Town planning
Living on Mars is not without risks, but the design of the life support systems, and its continuous improvement, has reduced the risks to that of a well lived life on Earth. Life on Mars is no longer the one of a crew in an Antarctic station, but the one of a citizen of a comfortable, mid-sized cosmopolitan city. This has been achieved thanks to subsidiarity being taken as the fundamental governance principle. In terms of town planning, this results in maximum autonomy for the district of about 10,000 inhabitants. It has many advantages; it effectively ensures the empowerment of each citizen vis-à-vis the maintenance of the manufactured biological ecosystem that keeps him alive, as well as the sharing of practices between the different districts which leads to healthy competition. In addition, compartmentalization, maximized, ensures that a local accident does not compromise the whole of the city, which will then be able to come to the aid of the stricken district. Thus each district is as autonomous as possible, both physically and in terms of production, but also in the management of public affairs. The principle of autonomy implies a second one: maximizing the proximity of the different areas necessary for the life of a citizen. Combining residence, work, shops, social and community areas into a single habitat is common practice. This principle combines as well with the fact that agriculture and the maintenance of ecosystems is one of the main activity of the inhabitants of Foundation, since it is the most labor-intensive. It is therefore necessary to reduce the distance between agricultural and urban areas. In this way it is possible to favor pedestrian displacements within a district, The journeys between the districts are made by a system of automated electric vehicles, rolling beneath the pedestrian walkways and through tunnels, integrated in the pressurized enclosures or themselves pressurized, depending on design. Solar energy farms occupy a large area outside of the city (several hundred of square kilometers, depending on local energy mix). They are organized as standardized ‘solar islands’, in which solar panels surround a central industrial sector, which include all facilities dedicated to solar panel manufacturing and maintenance, alongside with plants dedicated to methane/oxygen energy vector production and storage (for more details, see our article on energy).Finally, the systematic use of the building information modeling (BIM) methodology for the design and operation of the city made it possible to optimize costs thanks to the creation of digital twins. There is room in the human imagination to invent new cities. And what better place than on Mars, where a city must be, by necessity, a mosaic of autonomous villages where each inhabitant, adult and child, is the gardener of the ecosystem that supports them.
"That will be all for us, madam. To answer your concerns, no quarantine will be necessary - the journey is long enough!’’ It is a graying medical control doctor who concludes her only spoken sentence by waving me away with a gesture. I am allowed out of the glass office with a few drugs in a cellulose bag and a long list of recommendations. Faster than I imagined, after 4 months in weightlessness. It's now 5 days since I landed on Mars and severe leg pains remind me of the kilometers already covered in the streets of Arkadia. The slight gravity of Mars has helped me get used to the vertical station again, but my ungainly gait betrays my origin. My timid little steps and my uncontrolled leaps earn me smiles! I have not yet managed to imitate the long slow and elegant strides of the native Martians.
The local chapter of the Mars Society gave me an interview this morning and provided me with a guide, Adhémar. I have been thoroughly briefed with safety drills and practices and am free to move around. Adhémar offered to accompany me to a speech given by the Minister of Culture on the anniversary of the founding of Arkadia. We have to walk to get there. Again. Arkadians vigorous walking habits relegate the marathon runners of Earth to simple hikers. Everyone walks here. But I expect I’ll get used to it soon. The Grand dome of the History Museum finally covers us. It is the most visited attraction on the planet. The speech is held in front of several hundred people. The majesty of the space allows me to listen to a rather inspired and fortunately brief speech (my feet are killing me!). Adhémar shows me some of the dome’s treasures. I find myself facing the modules of the first Martian base, preserved intact. It is here, in the center of the city of Arkadia, that the first elements of the colony were set up. Further along, Adhémar stops in front of a rather incongruous sculpture. For Adhémar, it is the object of a certain emotion: during the early manned tests of the first Martian built space vehicle, a team of astronauts decided to bring back to Arkadia the mannequin Starman at the wheel of his Tesla Roadster. Indeed, a few day after the Falcon Heavy launch, to the question “if I can recover it, can I keep it ?”, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and owner of the vehicle had answered “Yes”. The Martians have apparently taken up the gauntlet.
Marspedia references: Early settlement -
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