The Colonization of Mars is a project which forces humanity to reconcile its relationship with the environment through the things it creates, namely architecture, from the raw resources available. The goal of the thesis is to work towards a symbiotic relationship between humanity and the environment rather than a parasitic one.
On Earth, buildings are built speculativly, wastefully, and often very poorly with regards to the environment. This is a result of the fact that humanity has established such primacy on the planet through the evolution of intelligence that there is no struggle for survival and growth continues unchecked like a cancer. Humanity on the whole maintains a parasitic relationship with the Earth; resources are leached from the environment and processed into things which usually only benefits humans and degrades the natural ecologies which gave rise to humanity in the first place.
Humanity has been following the same trajectory as all life, the manipulation of the environment in order to support more life, or in our case, to support more humans. The problem is that humans have achieved this thus far entirely parasitically. Our systems devour natural resources simply to further the cause of humanity alone rather than the advancement of life as a whole. As this process continues, humanity is snuffing out the rest of nature in its domination of the environment, and clearly this is a problem because humanity relies on the natural ecology of earth to sustain itself more than any other resource on the planet.
Architecture plays a central role in the relationship between humanity and the environment. We process and configure raw materials in to membranes which allow us to regulate the environment within them. These membranes stabilize the natural conditions of Earths fluctuating environment to more favorable conditions, thus ensuring the survival and productivity of humanity as whole. Similar the way our body regulates its internal conditions through the process called Homeostasis, allowing the complex chemistry of consciousness to occur continuously, architecture regulates environment around the body, allowing humans to function in their roles in the greater systems of civilization. This issue with architecture seems to lie in the reckless way humans extract and configure material to produce these membranes, and that that the membranes are configured to only benefit humanity and not the ecology of life as a whole.
The extreme conditions of Mars will require architectural designs to optimize themselves; considering the necessities of life, simplicity, frugality, and longevity. In essence, the colonization of Mars will force humanity to work. With an established colony on Mars humanity will have another realm in which to grow and adapt while creating a dialog between a global civilization and its frontier.
This thesis project will culminate with the design of the first permanent settlement which can house up to 60 researchers with the facilities to conduct extensive research on Mars, allowing for further expansion and manipulation of the planet. The ultimate goal of a Mars Colony is to terraform the planet into a habitable environment which can harbor human and other kinds of diverse life.
Methodology:
This thesis is based on the foundation of Mars Direct, a mission architecture designed by Robert Zubrin, so the first task of the thesis will be to assess the plan and explain the context of what is going to be on the planet at the point the plan calls for the construction of the first base. The beauty is that the plan uses existing aerospace technology to get to Mars.
The plan begins with two interplanetary launches a year:
first, a small chemical processing plant, nuclear reactor, and Earth Return Vehicle are launched to Mars
the chemical processor produces rocket fuel and oxygen by mixing chemicals brought within it, with the gases present in the Martian atmosphere. The nuclear reactor will provide electricity for the habitation module and the battery powered rovers. The Earth Return Vehicle allows the crew to return to Earth in case of emergency or when the mission is complete.
second, after confirming the successful landing of the first payload, a first generation habitation module and crew of 4-6 are launched to Mars. This hab module connects to the chemical plant for oxygen and to the nuclear reactor for power and allows the crew to stay on the surface of Mars for up to two years. During this time the crew can explore, survey, conduct experiments and research on how to manufacture different materials from Mars's resources.
This cycle is repeated, sending habitation modules all of the the planet of Mars until one is selected for a permanent Mars settlement, at which point all concurrent habitation modules will be sent to the same site. The next set of second generation habs will be able to move on a rolling frame allowing them to aggregate into a complex of habs, they will also be sent with more specialized production equipment for the processing of Martian resources. This marks the stage when the construction of the first permanent base will be constructed, this is also the point at which this thesis will begin its exploration.
the plan to get to Mars described above is conveniently animated in this video:
Mars Direct Mission Architecture
Once the Mars Direct plan has been studied in detail, I will begin gathering information on the Martian environment and piece together as accurate as possible an assessment of the context for the base.
The base will have to be a phased construction, building slowly on the foundations of the previous structures. Resource processing and material manufacture will have to be tailored to the means available to the Mars colonists at that time. These constraints will be checked against research conducted and printed in the book The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin.
For now, I will begin the research process by scoping the necessary requirements humans have of their built structures as a way to compile all the things which the Mars settlement will have to provide. To illustrate this point I have remade the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci to reflect humanity's modern understand of itself. Specifically, these diagrams will serve as a basis for the characteristics of humans which the architecture of Mars must fulfill.
Iteration 1
Iteration 2
Bibliography
These books provide the foundational backing for this thesis, they describe the reasons why, but also how to colonize Mars using existing technology.
Zubrin, Robert. The Case for Mars. 1997, The Free Press.
Zubrin, Robert. Entering Space: Creating a Space faring Civilization. 2000, Tarcher Press.
These books provide a historical analysis of civilizations describing why certain civilizations are more successful than others. They are relevant to this thesis in providing the reasons why humanity must always retain a relationship with a frontier in order to remain healthy. The frontier condition is one which is rapidly disappearing with the culmination of our global civilization.
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. 2005, W.W. Norton Company.
Diamond, Jared. How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. 2005, Penguin.
This book looks to re-imagine the process by which raw resource is processed into building material, this will be a key component in this Mars thesis as materials and production methods will have to be found to be able to build on Mars.
Kieran, Timberlake. Refabricating Architecture: How manufacturing methodologies are poised to transform building construction. 2003, McGraw-Hill Professional.
