NationStates Jolt Archive

Ever wonder what life on Mars is like? Its not all pressure domes and moon buggies. For those of us who have lived there a long time home looks something like this:

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Many of the Republic's cities are build in impact craters on the surface. They are capped and excavated, usually ending up a little like this:

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These are artist's drawings, and thus not as interesting as the real thing, but this gives some idea of the scale involved. Each of the divided sections contains an average of 110 4-6 person dwellings, with a arco-dome of this size holding approximately 50,000 people. Businesses are usually found behind the living area with sun-tunnels providing outside light.

Each terraced step has a green area between it and the next step. These are parks, gardens, 'outdoor' markets, and other similar 'outdoor' areas. The center of the dome is usually a small lake. The dwellings overlooking it are the most sought after - generally the lower you are the higher your station in life.

Walking is encouraged, but there is enough space for small 1-2 person vehicles, and most domes have a subway running behind everything for quick access to both the other side of the dome and other domes.

The roof of the dome may look like the outside, but it's actually a projection of the current sky. Dome caps are very thick - they are designed to withstand small asteroid strikes. Even so the outer face of the dwellings are sealed, and the terrace access's can be sealed as well to provide an extra layer of safety.

Coming soon: The Arco-Canyon's of Sunset.

I live on green mars, and well, guess what, none of that vacuum capable crud is needed, since it is terraformed, and requires no space suits, basicallys its a Neo-Earth

There are advantages to both ways of life. And after 20 generations the people of Sunset are used to it. If the whole of Mars is ever terraformed I'm sure some might want to take down the domes and see the sky, and it will be their choice. Liberty above All.

And if you don't mind someone else taking advantage of this thread, or even if you do, some descriptions of Eniqciri and Snel facilities:


The standard Eniqciri city on Mars consists of a network of Habs, or habitation modules, the cylindrical cabins of spacecraft that have touched down on the Martian surface. Some of these Habs are covered in a layer of dirt and rock, but the majority are left just as they were when they first touched down (aside from the fact that most have had their rockets removed), towering aver the landscape on stilt-like landing legs. These 10m tall by 6m wide cylinders are connected by raised, and, of course, pressurized, walkways, and each is equipped with all the essentials of human life- a kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. In a few cases, Snel StarFish have also been hooked up and become part of a city.

The focus of every city is its oxygen farm. Many oxygen farms consist of pressurized dome greenhouses, with filters and pumps that suck in Martian air and CO2 rich waste air from the Habs, and pump out human-breathable air, both into the city, and released into the atmosphere for terraforming efforts. The most common plants used are corn and other iron-loving species, but, where enough topsoil has been manufactured, other varieties of plants are grown as well, and some oxygen farms actually have quite nice flower gardens. Lichens, moss, and various varieties of air plants (that is, plants that don't require soil, but get their nutrient from the atmosphere directly) are often seen growing around the exhaust outlets of the greenhouses, making use of the water vapor that they release into the atmosphere. Most of the cities' biological waste is delivered to septic tanks underneath the oxygen farms, where it is partially degraded by bacteria, after which it is pumped into the greenhouses into compost piles and used as fertilizer.

As terraforming efforts march on ward, more and more non-pressurized, open-air oxygen farms are cropping up, mainly of lichens, but also of the ever-present corn and other hardy plants, irrigated from semi-permeable hoses burried just below ground.

Aside from the farms, the second most important part of every city is its Water Pipe. Each city has at least one, and usually several, Rock Scorcher docking stations, although most of them are now used as simple tanker docks since the ground around the older cities is pretty well sucked dry. Running along the border or through the middle of each city, the Water Pipe connect them to all the other cities, and is their main source of, you guessed it, water. Most is mined from the icecaps of Borealis Planum, but some comes from the southern ice caps as well, and a small amount from those cities that still have an operation Rock Scorcher fleet of their own.

Aside from the Hab cities, there are Canyon and Crater cities as well. Of course, most of these are artificial, given that our land was chosen specifically because it's fairly flat, and therefore easy to land a spacecraft or aircraft on. Canyons and craters, usually carved via controlled nuclear explosions, or sometimes more conventional excavation methods, are covered over, and atmospheric filters placed on the rims of crater or at the ends of canyons. Within these pressurized areas, we have tried to create something like a rainforest environment, something very large and very beautiful, and that pumps out huge amounts of oxygen without much nutrient input. Using the trees as supporting collumns, arcologies are constructed in these artificial environments.

