This raises an important question if this project is going to be grounded in reality; what comes before the first permanent settlement?
This thesis is built upon the foundations of Mars Direct, a strategic plan written by Robert Zubrin, an aerospace engineer working for Martin & Marietta aerospace corporation before it merged with Lockheed Martin. The core concept of the Mars Direct plan is; travel light and accomplish as much as possible on the surface using the resources available.
Mars Direct is a plan to settle Mars using existing aerospace technology on a relatively tight budget of thirty billion dollars on a ten year timeline. This plan results in the deployment of several permanent habitable outposts along with the necessary equipment for; fuel production, power generation, oxygen production, water extraction, lab experiments, and surveying. At the end of the first ten years Mars Direct will have brought a total of twenty people to the surface of Mars. From here, the Mars thesis project will build on the foundations of Mars Direct and form the first permanent settlement, a colony which can house up to one hundred persons and provide a foothold which will allow for expansion of even greater populations.
To begin the project however, a detailed study of Mars and the Mars Direct plan will be conducted in order to scope and identify the initial conditions of the project. This includes environmental data, resource data, site selection, and extensive knowledge of the equipment deployed by Mars Direct. Part of this process will include the production of graphics and diagrams which explain the Mars Direct plan.
Simultaneously, strategies for how to build architecture will be explored by studying the way simple organisms manipulate the resources around them to produce structures which ensure their propagation.
Limiting the project to the planning of the first permanent settlement narrows the playing field slightly, but the project is still largely the formation of a new kind of architecture for a new planet, incorporating all aspects of the profession, ranging from resource extraction and processing, to building systems integration, to urban planning. To illustrate this point these are the questions I am asking;
What will architecture on mars be made of?
How will people acquire this resource and process it into a building material?
How will this material(s) be configured to produce an airtight membrane capable of supporting life?
How is the actual construction carried out while wearing an insulated breathing suit?
How do spaces made of this material aggregate, and how do they distribute life support?
Before starting to design the settlement, these questions must be answered.
