Guillem Anglada, widely known for leading the team responsible for the discovery of exoplanet Proxima b as well as SONet, had been instrumental in gathering support and excitement for his team's ideas and knew from the beginning that theirs were the most realistic and possible, using the greatest amount of existing technologies to meet its goals.
ABIBOO chief architect Alfredo Munoz, along with a team of highly specialized professionals from across the spectrum of the scientific community created an amazingly intricate and detailed plan for not only Mars’ Capitol city, but expansion to include facilities for almost 1,000,000 people. With a project as ambitious as anything attempted in humankind's history, Munoz talked to ‘Space.com’ on how bringing experts from different disciplines together was the cornerstone of the whole project.
Munoz explained, “I'm the founder of ABIBOO Studio, which is an international architectural firm. But I'm also on the board of directors of SONet, a multidisciplinary group with experts in different fields in the space industry. We were interested in using the group to provide solutions for sustainable innovations in an outer space settlement. Together, we designed the Nüwa city project, which we believed could be the first sustainable city on Mars.
From a design aspect, Nüwa was created by top scientists in a variety of fields. That gives the project a strong confidence that the
design is valid and feasible. It's not just about beautiful images and beautiful architectural solutions. It's got experts behind it, and it was innovative in the way we solved so many of the challenges we'll face while setting up a Mars settlement. We did it in a very scalable manner, creating spaces that will be potentially exciting and beautiful. Architecture is not always about solving problems; it's about creating art.” Nüwa, will be a vertical city excavated from the cliffs of Tempa Mensa, Mars. The subterranean design addresses many of the big-ticket problems such as radiation exposure, differences in pressure and wild swings in temperature.
ABIBOO Chief Architect
Alfredo Munoz While many foresee these issues being resolved with emerging technologies, Nüwa has many of these solutions ‘baked into the code’ allowing for its robust timescale, and possibly one of the reasons this design was chosen.
Munez and his team at ABIBOO believe construction could start as early as 2054, while being prepared to accept its first colonists by 2100.
Munez explains this seemingly quick process by pointing to the resources already waiting for them on the red planet. He told Space.com, “Based on the scientists, it will be relatively easy to obtain steel from water and CO2, which can create carbon. We're basically building the entire city with local resources. We're barely bringing things from Earth, which is critical for that scalability and sustainability. We'll still need to test and develop that technology before going ahead.”
With the news of China’s successful Mars’ Rover landing this week, any plans going forward would almost have to be an international affair. With the scientific and financial backing in place, the Nüwa design, or even one to come from it, might be the first place humans call home on a different planet.
We look forward to updates on the project's development.
Let us know what you think in the comments.
WRITTEN AND EDITED BY Silek
IMAGES SOURCED FROM ABIBOO Studio/SONet
Maybe something to think about when moving again
Also good to see that there are possibilities for mankind on other planets.