Mars City Design has raised $30,000 on Kickstarter to fund the next stage of a plan to 3D print a full-scale Mars human habitation prototype in the Mojave Desert, southern California.
The money will be spent hosting a workshop in September at the University of Southern California to select three designs from 25 finalists selected earlier this year by a panel of space experts. These designs will then be finalised.
The startup lead by Vera Mulyani, who holds a master’s degree in architecture, landscape and urban design from the Ecole d’Architecture de Nantes, plans to print three prototypes at the Reaction Research Society’s testing facility within the next three years.
According to the organisation’s website, Mars City Design’s mission is to design the blueprint for sustainable cities on Mars. The organisation was born from the vision of Mulyani, who always dreamt of becoming an architect of Mars.
Founded in Silicon Beach in Los Angeles, California, Mars City Design has become the action step to realising not just the exploration of Mars, but making it a second home for humans.
Mulyani explained: “It is not enough to just travel to Mars and survive, now we must develop a way in which we can sustainably live and love on Mars. It is essential that we call on a new generation of thinkers and innovators to make this a reality.”
The programme follows NASA’s own 3D printed habitat competition that took place last year, that architects such as Foster+Partners created proposals for. The design competition was part of a larger, multi-phase 3D-printed Habitat Challenge to advance the additive construction technology needed to create sustainable housing solutions for Earth and beyond.
It is not enough to just travel to Mars and survive, now we must develop a way in which we can sustainably live and love on Mars. It is essential that we call on a new generation of thinkers and innovators to make this a reality.– Vera Mulyani, Mars City Design
