Cities and Homes on Mars
The Nüwa City Project. By 2100, 1.000 people per year will be sent to the Red Planet!
The idea of building cities and homes on Mars is no longer just science fiction.
With the Nüwa City project, the architecture and industrial design studio ABIBOO – in collaboration with the international network of scientists sonet – has presented a concrete proposal for the creation of a future self-sufficient colony on the Red Planet, which will be able to initially host up to 250.000 people.
Plan, selected by the Mars Society Among more than 175 applications, it aims to respond to the extreme conditions of Mars with cutting-edge engineering and architectural solutions.
The first works could start as early as 2054.
We see What does the Nüwa City project consist of? to build the first cities and homes on Mars.
Also read: "Space Architecture: Living in Space"
Cities in the Rock: What Will Homes on Mars Be Like?
Nüwa City will most likely be the project that will give Start of construction of the first houses on Mars.
To date, the proposal has not been fully made official and represents more of a futuristic model, albeit based on real and demonstrable scientific data, which provides a concrete vision of how we could design livable cities outside of Earth.
If all goes as hoped, Nüwa City to Rise in Tempe Mensa, in the central-northern area of the planet, a strategic choice for confirmed access to water. The real distinctive feature of the project, however, is its structure: the city will be dug into a cliff, exploiting the slope to build a vertical city integrated into the rock.
A solution that certainly does not only aim at aesthetics. In fact, the Martian rock will be used for provide natural protection from solar radiation and micrometeorites, two of the major threats to human life on the planet.
The buildings will therefore not be exposed on the surface, but distributed in tubular modules 60 meters long and 10 meters in diameter, integrated into the rock. The modules will be connected to each other by tunnels and high-speed elevators, in order to create a compact urban infrastructure, resilient and replicable.
Also read: "GIS: to design the city of the future"
Interplanetary Urbanism: 5 Cities for a New World
Nüwa City will be the capital of a Martian urban system composed of five cities, each designed to initially house 200.000 to 250.000 people.
Among the others already known are: Abalos City, which will be located near the Martian North Pole for access to the ice, and Marineris City, located inside the largest canyon in the solar system, Valles Marineris.
The urban planning of cities and homes on Mars will be designed to minimize dependence on Earth. Each city will be completely self-sufficient, with spaces dedicated to agriculture, energy production and community life.
At the top of the cliffs, in the areas called “Mesa”, the infrastructures for the Solar power generation and food production. The lower areas, “Valle”, will instead host essential services: hospitals, schools, sports facilities, cultural and commercial areas and railway stations.
To facilitate internal travel, the project includes the development of a light transport system consisting of electric trains and buses that will follow the length of the cliff.
All stations will be connected to a space airport located in a nearby crater, a strategic point for the arrival and departure of people and goods.
© ABIBOO Studio – Image rendering: ABIBOO Studio / SONet – https://abiboo.com/
Sustainability and Wellbeing: The Homes of the Future on Mars
The study project ABIBOO aims to create a closed ecosystem, where air, water and food resources will be generated and recycled locally. CO₂ will be transformed into oxygen through crops, while wastewater will be treated and made drinkable.
The residential spaces will integrate urban gardens, green areas and artificial domes – called Green Domes and Snow Domes – to simulate natural environments, regulate temperatures and promote the psychological well-being of the inhabitants.
Some domes will replicate terrestrial conditions for everyday use, while others they will be experimental laboratories of adapted vegetation to the Martian atmosphere to advance astrobiological research.
Houses and buildings on Mars will be equipped with atmospheric pressure regulation systems and refuge areas in case of emergencies. The social, living and working spaces will be based on a logic of functional and sustainable cohabitation, according to the most up-to-date principles of extraterrestrial bioarchitecture.
Martian Society: Governance, Culture and New Human Challenges
A less discussed but central aspect of the project is thesocial and political organization of the colonies that will settle on the Red Planet.
The first inhabitants of Nüwa City will likely be scientists, technicians, engineers, agronomists and doctors, selected to ensure the skills necessary for the survival and progress of communities.
The idea of a cooperative governance model is already under discussion, with ethical and legal rules adapted to extraterrestrial conditions and the operating distance from our planet.
Isolation, hostile environments and long distances will raise the need to solve unprecedented psychological and cultural challenges. It will therefore be essential to promote a sense of collective identity, through spaces for art, spirituality, education and memory of what is the only planet we know so far: Earth.
Social dynamics, the right to representation, conflict management and even the birth of new forms of language or cultural symbolism These are scenarios that architects and urban planners will have to foresee with foresight.
In this sense, Nüwa City will not only be a human settlement on Mars, but the prototype of a new multiplanetary civilization, in which architecture and science will have to coexist and continuously evolve.
Also read: "Dry construction between past and future"
© ABIBOO Studio – Image rendering: ABIBOO Studio / SONet – https://abiboo.com/
When will it be possible to live on Mars?
The Nüwa City project is the result of collaboration between architects, engineers, astrobiologists and physicists, coordinated by the SONet network, and was officially presented during the 23rd International Convention of Mars society.
Its development integrates environmental analysis, Martian gravity study, risk management and adaptive architectural design.
Alfredo Munoz, founder of the ABIBOO studio, said: “If we were to build buildings like on Earth they would tend to explode due to the very high pressure. Solar radiation and gamma rays on Mars have forced us to think about spaces that are not directly exposed to the sky.".
It is expected that work could begin by 2054, and that the first cities and homes on Mars will be fully built It could take about 50 years.
According to estimates, starting from the year 2100 it will be possible to send about 1.000 people a year to Mars. The The journey will last 250 days and the cost of a one-way ticket will be around around $ 300.000, including accommodation (24-35 m²) and access to shared facilities.
At that point, we won't be talking about just a mere scientific or engineering revolution. It will be the dawn of a new chapter for all humanity. and for the world of architecture.
Nüwa City was ABIBOO's first step towards creating Onteco Mars, Futureverse™ based on science on the Red Planet. Onteco Mars aims to be an immersive digital replica of future settlements on Mars.
