Sustainable Living on Mars

The second floor of the house
The house, showing the roof removed to highlight the top level floorplan
The house, showing the roof removed to highlight the top level floorplan
The house, showing the roof removed to highlight the top level floorplan
the last floor of the house
The last floor of the house
Overview of the dwelling, underground
The second floor of the house

Inspiration

The house was inspired by the movie "The Space Between Us". The movie focuses on the a boy who was born and grown up on mars. While i was watching the movie, I was more interested on the housing arrangements of the colony on the planet. The curiosity from that question, led me to create this floorplan concept.

What it does

A home for sustainable life on mars. This is a home for a family of four and has facilities for growing up as a native Martian and for the adults to work and live on mars.

The Home is made for underground living which will make the challenges of living on the red planet easier. Underground living will help with heating which is important considering Mars' average temperature of -60 C or -76 F. Underground living will also assist in harvesting water and producing oxygen. Water can be baked from the soil Mars and underground it will not evaporate in the thin atmosphere. Oxygen could be generated by separating it from the harvested water. Underground living also grants protection from the harmful radiation and dust storms on mars.

The lava tubes will serve as a means of transportation between homes, to the hydroponic gardens to larger geothermal energy generators and to research laboratories or other public buildings.

The home is built in three levels. The top level is on the surface of mars. It has a large airlock for vehicle entry. beyond the airlock is the garage. Next to the garage is an office That can be used as a workshop or an at home library. Across the hall is the upstairs bathroom. By the bathroom upstairs playroom for kids to see the wonders of the Martian landscape include the yellowish-brown tinted sky. Across the hall next to the stairs is the observation room where adults can observe the scenery.

The next level down, the first underground level features a airlock leading into the lava tubes that work as a network for forming neighborhoods where families can work and play together. Next to the airlock by the stairs is the Living room where the family can relax and watch the television built into the wall. Across the hall is the recreation room. Exercise is extremely important in the light gravity which is 1/3rd of the Earth's. If the Martian born people want to visit Earth someday they will need to exercise regularly to compensate for the lack of gravity. By the rec room is another bathroom. At the end of the hallway that contains the stairs is the dining room and above that is the kitchen. on the other side of the dining room is one of the life support systems room. This room contains a water extraction and oxygen generator as well as a small power generator or storage cells. It's proximity to the kitchen and bathroom will make transport of the water easier.

The third level contains the living quarters. There are bedrooms on either side of the stairs and a bathroom in the hall. At the end of the hallway is the master bedroom with the accompanying master bathroom. Next to the bathroom is another life support systems room. This room has a waste management system for recycling waste and another small generator or energy storage unit. There are also backup oxygen tanks in here for emergencies. The bathrooms are all stacked vertically for ease of running pipes to them for water transport and waste management.

How we built it

The initial idea was sketched out on a simple piece of paper but later on created in Autodesk Revit, which allowed for more detailed floor plans and more conceptual output. Tinker CAD and AutoCAD were used to flush out the details.

Challenges we ran into

The only challenge that stands out was the issue hen it comes to the scaling of the print, the amount of detail made the print time reach well above 5 hours, which led to the model being scaled down to .60 of the original model. This did end of cutting out some details but allowed enough to be understandable.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am proud of creating a concept with practical use that helps living a life that is sustainable and allows for the individuals to life live in a safe and social way.