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An Ice House Design Concept For Mars Bets Long On Liquid Water
The Times of India reports that NASA has awarded a $25,000 first prize to Space Exploration Architecture for their design, called "Mars Ice House," of a habitat suitable for Mars. The concept relies on the (predicted) availability of Martian water, as well as on 3-D printing; according to the text accompanying the design. The 5-cm thick shell of ice which would serve as both skin and support structure for the shelter "protects against radiation without compromising life above ground." Two other teams (Gamma and LavaHive) were awarded second and third-place prizes, respectively.
It's called an Igloo on Earth, why change the name?
Sick of these "contests". It's just a way for companies to extract a bunch of ideas from thousands, then pay out a paltry sum. 25k, before taxes, to a team of people? Not worth anyone's time, yet people clamor over the "honor" of giving away good ideas for the chance of winning next to nothing.
That will happen even if the temperature is well below freezing.
There is a reason the water ice is covered up by dust... It blocks the UV causing sublimation.
Why every designer insists on difficult and impractical structures to build? Why not use something way simpler to build like a larger version of an igloo?
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Just chip off a side of the wall so you have something to put in your whisky.
"Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
Is the name a deliberate nod to the venerable game Icehouse and its connection to Mars?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icehouse_pieces
I was sorely disappointed when I read it closer
There seems to be plenty of caves - why not use on of the them. Alot easier than making something.
Unless their ICE house is going to be in constant shadow, there is risk of it vaporizing off from sunlight, even at those low temps. In addition, there is no way to maintain it reliably, and if there is life on mars and in the ice, there would be a constant threat of biological contamination, of which humans have no resistance to. I can go on and on.
Overall this is dumb. They need to come up with a martian concrete.
The Igloo's bricks are bigger than 5-cm thick shell of ice, else it will be a ruin.
Where will be put the bedroom for sleeping?
Where will be put the kitchen for cooking?
Where will be put the toilet for pissing and accumulating the shit?
It's very difficult to install pipes and cables.
No TV is installed inside without a satellite's antenna. And a laptop needs electrical power for communicating to the Earth.
I know the webpage was a bit tough to read, but they do say how they propose to combat that: via a thin membrane.
A transparent and fully closed ETFE membrane reinforced with tensile Dyneema is deployed from the lander and inflated to form a pressurized boundary between the lander and the Martian exterior. This membrane, precision manufactured on Earth, is critical protection for the future ice shell, preventing any printed ice from sublimating into the atmosphere.
Icehouse was an Australian band in the 80's, known for the hit single 'Great Southern Land'
There has to be better options for a building material besides ice. This is like building a structure out of salt in an arid region and hoping that seasonal humidity or a freak shower doesn't melt it into a pool of brine. I wonder how difficult it would be to make a form of cement using Martian materials. If it can be done it sounds like it would be virtually the same process but far more robust. At most you might need to bring some compounds from Earth and spray on some kind of sealant/glue between the bricks (like mortar).
Even though Mars is cold the ultra low atmospheric pressure will increase the rate of sublimation for the exterior. Sublimation is direct solid->gas phase change. It's the reason snow piles will get smaller even when the outdoor temps never rise above freezing.
won't it be quickly covered by dust eliminating the advantage of that portion of the design? I imagine cleaning the outer coating regularly during or after every martian sandstorm would be a pain in the butt.
This is why we can't get an astronaut into space anymore.
3D printing and Mars in the same story? I can't even.
This design has a problem. The tensile strength of ice is not high enough to contain the required 12psi in a dome of the size described. I suppose you could run it at a lower pressure but then going EVA suite less would not be possible. The interior would have to be maintained below freezing to ensure structural integrity. Building it would provide shielding but not a comfortable environment for working. A better solution would be a frozen water dome about 25 ft thick.Then 12psi pressure could be maintained by the weight and strength of the ice which is much higher in compression. The low range for tensile strength of ice is only about 100 psi the low end of compressive strength is about 725psi. By using some bubble pack type internal insulation inside the dome the entire dome could be heated making for a nice place to grow crops etc.
I get the sense they're into looks rather than function. Living in the north I know just how impractical ice would be for such a critical structure. Ice cracks and leaks very easily. It does not have the compressive nor the tensile strength I would want for such a mission critical structure.
this is what happens when bad science fiction is taken for science. entertaining, sells copy. does nothing else.
Can one spell "sublimation", hmmm?
Without a source of CO2 (for photosynthesis )the water is useless and vice versa.
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wb
5cm of ice is not a shield against cosmic radiation. The Pfotzer depth of Martian soil is around 60 cm. That means the maximum radiation dose occurs at a depth of 40-60 cm due to multiple scattering of secondary radiation. So shielding needs to probably > 2 m of soil.
Presumably the raw materials will be transported by popular "ride sharing" service Uber and financed by Bitcoins?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it