to build more or less any structure. Pykrete could even be poured to create massive structures in the same way as concrete. Build your own ice pyramids.

Imagine building an Igloo 50 metres high. "A stately pleasuredome with caves of ice"


third star on the right and straight on til morning

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#33 2005-07-20 10:40:09

clark
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Registered: 2001-09-20
Posts: 6,374

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=17447

A futuristic design by Faber Maunsell and Hugh Broughton Architects has won the competition for the new British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Halley Research Station. In a very close-run contest, three finalists presented their ideas to a Jury Panel, technical advisory panel and BAS scientists.

Full-on-view.s.jpg

Behold, the future!  lol

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#34 2005-07-20 12:22:18

Rxke
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From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

I was quite impressed they chose that design.

At first I thought they had a bad case of snowblindness or something like that, but then I thought: this is for real, and the jury can't be all idiots... So this *must* be a design that is feasible and not too expensive.

Impressive how far we've come in our cold-weather structure-building capabilities...

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#35 2005-11-03 21:39:30

spaceman9000
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Registered: 2005-10-14
Posts: 22

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

Two words: classical and Greco-Roman. I really do think that Martian architecture, well at least in my sketches, would highly resemble the Roman geometric city plan and the obsession with colonnades and roof tiles, and Greek influence will probably be in the designs at the top. It would be like an early Roman colony, planned out down to the street width, with a wall surrounding the city and a dome built maybe a few hundred yards in front of the wall. And the inside would be a metropolis of markets, houses, and civil buildings (the forum/capitol, basilicas, gardens, temples/churches, theatres, an amphitheatre, and a barracks). I see the entire process being done on Mars. Wait, is there any marble or similar material on Mars? Anyway, we should probably use brick in compressed subterrenean vaults (The Case for Mars) before we build the Roma Nova.


"The government that governs least, governs best"
-Thomas Jefferson

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#36 2005-11-04 04:27:29

idiom
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From: New Zealand
Registered: 2004-04-21
Posts: 312

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

Not likely to be anything like marble, not near the surface anyway unless one of those mega canyons turns out to be a rift but even then its not likely.

Is fullaraian a style? with tension homes? geodesics? inflatable housing?


Come on to the Future

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#37 2006-04-10 16:11:29

Kahless316
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Registered: 2006-04-09
Posts: 4

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

I think Arabic Archatecture or maybe Pueblos would be a good archatecture.  There's lots of sand around, so some sort of adobe would be a cheap building material.

c07p4.jpg

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#38 2006-07-31 15:12:37

redhorizons
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From: Oklahoma
Registered: 2005-09-27
Posts: 50

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

I have as the desktop to my notebook a picture over looking Ophir Chasim at sun rise. It is an awesome sight.  I can easily imagine waking every morning with a view like that from my home built into the side of the canyon walls. I can invision cities built into the canyon walls like inverse sky scrapers with a glass wall looking over the chasm. Then have Pueblo style villages built into the canyon at ground level, under escarpments.  These would be protected from all the space hazards.

For the open areas, not on a canyon wall.  I saw on TV not tol long ago that they are working on a robotic cement layer.  Just program the robot with the floor plan, fill the machine with a cement of sorts and let it build your home.  YOu could have one robot that milled the cement the convey it to the robot that made the buildings.

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#39 2006-08-28 10:16:31

Tom Kalbfus
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Registered: 2006-08-16
Posts: 4,401

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

A few comments I would like to make:

Architecture on Mars will be shaped by several key factors: materials, manpower, and conditions.

1. Wood will not be available, but plastic, steel (stainless, made from meteorites), sheet rock (made from sulphate deposits), concrete, glass, and bricks will be. Aluminum will be rare and expensive until a major plant to extract it can be made. Copper should be readily available; it's often associated with basalt, and basalr is common on Mars.

2. Manpower will be scarce and expensive. As much work as possible will be done in a shirtsleeve environment, NOT outside in spacesuits. Enclosed and pressurized construction areas also avoid extreme temperature conditions and other environmental hazards (peroxide-covered dust, for example). As much work as possible will be done in an automated assembly line fashion (the bigger the base, the more an assembly line can be adopted). Modular home construction on Earth may be a model for much construction on Mars, with entire airtight, wheeled housing and work modules ("trailers") completed in a factory and hauled outside through an airlock. Tunneling will be kept to an absolute minimum unless large, robotic tunnel machines are developed and imported (we don't have these machines on Earth now!). Tunnels are inherently hazardous and can't be pressurized until they're finished. They're also inherently explosive under certsin conditions; imagine a tunnel leaking air into the surrounding rock for months and months that suddenly depressurizes as a result of an accident. The air pressure in the surrounding rock will suddenly rush back in, blasting rocks and debris into the tunnel and possibly precipitating collapses.

