Build a Mars City State
Each year the Mars Society runs an elaborate and engaging competition challenging people to come up with a design plan for a Mars City State. The organization is one of the world’s largest devoted to the mission of exploring the possibility of colonizing the Red Planet. There is serious money attached to the prizes, and the competition is an incredible way to demonstrate creative thinking, technical design and teamwork. This is a really cool way to get deeply involved in futuristic thinking (and to learn a lot about space, engineering and yourself!).
“The Mars Society is pleased to announce the holding of an international contest for the best design plan of a Mars city state of 1,000,000 people. There will be a prize of $10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second, $2,500 for third, $1,000 for fourth and $500 for fifth. In addition, the top 20 papers will be published in a new book “Mars City States: New Societies for a New World.”
The city state should be self-supporting to the maximum extent possible – i.e. relying on a minimum mass of imports from Earth. To make all the things that people require on Earth takes a lot more than 1,000,000 people, therefore participating teams will need to augment both the amount and diversity of available labor power through the use of robots and artificial intelligence.
Teams will need to be able to both produce essential bulk materials like food, fabrics, steel, glass and plastics on Mars, and fabricate them into useful structures, so 3-D printing and other advanced fabrication technologies will be essential. The goal is to have the city state be able to produce all the food, clothing, shelter, power, common consumer products, vehicles and machines for a population of 1,000,000, with only the minimum number of key components, such as advanced electronics, needing to be imported from Earth.
As noted, imports will always be necessary, so teams will need to think of useful exports – of either material or intellectual products that the colony could produce and transport or transit back to Earth to pay for them. In the future, it can be expected that, using the SpaceX Starship or similar technology, the cost of shipping goods from Earth to Mars will be $500/kg and the cost of shipping goods from Mars to Earth will be $200/kg. Under these assumptions, it is the job of the team to design an economy, cost it out and show that after a certain initial investment in time, money and effort, that it can become successful.
It is not necessary that the city state be built all in one location on the Martian surface. It can be done that way or one or more central cities can be set up, supported by outlying bases on Mars or its moons, as needed.”
How do I get started? Check out the website for the Mars Society for more information about the contest and its rules.
How do I expand this narrative arc? If science and space are in your narrative arc think about supplementing this project with another science (or space)-based opportunity. For example:
Continue to explore the world of Mars with the Mars Mission Project.
Diversify your space creds when you compete to build the best International Space Settlement.
Use amateur ham radio to Talk to Astronauts on the International Space Station.
For something interesting and less time-consuming, Become a Muon Hunter, Become a Galaxy Hunter or: Find Planet 9.