Freeze my body, melt me in 80 years, and send me to Mars. Architecture studio ABIBOO has revealed its plans to create the first self-sustainable city on the Red Planet, which is set to be ready for residents in 2100.
The city will be called Nüwa, and will be located at Tempe Mensa on one of the Martian cliffs. Its position inside of a rock on the steep cliff will protect its 250,000 residents from radiation and meteorites (cool!), while still giving them access to indirect sunlight.
ABIBOO’s plan is to design Nüwa to be self-sustainable. At first, it will have to rely on supplies and capital investment from Earth, but the hope is that it will eventually be able to grow using local resources only.
Those living on Mars will work and live in ‘Macro Buildings’ – excavations inside the rock which are linked together by a network of tunnels, trains, and buses – while ‘Green Domes’ will offer artificial park-like space. At the top of the cliff is the ‘Mesa’, where manufacturing, energy generation, and food production will take place – crops will provide 50 per cent of residents’ diet, with microalgae making up the rest.
As for socialising, there will be pavilions at the foot of the cliff – called the ‘Valley’ – where you can go with your mates and look out at the landscape of Mars (thanks to the buildings’ “translucent skins”). This area will also contain hospitals, schools and universities, sports and cultural activities, shopping areas, and farming areas. Pigs, chickens, and fish will provide a minor contribution to residents’ diets, but will mostly offer “a high psychological value” – presumably as communal pets, of sorts.
Also located in the Valley are train stations which will communicate with the space shuttle to get you the hell out of Mars. In bad news for commuters, the shuttle is only set to travel to Earth every 26 months, with a journey time of one to three months. A one-way ticket will cost approximately $300,000 (£218k) – but, for those settling on Mars, this price also includes a residential unit, access to common facilities, life support services and food, as well as a work contract which signs away 60 to 80 per cent of your work life to tasks assigned by the city. No four-day working week then?
Construction of Nüwa is set to begin in 2054 – just 28 years after Elon Musk’s proposed landing date on Mars. See the planned layout for the city in the video below.
