Habitat

Definition

A habitat is an environment in which an organism, or group of organisms live in symbiosis. The Martian architecture of habitats has some unique particularities linked to the planet's physical characteristics.

Mars habitats

The environmental conditions on Mars are hostile for humans without life support systems; examples of the factors which make the surface of Mars uninhabitable include the thin, oxygen-poor atmosphere, the lack of easily available liquid water and the extremely cold climate. The habitat of any human visitor to Mars would have to be set of self-contained artificial environments, including settlement facilities such as buildings, tunnels and greenhouses. Movement between habitats would require airtight rovers or space suits.

The Lower gravity of Mars is an environmental factor that may or may not be important in the long run. If the lower gravity significantly affects the viability of a Mars settlement, it might be possible to build part of the habitat on a centrifuge. However, this may affect the economical viability of a surface settlement versus a rotating space habitat.

Terraforming has be suggested as a way of making the whole surface of Mars habitable. The more Mars is terraformed, thus increasing atmospheric pressure, the easier it is to built habitats and large domes, eventually huge domes spanning kilometers. Habitats can be categorized into four stages:

1. First stage habitats: The initial habitats, made with elements from Earth, non permanent.
2. Second stage habitats: The construction facilities for the next stage, permanent or non permanent.
3. Third stage habitats: A permanent habitat, designed for long term use.
4. Fourth stage habitats: Habitat for a partially or fully terraformed Mars.

First stage habitats

Transhab

Transhab module on Mars

Transhab, a concept by NASA to produce inflatable habitats, producing more living space than traditional, solid habitats. This technology has been bought by Bigelow Aerospace, which is developing space hotels for tourism.

Starship

SpaceX proposes using their Starship transportation vehicle as a habitat until surface installations are built.

Second stage habitats

These might be fabricated on Earth and installed on site, or fabricated using in-situ materials. See also Settlements on Mars.

Second stage habitats are likely to have SOME parts made on Earth, but much of their mass could be from local materials. For example, a habitat could be built with local brick, then buried. But life support components, plastic sealant, plumbing, electronic fixtures, and a solar furnace for baking the bricks would come from Earth.

Third stage habitats

These would be built using mostly In-situ resources. They would be used for permanent or semi-permanent occupation. These habitats would offer living conditions similar to the one found in cities on Earth and would include food production sectors, in addition to living areas and industrial facilities.

TB-habitat

Tunnel bored habitat (TB-habitat) - Artificial cave

A TB-habitat is a habitat constructed using a tunnel boring machine (TBM) ,roadheaders, drill and blast or cut and cover techniques. A TBM will have to be specifically designed for this purpose taking weight into account if lifted from the Earth’s surface and landed on Mars´ surface. This will diminish its cutting diameter. Alternatively, it can be made from local resources, allowing bigger diameters.

This type of habitat is a 'third stage' habitat, as opposed to the habitat that will be used by the first party that lands on Mars. That habitat would be categorized as a 'first stage' habitat. And when a permanent ('second stage') settlement has been build, TB-habitats are to be used to expand the settlement subsurface in order to create really safe living and working rooms.

The approach would be, to drill a grid of intersecting tunnels, each closed of at the ends by a air tight wall or, on occasion, an airlock. Within this grid, sections can be closed of with non-load-bearing walls creating dormitory rooms, workspaces, technical facilities, labs, social hubs, underground greenhouses, and so on.

This approach requires the ability to make shotcrete(or gunite) on location. This means being able to make shotcrete from Martian regolith and available water. It probably will be necessary to strengthen the shotcrete with a spiral, winding steel wire. The tunnel will have to be able to carry the weight of the rock and soil above. And as Martian gravity is less than Earth's gravity, it will be physically less of a stretch to bear the weight. An alternative to shotcrete would be pre-fabricated sections of tunnel liners, as used on Earth for pressure tunnels and in poor quality ground.

An important advantage would be that the occupiers of tunnels build below 5m or more of regolith would have no worries about solar flares and other types of radiation.

It speaks for itself that the dimensions of the power supply, water supply, heating and air-conditioning are determined by the number of inhabitants, and the amount of vegetation.

Dome

Surface domes are often used to illustrate the concept of an enclosed habitat on Mars and its difference with an open space on Earth. However, domes are difficult to build, are not a very efficient space for occupation and most designs offer little, if any, radiation protection. Dome might be used as temporary housing, or a signature building with special functions, such as recreation domes. Magnetic shielding against radiation might make domes more useful as construction elements.

Fourth stage habitat

A fourth stage habitat necessarily comes after some terraforming effort, and therefore after the passage of up to a century of time after the initial settlement. Note that a terraforming Mars to a fully breathable atmosphere is very hard, and make take millennia. But increasing Mars' atmospheric pressure to the point that breather masks can be used rather than pressure suits, would take much less time. Creating habitats that can hold air, but don't have to deal with a near vacuum on the outside would be far easier to construct.

This stage takes into account changes in the environment that modify the habitat requirements, possibly making some of the third stage habitats redundant.