Isn't the point of having a Mars Colony so that people can go outside and explore. If people stay inside their offices and shuffle papers, what is the point of having them on Mars? If I wanted to be a Janitor, so I could sweep the halls of the Mars Base, Should NASA pay to sent me to Mars? If I wanted to be a computer programmer, or an Administrative assistant, Should NASA pay to send me to Mars?

3. The Martian atmosphere provides adequate protection against solar radiation and micrometeorites, but not against cosmic rays. Thus buildings will need a meter of rock or loose dirt over them to provide radiation shielding. They should be airtight and in turn be inside airtight enclosures, providing double protection against depressurization. If designed in this fashion, they can be surrounded by greenspaces, which is good for the human spirit.

Water or Ice might work very well for this, it is also transparent and it lets sunshine through

4. Building design can be anything the inhabitants want, within the constraints of radiation protection and pressurization. I'd build them with large overhangs to reduce exposure to oblique radiation. I'd use flat roofs with gardens on top IF the buildings are within pressurized enclosures; there's no reason to waste the enclosed space with unused roofs. Pyramids are the worst shape, where space use and radiation protection are concerned. Greek-style pillars are unnecessary; if they're needed for decoration, they may be made of plastic! If one were to build with pillars, the pillars in lower Martian gravity would be thinner than on Earth, so the proportions would be different. It is likely, as Zubrin suggests, that much of Marsian architecture will have a mall-like feel, with large windowless spaces opening onto corridors with skylights. The exception will be construction inside domes/bubbles, which will open sideways to open spaces with windows.

One idea would be to lay down mats of astroturf on the Martian surface outside, then you could have a garden or artificial bushes, flowers and other things to make the outside Martian surface look nice and pleasant, then inside the dome you could continue the illusion by growing real plants under a dome covered with transparent ice. Make sure the Ice is as transparent as possible. I think if the water you made Ice out of was really clean, you could see right through it just like it was glass, and ice makes an effecive radiation shield. Perhaps the ice dome should be wrapped in plastic so that parts of it that melt won't sublime away.

5. Very large enclosures can be made "open floor." A very large bubble,with embedded cables, would be manufactured in a factory. Meanwhile, pile drivers will drive long nickel-steel stakes into the ground; pile drivers can be automated and require very little human supervision. The piles can be hollow; once they are in place the enclosure's embedded cables are dropped down into the hollow piles, then the hollow is filled with concrete to anchor the enclosure in place. The enclosure is initially pressurized with Martian air, which will rapidly leak downward into the ground, heating the regolith if the Martian air is heated. Once the ground has been warmed down several meters, water can be added to the enclosure. It will freeze up intersticies in the regolith deep down, allowing the enclosure to hold pressure more effectively. This system will require very large quantities of water; perhaps half a tonne per square meter. But if a Mars base is extracting large quantities of ground ice using spare reactor heat and extracting deuterium from the water, it'll have the water. Enclosures 50 to 100 meters wide--or more--and a kilometer long would be possible.

                    -- RobS

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#40 2006-09-12 03:06:47

maxie
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From: Europe
Registered: 2005-02-15
Posts: 84

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

I was thinking more about a Biosphere 2-like approach for surface features, e.g., domes, greenhouses, rover garages etc. And of course, *that* tower overseeing the entire colony. big_smile Preferably taller then the Biosphere 2 counterpart. roll

But I think it's best for the living quarters to be burried in the ground. Protection against small meteorites, radiation, storms. Also, when you need some new rooms, you just dig them. Then seal the walls of the cavity with some polymers and / or foam, then place the walls of the new rooms, then start decorating. A lot easier than building a new dome or something. :idea:

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#41 2006-09-12 08:46:33

Tom Kalbfus
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Posts: 4,401

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

Do you really like living in a cave, even a pressurized cave. Ice makes a better shield than dirt anyway, because a large component if ice is hydrogen. hydrogen is composed of protons and protons don't shatter when hit by cosmic rays, when the same hist dirt their is secondary radiation. Also another advantage of ice and water is that its transparent, and allows sunlight through and plants to grow, it is much more efficient to use sunlight for this purpose than artificial illumination, just so long as you filter out the bad stuff. Ice makes an excellet radiation shield and so does water, the only thing that needs to be done is to protect the water from the Martian environment, so therefore you encase it in transparent plastic. Domes with water above will tend to be very flat, so they are probably best built from the walls of a crater or a hole dug in the ground. this still allows plenty of natural sunlight to filter through, and you can add UV protection as required.

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#42 2006-09-12 12:03:17

maxie
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Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

Ice for building material ? No thank you.  :shock:

Why ? Simple, it melts. Also, taking in consideration the Marsian air pressure, it would simply sublimate. And, remember, sometimes temperatures on Mars get above 0 °C (the higher ever measured was +27° C).