Assuming that Yggdrasil passes up Pavonis Mons, the next such arcology will probably be in the Pavonis Caldera.

OOC: That's what I would like to see - the more we share about how our particular efforts work the better those efforts will interact in the future.

Some info on Bajoni Housing and cities.

Surface dwellings are usually the typical domes, though most of the Bajoni's live underground. Those are simply sug out holes in the ground, with a pre-fab house set in, and Martian soil shoveled back over, with a surface entrance.

The Capital of Bajon, Olympus City, is located under the southwestern base of Olympus Mons. The wealthier people live on the upper levels, and many have their houses built on the slope, so they can see the Martian Plains. The slums are located on the lower levels of the city, deep underground. The Spaceport is on the south slope, and has docking bays built into the mountain. The capital building, and main military bases are located deep underground, immune to all missile strikes and surface attacks. There is a private spaceport for emergency evacuations.

90% of the Bajoni's live in the huge Capital city. About 5% live in smaller, subterranean farming communities located under the Martian Plains. The remaining 5% live in a smaller city built into a domed crater. The housings there are built into the crater's walls, much like the Sunset crater cities. However, the Bajoni crater city is much less uniform.

Bajon is divided into 2 sections/provinces. There is Olympus Mons, which contains the capital, and there are the Bajoni Plains, located to the west. The Plains are made up of subterranean farming communities, with the regional center at Crater City.

The communities and the 2 cities are connected together by an Armoured Bullet-Train system that runs on the surface.

Canyon Arcologies of Mars

Some of the first large dwellings built on Mars were built into the sides of canyons. In fact much of Sunset's population is centered on and in the Valles Marineris canyon system. Below are four artist drawings of what the canyon arcologies look like.

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Early dwellings and businesses were carved out of the rock with 20th century mining equipment, then sealed and furnished. Now the rock is vaporized with energy weapons and pre-fabricated units are tractored into position. The only customization needed is the front facing, which is designed to match the contours of the canyon as much as possible. This helps to reduce wear from wind currents and the wear from the eventual flooding of the canyons.

Dwellings are linked by walk/motorways that run behind the structures, all of which lead into the transit system seen in the picture. The top is open for sealed personal transportation such as grav-cars, while the interior has a dual tunnel system for mass transit. There are seals in place at every causeway/tunnel transition in case of damage.

Tannelorn is entirely subterranean , the only surface facilities are space ports and Military bases. It is far safer, and easier to terraform a massive underground complex, then it is to live on the surface, as Mars is incredibly difficult to terraform, sue to its lack of Volcanic activity and Lack of sufficient co2, so nice and cozy underground, a few forests here and there provide oxygen, though the Massdriver Array that is used to propel things in to orbit [large cargoes] does come up from the "Base" of the underground hive that is tannelorn. Most of Vascilia follows a similar approach.

Our people are mostly still living on the surface of Mars. We converted our entire industrial and economic facilities to mobile spaceworthy buildings before we left earth and are still in the process of adapting to Mars and taking advantage of the subterranean areas of our valley.

Shaft-Arcologies

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Shaft-Archologies are built in smaller craters or on open ground. They are one of the newest habitats of the Republic - designed to make the most efficient use of our space without expanding our borders. Arcologies of this size often house 32,000 - 320,000 people, but the largest houses just over 3 million people. They include the standard design elements - green space, crossing bridges, and psuedo outside views. The outside views might well become real outside views soon however, and the surface Arco's were built with that in mind. Their caps are designed to be retractable, so that if breathable atmosphere becomes avaliable the domes can be opened. Of course they can be closed again to protect against asteroids and weapons fire just as easily.

(Holy ancient thread ressurection, Batman!)

http://www.pacifier.com/~cziller/arcology.jpg

Very nice, Sunset. I feel safe having my people stay with you.

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Yes - I deleted the images from my web space and didn't want X's cluttering things up. Might redo them in the future, but no need to now.

OOC: Damn your reverse phsycology! You say it is boring so I automatically try to read it!