EUROPE: What will our homes on Mars look like? If French 3D printing firm Fabulous has anything to do with it, like something out of a Moebius comic.
French science fiction has a very particular aesthetic. From Luc Besson to Rene Laloux to Enki Bilal to Philippe Druillet to Moebius, a distinct style emerges: futuristic, beautifully coloured and lushly organic, but not entirely unlike how our world is currently designed.
NASA has been hosting a 3D-printed Mars habitat challenge. The competition, which asks participants to “develop state-of-the-art architectural concepts,” is only open to people based in the US — but that hasn’t stopped French 3D printing company Fabulous from having a go anyway, in collaboration with The French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Mars Society.
The design created by the team of scientists, architects, image specialists and 3D-printing specialists is called Sfero, a name meaning “sphere,” “iron” and “water,” and it resembles nothing so much as an igloo crossed with a large droplet of water sitting on the surface of Mars, contained by its own surface tension.
The “iron” part of the design comes from the iron in Mars’ composition, which gives the planet its red colour. This could, Fabulous argues, be harvested and repurposed into the base structure Sfero dwelling.
The other element that has been proven present on Mars, water in the form of frozen ice, would also be used in the habitat’s construction.
“A water pocket inserted between two iron hulls would gain the following benefits: transparency, in particular to establish a plant in the habitat biosphere; protection against solar radiation — it is indeed proven that hydrogen is the best protection against solar radiation. An envelope of 30 centimetres of water and therefore hydrogen is sufficient to produce this protection — and a permanent psychological reminder of the main element of the mother planet, water constituting a sort of protective amniotic fluid for humans,” the Sfero project page reads.
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