Even if temp. doesn't go above 0 °C, the difference in temperature from day to night is enough to crack ice, in a similar way rocks crack in the desert here on Earth. And I think ice is very sensible to this.

And about transparency... I don't think is that transparent, especially when you need something like 50 cm thick (which by the way, weights a lot).

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#43 2006-09-12 14:21:29

noosfractal
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From: Biosphere 1
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Posts: 824
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Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

Full-on-view.s.jpg

Behold, the future!  lol

An important aspect of the above design, like the Mars habs, is that it is on stilts so that the frozen ground doesn't suck all the heat out of the structure.  Building underground means you have more contact, not less.  Domes are better, but you still have the contact problem.  Perhaps we should be thinking in terms of spheres-on-stilts?

sphere_becher.tank.lg.jpg


Fan of [url=http://www.red-oasis.com/]Red Oasis[/url]

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#44 2006-09-13 09:25:52

Tom Kalbfus
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Posts: 4,401

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

You can have a sphere on stilts sitting inside a crater with a transparent upper dome for growing vegatables in a greenhouse. The Dome would be made out of insulated glass or plastic on top of which you could place the water shield to block radiation. The water is enclosed and sealed away from the Martian environment with a flexible stretchible plastic so it doesn't sublimate away and when the water freezes, it expands and the plastic expands with it, when it melts it contracts. If it cracks so what? the plastic hold it together and the cracks can be repaired by melting the ice and refreezing it along the crack lines. If the water is pure and without bubbles, it will also be as clear as glass.

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#45 2006-09-13 21:56:13

Robert M. Blevins
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Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

The first Martian colony will almost certainly be built UNDERGROUND. There are many reasons, but the biggest is the payload factor. Building underground solves a lot of material problems, at least initially. Later, we will move to the surface... 8)

Another problem is radiation and solar flares. For an excellent rendition of what REALLY happens to someone reletively unprotected who gets hit by a proton event, see the old book 'Space' by James Michener. Now, Michener was no scientist. But, he did his research before writing a book.

In the book, there is an Apollo mission after the last real one. Two astronauts out in their rover are hit by a 'proton event.'  It takes them twenty minutes to get back to their LEM. By the time they reach it, one of them has passed out in the doorway. The other drags him inside and they attempt a quick liftoff. Before the LEM gets a thousand feet off the ground, the other astronaut passes out cold and the LEM crashes. Both their dosimeters are saturated. The astronaut up in the command module is protected a bit better by orbiting the moon, and because of the heat shield. He eventually gets home, but takes a good dose.

The moral here is a simple reality. The thin atmosphere just doesn't provide enough protection. Our guys will have to take a chance on our first visit to Mars, since they will likely be exploring on the surface. After that, it's underground...at least for a few years, and near a water ice source.  Remember the payload. Those domes...will they go to Mars in pieces, after several heavy-lift launches, or be built from indigenous materials? Either possibility is difficult and expensive. Cheaper and easier to manage is establish a first base underground. Then...your payloads can be for other, more important items. Payload and Fuel are the gods of Mars exploration.  8)


Don't give up reaching for the stars...
just build yourself a bigger ladder.

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#46 2006-09-13 22:47:59

Tom Kalbfus
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Posts: 4,401

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

The only problem with the ground is that its not transparent. We want to let sunlight in so we can grow our food. If we use water for shielding we are not going to bring it from Earth, so it won't be part of the mass budget, but once we are on Mars, it would be desirable to find a source of water, once that is accomplished, we can use water as radiation shielding while also taking advantage of its transparent optical qualities to grow food, now what's the problem with this?

What if for instance we were to pump Martian out of a frozen aquifier, and supposing there was enough water, what if we made an artificial lake, filling up a crater and then placing the Mars habitat under water? Mars is fairly cold most of the time. If we did this during Martian winter the water would freeze almost immediately. We could use a nuclear reactor to keep the bottom part of the lake liquid and have a submerged habitat. Perhaps the frozen surface of the lake would keep the liquid water from boiling away much as it does for Europa. The water pressure on the underwater habitiat could be enough to balance out a 1 bar atmosphere under a plastic dome. Their would be an extention that leads to the surface of the ice where astronauts can get out and do EVAs. The temperature of the water in the pond would be just above freezing. the interior of the dome would be heated more than this. It doesn't really snow on Mars, because of that fact, the surface of the ice wouldn't be white but clear as glass instead, it would require occasional sweeping to prevent dust from accumulating on top, but I believe that with proper maintnance the ice surface of the artifical lake can be kept clear and allow sunlight to filter through. Another idea would be to raise fish in this lake, another source of food, I also see no reason why artic plants couldn't also grow under water at the bottom of this lake. There would be moon pools where divers can go in and harvest some of these fish for food. I think there is enough water on Mars to do something like this.

