Settling on Mars is not easy to achieve and it requires a lot of creativity. That is the purpose of Mars City Design: to build a Mars City with architectural innovation that involves Urban Farming that will ensure food security on the future colony of Mars.
Every year the Mars City® platform founded by architect and filmmaker Vera Mulyani hosted the Mars City Design Challenges. It is a program where students worldwide would come together with industry experts to produce "Marchitecture" for future Mars colony.
In 2020, Urban Farming was their goal, where participants need to think of innovations that would allow future Martians to thrive.
Vera Mulyani explained that the primary goal of setting up a colony and designing urban farming on the red planet is to thrive and not just survive, which means that it should have better infrastructure that can help humans sustainability for the long term. Also, she said that thriving means advancing together in terms of innovation on Mars.
Below are the top five that won 2020's Urban Farming contest, which is divided into multiple categories, as reported by Universe Today:
Justin's Food Production System
Under the Mars Agriculture Engineering category, Justin's Mars Farm won together with three other entries. It is a concept by Justin Pourkaveh who is a thermal systems fluid engineer in commercial aerospace.
His concept is a food production system made of interconnected modules that will provide a growing space of arable land to grow food. It also has windows and is designed to regulate humidity, solar input, and thermal conditions. It makes indoor farming a reality on the red planet, a method of urban farming currently in practice here on Earth.
MarSpine
Architectural engineer Mohamed Emad won first place under the Design Category with his MarSpine design. It was inspired by the Voronois structure of the lilypad. When viewed from above would look like the underside of a lilypad, a central spine that splits the structure into two with the ribs extending to the edge.
The MarSpine would be 3D-printed from regolith and combined with prefabricated carbon nanotubes so that the structure would be durable and flexible. It will then be covered with fiberglass fabric to minimize friction from airborne dust and additional UV protection to make sure that the temperature inside the structure would remain stable.
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Sprout
Guiseppe Calabrese of Australia and Italy won first place under the Marchitecture Category for his Sprout design. The idea for this structure comes from the idea from the agricultural experiences here on Earth, wherein the natural environment is destroyed and creates more waste.
Sprout serves as the solution to this problem as it offers a system that will transform waste into a sustainable agricultural process and energy.
Barchan City
Under the Design Category, Dubai (UAE) junior architect Khaled AlLabban's Barchan City design won third place. The structure is named after one of Mars' most well-known features which is the Barchan Dunes located in the lowland area of Acidalia Plantilla.
The main focus of the structure is for planting, in which it provides cultivation facilities, as well as residential and workspace areas. It also offers the services required to maintain them. "It is the next step towards a fully-functional, independent, and plant-centric community," AlLabban said.
Mars Colony 1
Mars Colony 1 design won second place under the Mars Agriculture Engineering category. It is designed by Mars City Ambassador Thomas Lagarde and postdoc aerospace engineer and Martian environment specialist Yulia Akisheva.
According to them, Mars Colony 1 is aimed to provide an innovative perspective on crop selection and concept operations that could also be used on Earth. Besides, Mars Colony 1 increases the crew's potential safety with its radiation shelter and ascent module.
READ MORE: Elon Musk on Mars Colonization: "Good Chance You'll Die"
Check out more news and information on Mars on Science Times.
