Create a settlement

This page shows a typical early settlement for about 25-30 people and includes links to Marspedia pages about the various settlement facilities and their characteristics. If you want to design your own Mars facility, this is a good place to start! The tiles used to build this image of a settlement measure 9m x 9m and are mostly to scale.

Facilities

Storage

At the top of the colony plan you find a water storage tank, that feeds a water treatment facility. Storage is also provides for other resources, such as gases or minerals like silica sand, iron ore and calcium carbonate.

Lodging

Three connecting modules link to buried habitats, using martian regolith for radiation protection. The total habitable surface is about 1400 m2 over 3 floors, lodging 25 to 30 people.

Infirmary

An infirmary type health facility is provided near the habitats.

Lab

Research facilities will house a large part of the settlement's early activities.

Greenhouses

Four greenhouses produce food, but also do some atmospheric processing. With a total growing area of about 2000m2, extra artificial lighting and year long production at a rate of 3 to 6 kg/m2, the greenhouses could produce 6 to 12 tonnes of food per year, or up to half the food needed per year for the colony. The rest would come from Earth.

Public spaces

A large dome 26m in diameter serves as a public space as do all the connecting nodes between the modules.

Power

Solar

Power is provided by photovoltaic power arrays. Each illustrated 8x8m array can produce 64 kWh of energy per day and a peak power of 11 kW. This is enough power for the settlement, but more power would be required for propellant production. To fuel two starships would require about 14 000 000 kWh of energy, the entire output of 300 tiles for two years.

Nuclear

Down to the lower right a nuclear reactor provides power during the night of if a dust storm blocks the light for the photovoltaics. The Kilopower reactor can provide 10 kW of power, or 240 kWh of electrical energy per day continuously for 10 years or more. it rejects about 30 kW of heat.

A larger, 1 MW reactor is required to power the settlement and produce propellant if solar is not used. Such a reactor could produce 17 000 000 kWh in two years.

Cooling

Nuclear reactors and industrial processes require cooling. A forced convection cooling unit, about 6m x 6m, could provide about 250 kW of cooling, so 12 would be required for the 1 MWe reactor, rejecting 3 MWt.

Vehicle maintenance

A garage is linked to the public area. Vehicle maintenance is critical to settlement operations, low temperatures and fine martian dust will be a maintenance challenge. The facility may be pressurized or not.

Laydown areas

Two laydown areas have been leveled to provide a smooth surface to store containers, finished products and inactive spaceships. The two first automated cargo ships to Reach Mars are located here.

Manufacturing

A Manufacturing area processes in situ materials. One module houses minerals processing facilities. Two modules serve for water electrolysis and Sabatier reactor to provide Methane and Oxygen propellants. A third module has a glass furnace and a small steel plant. A wastewater treatment plant takes in water from the settlement and the industrial processes and cleans it for re use.

Spaceport

A spaceport provides a prepared surface for visiting ships to land on. The surface is kept clean and free of dust to avoid blowing dust that could damage nearby installations. Vibration and dust might favor a remote location.

Roads

Roads link the various areas of the settlement together. Rovers use these to move faster than over the original terrain. The roads are made from local rock crushed to gravel and spread with automated or remote controlled bulldozers.