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#47 2006-09-14 00:26:12

maxie
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Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

On Earth to keep liquid water in a pond below the surface ice the water must be at least 1.2 m thick. On Mars probably something like 5 metres. That's gonna weight something like 1570 metric tonnes for a 10 m radius, if the water is enclosed in a double walled dome. I doubt you can take from Earth a structure to resist such pressure.

Worse, if you want to make a plastic dome covered with water, the dome being round, and the water above plain, than that's gonna be a bigger problem. It would weight around 2100 metric tonnes, if the top layer of water is only 1 cm thick. If it's thicker than 1 cm, let's say 2 m, the entire water would weight 2700 metric tonnes. That's a lot of weight for a dome....  :shock:

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#48 2006-09-14 07:47:28

Tom Kalbfus
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Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

The first thing is Mars has almost enough air pressure for liquid water to exist. On some places on Mars during certain times of the year, liquid water can exist on the surface of Mars, and the geological evidence suggests that water did exist on the surface of Mars on many occasions. Keeping water liquid in a MArtian environment is not the same as doing so on the Moon for instance. Once good thing is that Mars is very cold most of the time and ice will form on the upper surface of any lake that is established, that ice will keep the water below from boiling away, although it will sublimate away from the top layer of ice during warmer periods. The solution is simply to pump more water from the ground to replace that which is lost to the Martian air.

You say,

On Earth to keep liquid water in a pond below the surface ice the water must be at least 1.2 m thick. On Mars probably something like 5 metres. That's gonna weight something like 1570 metric tonnes for a 10 m radius, if the water is enclosed in a double walled dome. I doubt you can take from Earth a structure to resist such pressure.

On Earth liquid water can exist without any layer of ice on top at all. One Mars, which is a cold environment fortunately, you need a layer of ice on top to keep the water below from boiling away, just as is the case on Europa. Sometimes the martian days are balmy and a layer of ice will sublimate away on top, but more can always be pumped out of the ground. I think on average Mars is a cold place and any lake established will always have a layer of ice on top. I doubt Mars will be warm enough for long enough for the top layer of ice to melt away completely.

As for water pressure, you must realize the air of Mars is very thin, so the water pressure will also start out low, less that the surface air pressure on Earth in fact just below the ice. Since water is denser than air, the water pressure will build up rapidly as you descend to lower depths, not as quickly as it would on Earth due to the lower gravity, but still at a certain depth, the water pressure will equal Earth's atmospheric pressure at sea level, and at that point you can balance that out with 1 bar air pressure under a plasic dome. The dome would need very little strength as the air pressure will be only slightly greater than the water pressure, just enough to hold out the water. Since it never snows on Mars, the surface ice will be quite clear and sunlight will filter readily through. All that extra water on top because of the low gravity does mean that you will get excellent protection from radiation, cosmic rays , solar flares, you name it, and the water can be used for other things like drinking, raising fish, production of fuel and a number of other things, it would basically be a resevoir that doubles as radiation shielding.

I don't know why your talking about weight, its not as if we're bringing this water from Earth, it is all Martian water.

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#49 2006-09-14 12:06:11

maxie
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Posts: 84

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

Now that makes sense...

Yet, there is a problem with ice transparency and maintenance. It's not that easy.


On Earth liquid water can exist without any layer of ice on top at all.

Of course, but not at -70 °C.

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#50 2006-09-14 12:39:42

Tom Kalbfus
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Posts: 4,401

Re: Mars Design & Architecture - ...(how do you visualize it?)

I did mention that a nuclear reactor would be used to heat the water to keep it liquid undeneath. I the artic, you have cold biting winds that carry away the heat from the icy surface. On Mars, you have cold winds, but their less biting than in the artic because they are alot thinner. In fact the Martian atmosphere is often termed a "laboratory vacuum". One of the properties of a vauum, no matter how cold it is, is its insulating characteristic. Water retains alot of heat, and if its heated by a nuclear reactor underneath, the martian wind's ability to carry heat away from the icy surface is very small, the grounds conductivity is alot greater, so perhaps an insulating layer of plastic needs to be placed at the bottom of this lake. Other that that I see no reason why the icy surface could not be -5c on a Martian night that is -70c. You must remember their is very little atmosphere here, the ice will warm up the martian air to about -5c from -70c and that thin air will rise and cold air will take its place, but that air is very thin and it doesn't take much heat to warm it up, and thus not mush heat is lost from the water resevoir, and the nuclear reactor can easily replace that heat. The greatest concern here is heat that is conducted away by the ground.

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