It's nice, but remember, all that would need to be unfolding inside a pressure vessel.
Some company called Tenfold Engineering makes these building structures which unfold:Could this be a way to build living quarters on Mars? I wonder if their technology resulted as a spin-off from space hab research?I would've preferred Thunderbirds theme music, btw.
From MIT: Digital Construction Platform, QuoteIt can be fitted with a range of different tools, including a foam insulation gun, a welding attachment, a “thermoplastic extruder” that squirts out melted plastic, a glorified squirt gun, and even a simple bucket.The Verge....
It can be fitted with a range of different tools, including a foam insulation gun, a welding attachment, a “thermoplastic extruder” that squirts out melted plastic, a glorified squirt gun, and even a simple bucket.
Radiation shielding keeps being the issue.
By the time you get to shielding them, that problem is pretty much solved by all your other efforts.
Radiation shielding keeps being the issue. Somehow you have put about 3m of regolith, or its equivalent, between the settlers and the sky.
Quote from: john smith 19 on 09/02/2017 01:17 pmRadiation shielding keeps being the issue. Somehow you have put about 3m of regolith, or its equivalent, between the settlers and the sky. Why the sad smiley? - The technology to do that has existed for at least 2000 years.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat
I created an account to see inside. Interesting. It is like HP is trying to crowdsource ideas over a wide range of applicable areas. Be careful of what ideas you share in this space. Read the terms carefully before sharing any ideas.
I like the idea of mining water with the bore hole and hot water(or other fluid) to melt the buried ice and bring it to the surface. It seems to be the preferred method to mine sulfur and lithium on earth.Once you have water on the surface it can be used like quick setting cement. And many other uses.
Quote from: Oersted on 09/03/2017 10:58 pmQuote from: john smith 19 on 09/02/2017 01:17 pmRadiation shielding keeps being the issue. Somehow you have put about 3m of regolith, or its equivalent, between the settlers and the sky. Why the sad smiley? - The technology to do that has existed for at least 2000 years.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QanatUse of caves for shelter likely goes back 1 million years.
I was referring to building your own tunnels, not using caves formed by nature. There is quite a long discussion in this thread about excavating tunnels on Mars vs. using lava tubes. I don't believe so much in the latter...
1) find cliff face, mountainside, big plateau rock etc.2) dig basic tunnels using Boring Co. TBM's.3) do the internal contouring of chambers using Mars-adapted roadheaders. See the opal miner "cave homes" in Coober Pedy, Australia.4) seal walls, add airlocks, ECLSS etc.5) move in.
Quote from: docmordrid on 09/10/2017 08:38 am1) find cliff face, mountainside, big plateau rock etc.2) dig basic tunnels using Boring Co. TBM's.3) do the internal contouring of chambers using Mars-adapted roadheaders. See the opal miner "cave homes" in Coober Pedy, Australia.4) seal walls, add airlocks, ECLSS etc.5) move in.I don't know if the perfect location exists, but some glaciers may provide hundreds of meters of ice up against a rock face like you're suggesting. In that case ice mining excavates a large volume between the rock face which could be terraced and bored for the city and the ice face which would along with a roof contain atmosphere. Aerogel insulation of the ice face (aerogels made with local silica and CO2) allows a warm environment with a lake at the bottom level and other water features. Aerogels make for interesting lighting effects with light piped in from above or leds. The ice face might look a lot like a distant sky above a sea from the terraced cliff city, a bit like the Ligurian coast of Italy but larger and with more architectural variety.I think much of the weight of the roof spanning the rock face and the ice face in one third gravity would be supported by the air pressure it contains.This makes for a terraced cliff side city with a view of a spacious outdoor like volume created as a side effect of ice mining that would happen anyway.
There exists, somewhere here on NSF a detailed discussion of greenhouses and domes on Mars thread. The take away from my perspective is the lack of consideration of the massive air pressure that Mars sited structures must contain. Air pressure on Mars is effectively zero relative to standard sea level pressure here on Earth. That means the structure must restrain 14 lbs/sq-in. That converts to one ton per sq-ft or 20+ tons per square meter. Twenty tons is the mass of a one meter square column of water 20 meters tall on Earth, on Mars where gravity is only about 38 percent of earth, the column would need to be over 52 meters tall. The habitats on mars must be very, very deep under the surface to avoid blowout from the internal air pressure.