The Circular Design Anatomy of Planetary Outposts
Not long ago NASA announced the winner of their 3D Printed Habitat Challenge AI Space Factory from NYC. Their design, called “Marsha”, is based on an egg/dome-like structure. When it comes to architecture on foreign planets we have to think not only on available materials but also on a good ratio of speed and stability/durability of a structure because we start from scratch.
While humans spend probably most of their expenses on housing here on earth, animals would never put that same effort into their commodity. For them, it’s a shelter and breeding place, not their holy grail. They learned to build with the same amount of effort wherever they need to. On mars, we are like them, in an insecure environment unknowing of dangers that will come, in a need of a reproductive building method that can be applied everywhere.
If we look at Sci-fi movies and comics from an architectural perspective we can find a lot of circle-related shapes and domes. They appear mostly in groups and seem to grow organically in contrast to the rough environment they live in:
Analyzing these ideas we can see some patterns that imitate religious buildings such as chapels/cathedrals, others mimicking clay-like structures in deserts and mountain areas. For centuries we have created the most long-lasting architectural structures in circular and dome shapes, withstanding earthquakes, storms, fires, and decay.
So if we think of building on Mars the first big question becomes: what to build with?
If we look at Mars’s canvas we can find basalt everywhere thanks to volcanos that had erupted hundreds of millions and billions of years ago. If you have basalt you can then mix it with plant-based polymers, that you would need to grow by yourself in a lab. The finished product would not only be really strong and durable but also prevent the 5000x higher radiation from grilling us on the surface, causing cancer and premature death.
There are different ideas on how to produce building material, here is another one with a similar idea:
As humans prepare to colonize Mars, there will be a need for locally-sourced concrete to build durable, habitable structures. However, conventional terrestrial formulations would not be well suited to the unique resources and conditions prevalent on the Martian surface and near-surface. Plaster of Paris or water (which would bind by freezing) would be the most appropriate binders. Water for concrete would be produced from ice or by condensation out of the atmosphere, and local aggregates could be used in a similar manner to those on Earth. Unique mixing, casting, compaction, and curing methods will be required for the low-temperature, low-gravity, low-pressure conditions. Concrete elements could effectively support gravitational, wind, seismic, and micrometeoric loads. Concrete structures would preferably be buried under a 7–10 m layer of Martian regolith in order to counter-balance aerostatic loads and to protect against the hazards of cosmic and solar radiation, wide temperature swings, and deliquescent salts.
“Concrete on Mars: Options, challenges, and solutions for binder-based construction on the Red Planet” Yonathan Reches
The social aspect of the circle
In society, we have rules, values, and other parameters structuring our life as well as setting boundaries for each other. Societies can be small and very large and are driven by core values, believes and goals. In the case of the outpost missions, we have a small number of scientists and engineers that bring their earthly owned interaction codexes to another planet aiming to colonize it. We would see a flat hierarchy where every person becomes equally valuable and responsibly based alone on their presence on an inhabited planet as human life forms.
In a circle, each point has the same distance to the opposite side. When King Arthur introduced his knight’s table he decided to make it round because he wanted everybody to be equal.
University professors in Canada sat volunteers around different shaped tables and analyzed their reactions to advertising. When people are placed in a circle they feel like they “belong”, but put them in rows and the situation is more likely to bring out individuality. They found that those people seated in a circle or oval were more positive about adverts which conveyed groups such as family or friends. The same applies to group dynamics and learning behaviors in schools and kinder gardens. You can read more about active classroom designs at “Space and Consequences”: The Influence of the Roundtable Classroom Design on Student Dialogue
Having circular shaped elements has multiple advantages over squares in a social context:
- While colonizers get used to the circumstances (environmental and social) round-shaped workplaces can offer a maximum distance to each other regardless of how many people are in the room.
- Sitting at a round table makes everybody equal
- Searching for something can be done faster from a rotating center point
- Circle shape helps psychologically
So we have social aspects in regards to equality and active dialogues as well as structural integrity and durability all combined into the circular shape.
Aircrete — a low cost housing revolution
I recently became aware of a movement involving a material called “Aircrete”. It gained fame in the DIY space and focuses on architecture that uses long-lasting materials for an affordable cost. Another advantage is that you could build a house by yourself due to some simple techniques. Aircrete is a material combination of water, cement, and foam made by a foaming agent. There are two main ways to build an Aircrete home:
- by pre-producing Aircrete building blocks and stacking them together
- by spaying Aircrete in its liquid state onto an inflatable skydome with supporting layers of special fabrics
To learn more about Aircrete, watch Hajjar’s fantastic TEDx talk introduction to the topic:
Building with a dome:
We can steal three main ideas from this for our Mars habitat:
- Spraying the building material onto an inflatable dome and use supporting fabrics to stabilize it.
- Using a foaming agent to optimize Mars’s concrete material
- Placing the autonomous printer in the center of the structure and let the printer arm print in a circular motion for a faster and more fail-safe accurate result
