My Mars Base 1 by shiver

Last crawled date: 2 years, 11 months ago

I designed this Mars base with cost-effectiveness and stylistic comfort in mind. While in space there are no trips to the supermarket, theater etc. so comfort is necessary on a planet that is extremely isolated. A realistic mission would account for a 1.5 year stay so I don't believe that it is a good idea to send people to a desolate planet and put them in cramped units that could psychologically adversely affect the astronauts. The prelaunch of materials is necessary likely for any attempts to colonize Mars by sending oxygen, building material, solar cells, batteries etc. in advance of human landing.
My idea here contains not just buildings but how it can function as a whole. The problem of radiation I have looked at many different ways including digging into ancient Lava or building brick on top of the structures but this would be very costly and time-consuming. It is important to set up Water, Energy and 1 Dome as soon as possible.
The 3 main domes are connected with archways cut out eliminating the need for excessive construction of walkways from building to building.
Enough Water, Oxygen and food would have to be brought to sustain them for this time, living in the landing craft until structures are complete.
The buildings are lined with the waterproof bags ( vacuum sealed for transport ) over the entire interior of every building and filled with liquid or liquid sand combination to limit radiation inside the buildings. Harder Beta Radiation can not be stopped even with Lead, so the plastic in the water Bags will do this job as well, the high concentration of Hydrogen in water will stop the more dangerous Neutron Radiation all simple and low cost.
Bringing excavating equipment and drills is really not logical or cost effective for a first settlement. Most of these vehicles require combustion engines and since there is very little oxygen on Mars these vehicles just wouldn't work. It's an effective way of limiting radiation without the billions in expenses to designing and building special machinery to drill and dig underground bases. The cost of carrying such massive machinery also is just too high for a first mission.
Most of the material used in building construction would be the Martian soil itself. By heating it compacting it and bringing additives to solidify it instead of bringing the building material. This would save billions in cost, power and spacecraft size. I then found that work done by Ames Research Center in Moffett Field in California show that using Sporosarcina pasteurii bacteria ( taken from Astronaut's urine ) can be used in making a type of cement solidifying soil in about 2 weeks to that of concrete.
Also in this process of heating Martian soil to make concrete, water may be be extracted at the same time in the same building using a distilling method. It's been proven that water ice exists on mars from the Spirit Rover's shallow soil dig tests. Existing equipment can separate Hydrogen and Oxygen as needed as well from this one collection method.
The Greenhouse has to be large, you cannot underestimate the need for food and no risks can be taken in production. In the dome there are 2 layers of green housing with electrical and LED lighting for the bottom layer for food production and lighting / natural light for the upper layer for plants for O2 production. Larger research / work dome should have 2 floors for workspace as well.
The main power source can be a larger version of the already tested and robust NASA Nuclear Thermocoupler. If power produced isn't enough I decided to use solar power along with wind power as well because there is an abundance of both on Mars and there is not always sun on Mars depending on the landing site. Landing closer to the poles where frozen liquid is more abundant but sunlight is a problem. If a large Thermocoupler/s could produce enough power it would make landing closer to abundant ice an easier decision then only solar or wind could be a backup power source.
With the wind turbines, I have designed a simple shielding around them that can be controlled by computer or manually to shut and enclose the turbines during heavy windstorms facing the direction of the wind to protect the Turbines.
I also situated them away from the base due to the psychological and physical effects of wind turbines low frequency and infrasound noise that disrupts sleep, causes dizziness, nausea and headaches. All which need to be avoided on a desolate environment.
The buildings themselves are mostly dome shaped as there are regular violent wind storms on Mars that could destroy buildings with flat surfaces as well as Solar Array's on Stilts etc. Ladders are on the Rec building for easy access to clean solar cells when they're dusty. Alternately a mechanism can be made similar to a light bar on a scanner that sweeps the roof back and forth to clean it. A glass dome is another option or pre cut curved solar cells for a domed roof but I'm trying to keep costs down as transporting these would take alot of space.
Small domes can be built around the landing craft after they land to protect them from wind damage and radiation.
I have windows inserted for aesthetics in buildings, but plants would grow in artificial light and small external camera's with internal video monitors can be used to see the exterior in real time if windows are a problem.
Metal buildings would be a very bad idea for radiation shielding as it would scatter some of the more dangerous radiation and make it much worse so I went with Concrete mix and it's possible to make easy repairs.
Martian soil has shown to be very effective in growing plants so Fertilizer would only need to be sent along with plants, seeds, bulbs, pots, lighting etc. or best, grown Hydroponically without the need for soil.
I tried to make it simple, yet aesthetically pleasing and spacious for the emotional and psychological well being of the Astronauts as well as self sustaining for long periods.
All ground piping, cabling and the Large Gas collection cansiters would be covered in Dirt once operational for Sun / wind shielding.
Note the Space Suit man was inserted for size, got it from the NASA models site