SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the intellects-vast-and-cool-and-unsympathetic,-regarded-this-earth-with-envious-eyes dept.
NASA has announced three winners who will share the $100,000 prize in its competition to make virtual Martian habitats.
The 11 participating groups were tasked with making a full-scale habitat using modeling software, building on an earlier stage of the competition that required partial virtual modeling.
The teams were graded on their layout, programming, use of interior space, and their habitat's ability to be scaled to full size for construction, according to a NASA statement announcing the winners. The groups also received points for their aesthetic representation and realism.
The three winning teams were
SEArch+/Apis Cor - New York - $33,954.11
Zopherus – Rogers, Arkansas - $33,422.01
Mars Incubator – New Haven, Connecticut - $32,623.88
This is the third stage in NASA's 3D Printed Habitat Challenge.
The final stage of the competition will be open to the public in Peoria, Illinois and will be held May 1-4 of this year. It will consist of a head-to-head reduced scale print of the structures. The prize in the last stage of the competition is $800,000.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RamiK on Sunday April 07 2019, @07:31AM (12 children)
Why build a surface habitat when there's no rain water to worry about flooding or fresh water to gain? Just dig in and leave an elevated hatch or set a door at an angle like in storm cellars. Not like you're going to build greenhouses in that shitty weather when you can just setup a few solar panels, wind turbines and the odd nuclear plant and light your vegetables like that...
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @10:08AM
You answered your own question.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @12:04PM (6 children)
Maybe because the equipment required to excavate the Martin surface would need to be sent to Mars? And some kind of support structure would need to be built underground to ensure the Martian surface does not collapse on the
guinea pigsinhabitants.(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:33PM
Boring company.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday April 07 2019, @04:34PM (4 children)
I don't think collapse is that likely (though of course, if it did happen it would be catastrophic). The reason is that the habitat will need to be pressurized to above the pressure of Martian atmosphere, and, of course, tightly sealed. This will mean that the air within the habitat is, itself, support.
OTOH (and as another poster said), why dig? What's the benefit of digging over scooping some dirt on top of the habitat. I can sure guess which would be easier. (The dirt is a good idea, though, because Martian atmosphere is a poor radiation shield.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @06:18PM
I was replying to the OP - who suggested going underground - with reasons digging did not seem practical or safe. I am not advocating digging or building subterranean facilities.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @06:45PM (2 children)
The dirt will get blasted by the wind. Digging isn't too hard. A couple of sticks of dynamite or a remote controlled excavator would do the job.
If not going solar or if you're willing to run long power lines you can also build the habitat in a canyon instead and gain the same natural defenses against the winds.
I think people here don't realize the kind of temperature ranges, wind speeds and what the wind is carrying on Mars... You're basically being sand blasted well below freezing or well above water boiling tempratures throughout the year and have to keep an air tight seal and a stable living temperature while taking it all. Digging-in a few feet under the ground is WAY easier than figuring out how to build something that can survive those conditions for more than a few weeks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @09:46PM (1 child)
Dynamite doesn't need oxygen for it's chemical reaction, does it?
Anything robust enough to dig into the Martian bedrock will be very heavy, expensive and difficult to launch, and problematic to land safely on Mars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @04:15AM
Strawman. Plenty of choices for explosives that don't.
Or just blow the bedrock and use whatever the Japanese are planning to use for the moon...
(Score: 2) by ledow on Sunday April 07 2019, @12:37PM (2 children)
Moving hundreds of tons of unknown-composition rock in a safe and reliable way to create a permanent habitat from an uncertain geography using only the lightest of tools that you can get there, and to do quickly enough that you don't have to spent months or years doing so but can use the shelter safely, immediately and in an air-tight fashion, while also using *the most* inefficient path (of solar / fragile moving blade in sandy storm conditions / nuclear power in pretty much "amateur" hands, to power a bulb that then provides some *light* underground... I reckon even with the right colour gamut, LED lighting, etc. that you're into less than 5% efficient by then) as your only food source.
As the guy said above... you just answered your own question.
Compared to your solution, transporting something that can produce sheets of clear plastic which can be arranged aerodynamically, hermetically sealed and quickly and securely is positively simple.
P.S. just because there's no rainwater, doesn't mean there aren't dust storms and all kinds of movement. The rovers had to shake-clear their panels every morning... how long do you think a door will last during an extended storm (during which you wouldn't be opening it) before you can't actually open it any more against the build-up outside?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday April 07 2019, @04:40PM
Actually, the "door is covered with dust" problem is probably quite soluble. As for the others... well, lets just say underground wouldn't be my first choice.
P.S.: One simple answer to the "door is covered with dust" is just to have the exit doors on raised platforms with sealed stairwells leading down. As you're building the base anyway, that's not much additional work.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @01:32AM
Yeah, nobody's gonna be growing plants underground on Mars - they'll be using GMO yeasts and reprocessing waste to produce food.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @06:25PM
It will get built if it is visible from earth and spells "TRUMP".