Question from /u/UlysiusAs a follow-up, considering the synodal reuse of the ITS spaceships, what form of permanent habitation do you foresee? Shipped modules or an (eventual) shift to in-situ resource utilization such as Martian rigolith/plastic-reinforced concrete structures?Thank you for your time.Answer from /u/ElonMuskOfficialInitially, glass panes with carbon fiber frames to build geodesic domes on the surface, plus a lot of miner/tunneling droids. With the latter, you can build out a huge amount of pressurized space for industrial operations and leave the glass domes for green living space.
One great advantage of a geodesic dome based on a sphere is that all of the triangular sections are the same shape. That should make construction easier.
You could pretty much construct an arbitrary cylinder diameter and length from a single triangle size though.. but Im not sure about closing the ends. That sounds similar to the dome problem.
Quote from: KelvinZero on 10/28/2016 08:02 amYou could pretty much construct an arbitrary cylinder diameter and length from a single triangle size though.. but Im not sure about closing the ends. That sounds similar to the dome problem.You can use a fiber dome on top and maybe steel in the ground. No need to have the domes transparent.
Quote from: RonM on 10/28/2016 04:40 amOne great advantage of a geodesic dome based on a sphere is that all of the triangular sections are the same shape. That should make construction easier.I hadn't thought about it till now, but I believe they are not all the same shape. Im not sure how few shape variations you can end up with.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic_dome.This page mentions 6 edge sizes, but I dont know how many variations of triangle shape that represents.http://geo-dome.co.uk/4v_tool.aspYou could pretty much construct an arbitrary cylinder diameter and length from a single triangle size though.. but Im not sure about closing the ends. That sounds similar to the dome problem.
The panels are the same shape if the dome is based on an icosahedron. Each panel is an equilateral triangle.
Quote from: RonM on 10/28/2016 02:36 pmThe panels are the same shape if the dome is based on an icosahedron. Each panel is an equilateral triangle.Do you mean domes of only 20 faces? Once you tesselate and distort vertices to remain on a sphere obviously they must become something other than equilateral, simply because they were equilateral while perfectly planar.To me the 20 face variation is not that interesting because the size you could transport would probably be even smaller than ITS volumes.
A big dome with individual buildings inside gives the freedom to build, demolish and rebuild as seen fit. Another option could be to build individual buildings and roof over the streets. This would require less roofing materials. Have a few examples of both.