Researchers revive the dream of a Martian habitat in Arizona in miniature

https://www.science.org/content/article/researchers-revive-dream-martian-habitat-arizona-miniature

by rbanffy • 5 years ago

19 8 5 years ago

Nzen• 5 years ago

tl;dr University of Arizona has restored a test greenhouse as the centerpiece for closed ecosystem research [0]. They plan to connect several other closed units to serve as housing and labs. The 'simulation' involves stepping down the use of CO2 scrubbers as they grow more and more plants to convert the atmosphere, with special attention to the entire lifecycle (ex decomposition releases lots of CO2, so they are apt to turn on scrubbers unused during the maturation phase). The program is currently 1/3 funded.

[0] https://samb2.space/about/

seiferteric• 5 years ago

I have dreamt about buying some cheap land in the desert and building a giant sealed dome. In theory once "charged" with water, you shouldn't need any more water input, as long as you can condense it out of the air. I imaging a bunch of solar panels outside so I can run A/C or underground heatpump to moderate the temp and "make it rain". Then you can grow some food in there as well and "recycle" your waste products. I doubt I could be fully self-sufficient since a large enough dome would be prohibitively expensive, but would be a pretty cool way to live I think.

pkaye• 5 years ago

So like Biosphere 2?

biaachmonkie• 5 years ago

It would stink really really bad, you'd get used to it if you stayed inside, but if you leave and come back that stench will smack you in the face.

https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/profiles-strategie...

roghummal• 5 years ago

Jane Poynter helped design and then lived in a 3-acre dome called Biosphere 2, completely sealed off from the rest of the world, for two years and 20 minutes. Walking back into society was a shock.
"I run over to say hello to all of these people and reel back," Poynter said in an interview with Bizwomen. "We all stink from all the chemicals we put on our bodies. It wasn't that we didn't have shampoo or toothpaste [in Biosphere 2], but it was all very organic, no perfume, no hairspray. Our noses were hyper-sensitive to it."

Just to clarify, it’s our world she said stinks. I interpreted your comment backwards.

counternotions• 5 years ago

The fantastic storytelling unfortunately falls flat on its face here:

So far, they’ve worked on a shoestring budget, having received about $100,000 from private donors and a tech incubator. They’ll need another $250,000 or so to fully equip the facility, Staats says. He hopes that money will come from investors, companies paying to use the facility, and grants.

mkaic• 5 years ago

To anyone who thinks this is cool: Check out Cody's Lab on YouTube, who's spent the past two years working on his own Mars simulation base solo in Nevada and makes excellent videos about it. It's called "Chickenhole Base".

bigbizisverywyz• 5 years ago

I kinda get the feeling that most of the issues with these projects are well understood and already solved.

Basically it's probably at a stage where somebody just needs to 'do it' - like on the moon as a starting point, and see what happens.

And on the moon you could park an escape ship nearby if things went really badly South, and get back home in reasonable time.

Anybody got a heavy lifter so we can start bringing up the prefabbed bits? :)

Researchers revive the dream of a Martian habitat in Arizona in miniature

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