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Dubai Proposes Giant Simulated Mars City In the Desert (newatlas.com)
future guy shares a report from New Atlas: The UAE government has announced it is building the world's largest space simulation city, and to top it off it will be designed by one of the world's flashiest architects, Bjarke Ingels, whose company is literally called BIG. The project is called the Mars Science City and will cover 1.9 million sq ft (176,516 sq m) at a cost of nearly $140 million dollars. The city will span several domes, including a space for a team to live for up to a year as part of a Mars simulation. Several scientific laboratories will be included, focusing on developing methods for a Mars colony to produce food, energy and water. A museum exhibiting great space achievements will also be incorporated into the city with the walls of the museum being 3D printed using sand from the nearby Emirati desert.
When I think of a wasteland that has little access to potable water, a decaying alien civilization, no effective governance, is a pit people keep throwing money into, that is a good place to die and an even better place to send Tom Cruise, I think of Dubai.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
"$140 million dollars". Gotta love those dollar dollars.
The Mars Curiosity Rover is already on Earth, on Devon Island, so why not just use that for their FAKE 'Mars' photos?
1.9 million square feet is 180,000 square metres. It is not 176,516 square metres.
In fact, the number “1.9 million sq ft” is likely a conversion from an original number in square metres anyway!
And when the money runs out, we'll have authentic Ancient Martian Ruins.
Because without that rather basic attribute, it's merely a domed-off part of Earth.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Because Martians STONE TO DEATH their adulterers, their gays, and their blamspemours, just like UAE does! AMAZING this progress!
This thing will be a giant greenhouse in an already suffocatingly hot place.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
It's a giant wealthy tourist trap.
I don't read AC
This will not end well.
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
hard to believe it's over 140 of our old measure degrees out there honey? our rulers are so kind for not making us go out there hardly ever any more... it's always day or night when it's supposed to be with symsun... no matter what's going on 'out there'..
Wouldn't Mercury provide better prospects? Temperature at least would be much closer.
Is it just too hard to get there safely?
Considering that in 50 years the climate is projected there to become LETHAL to a normal, healthy adult in the shade, I think this is the only way that these countries will continue to exist.
https://www.theguardian.com/en...
Actually, this solution may work, grandiose as it is, for the rich cities like Dubai (assuming they can live off their oil derived fortunes). Unfortunately for those who cannot afford to live in round the clock air-conditioned environments, like the entire country of Yemen, they'll DIE.
Or they'll join the hundreds of millions of refugees from that just that part of the world. (It doesn't include the more than HALF A BILLION people living in similar areas in South Asia). Or the hundreds of millions from other countries including East China and even parts of the U.S.
http://news.nationalgeographic...
Of course, they'll try to find a cooler climate to live in, UNDER PAIN OF DEATH. How the world will handle this, when the (tiny by comparison) six million refugees from the Syrian war has tightened borders everywhere, does not inspire hope.
The future may be a very very horrific place for much of humanity
I think we should give the muslims a free simulation of the surface of mercury. It's nothing they won't try to do to us when they have the power
Martians are planning to build a giant simulated desert city where real estate prices are over inflated , people are generally dumb and drink more coke than water and go crazy over everything thats gold plated.
This thing will be a giant greenhouse in an already suffocatingly hot place.
This is Dubai.
The place that already has a giant fridge in the middle of the desert so you can ski indoor in it.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Is gravity in Dubai different from the rest of Earth?
For our Man Mission to Mars, I wonder where they had set from Moon landing...
Having spent some time in the UAE (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain) I can say it's humid as a duck fart and about a hundred times hotter. The only similarity it has to mars is the dunes and large expanses of nothing. The Atacama desert is a better simulation.
No shielding.
Without the shielding, you don't live long... and get cancer rather quickly.
With the shielding... you need structural support and lights.... and lights need power. And the domes won't be quite that large.
My guestimate is that the largest dome won't be over 300 meters in diameter.
They might be able to generate the power, but creating the lights, the interior farms, the recycling...
It is just a tourist attraction.
Goatse is no longer active, who failed? Dumb trolls, of which that is the only kind of troll in the end.
But what I really want to know is... how are they reducing the gravity to match Mars'?
If so, the US had a wonderful Mars simulation already in place.
Mars is COLD and has a very thin atmosphere.
A more accurate locale would be a very high altitude cold desert. Using those criteria the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica would be a better location for a simulated Mars station.
Religion is poison to rationality, and we lose sight of that at our own peril. -- Lurker2288
Dubai would be a horrible place to simulate conditions on Mars. Dubai has temperatures that range from 6.1 C - 48.5 C. In contrast temperatures on Mars range from -127 C to 20 C (at the equator at high noon). A better choice would be Antarctica during the southern hemisphere Winter..
That was my first impression too. Sure, they have the wasteland aspect down, but aside from the view Dubai is nothing like Mars. The 6 people who just came out of the simulation in Hawaii had a pretty nice setup. On the top of a mountain (slightly thinner atmosphere, even though still much thicker than Mars), volcanic topography (rocks and dirt everywhere - just like Mars), and it's high enough that the temperature gets low enough to snow. I'm sure that northern Canada or Alaska has some suitably rocky terrain also. Iceland is another place that comes to mind. Even parts of Patagonia or Chile would be more realistic than a desert.
Dubai is just looking for another tourist attraction for whenever they revert back to an economy not based on oil. It won't last forever.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black