Mars habitat: A holistic approach to design extraterrestrial structures under extreme environments

Martian exploration represents one of the most ambitious goals of the 21st century. What only a few decades ago might have seemed like a futuristic vision has now become a tangible objective, thanks to rapid technological development and the growing interest of scientific programs. This paper fosters the ambitious goal of developing an interdisciplinary study that brings together engineering, material and geology sciences, as well as planetology, to propose a new Martian habitat designed through a rational and scientific approach. A new framework for extraterrestrial habitats design is thus conceived and applied to the case of Mars. Once defined the mission type and the landing site, the main environmental aspects that impact on the structural and architectural design of a structure on Mars are identified. Among them, reduced gravity, seismic activity, radiation, wind and asteroids’ impacts need to be considered. Then, a review on the locally-available construction materials is carried out. This is done by exploring also the construction methods supported by the most recent technological advancements carried by additive manufacturing in extreme environments. Lastly, a proposal for a new habitat module is made, which is constituted by an external 3D printed shell, whose structure has been verified according to the proposed design scenario through finite element (FE) analyses, and inner inflatable-balloon modules. Among the significant outcomes of this research, a special mention has to be made to the in-depth analysis of design aspects on Mars, thus representing fundamental inputs for the structural analysis of the new habitat.