Three 3D-printed, to-scale habitat prototypes of Martian cities are being built at the Reaction Research Society's test area in the Mojave Desert, funded by a $30,382 Kickstarter campaign by Mars City Design, a think tank founded by Vera Mulyani to develop blueprints for the first self-sustaining city on Mars.
Mulyani describes the project's approach as "macro to micro," meaning the team will first examine how an entire city would function as a whole and then work down to individual habitats. The goal is to start with a base of four people on Mars and eventually grow it to a city of 1,000.
From 25 design entries, Mars City Design shortlisted three finalists whose prototypes will be 3D-printed. Among the designs are Neurosynthesis, an urban settlement with a closed river system and an artificial Martian waterfall; Project Dandelion, an autonomous habitat that uses regolith to provide a sustainable source of oxygen, water, energy and nutrition; Vertical Farms, sustainable farming to limit reliance on sporadic supply runs from Earth; and Instant Structure, a laser explosion technology to rapidly create constructions as immediate solutions to natural disasters or war.
In September, select engineers, designers, and architects from around the world will gather at a workshop at the University of Southern California to plan features of the first cities on Mars. Attendees will include Jim Erickson, project manager of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover, Madhu Thangavelu, a professor at the Viterbi School of Engineering, and Apollo 11 pilot Buzz Aldrin, among many others.
Mulyani says her team sees Mars as an opportunity to think long-term and plan sustainable cities, something she says we didn't do with Earth.
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