A house on Mars that will definitely be built

NASA recently launched a competition called NASA's Centennial Challenge Mars Habitat Competition, the main idea of which was to create a housing project for researchers of the Red Planet. The Clouds AO team, in collaboration with SEArch, won first place for the Ice House concept.

The research habitat project involves an icy outer shell and an internal residential module created using 3D printing technologies. Describing the concept, the creators of the Ice House emphasize that the recently discovered Ice on Mars will allow the dwelling to function smoothly for a long time. According to NASA reports, the amount of ice on Mars has 5 million cubic kilometers. If water resources were formed from this ice, then such an amount would be enough to cover the entire planet with an ocean 35 meters deep.

Formally, the Ice House is an attempt to rethink ideas about life outside the habitable planet Earth. One of the popular solutions to the problem of habitation on other planets was the creation of an inflatable dome covered with regolith. But it does not let in light, and a long life in such conditions can end in claustrophobia and mental problems. One of the key advantages of the Ice House is that both the outer and inner shell are light-permeable. Ice is chosen as an external material for a reason. It will become a "shield" for the crew against ultraviolet solar and galactic gamma radiation.

This is how Mars would look if there was water on the surface of the planet (computer graphics).

Model of the outer shell of the dwelling.

The "yard" of an Ice house is the space between the inner and outer shell, which initially does not perform any specific functions (i.e. is not intended for work, sleep or eating). The crew decides for themselves how the intermediate space will serve them. Moreover, this zone will become a buffer zone, absorbing leaks from the habitable environment, where an ecology other than Mars.

The "yard" of the Ice House.

The next stage of the project is the creation of a prototype of a full—size dwelling.