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.

Comments

I think they neglect the issue of sublimation.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:NASA pays only 25k for a lot of man hours

[GrumpySteen]

Ideas are cheap, implementation is expensive. Only idiots and patent trolls believe that they should receive huge sums of money for coming up with an idea and then doing absolutely nothing to make that idea into something real.