Mars underground : a Landscape Strategy for Long Term Human Colonies on the Red Planet

On Mars, research has shown the presence of underground conduits of volcanic origin known as “pyroducts” or “lava tubes”, which are also present on Earth and Moon. Underground conduits enjoy little consideration in the Space Architecture literature. After Earth, Mars is the only planet in the solar system in which life forms may have existed, but nowadays the Red Planet is an arid environment where high radiations, micrometeorites impacts, frigid temperatures and other hazards make its surface uninhabitable, if not under heavy shielding. On the other hand, lava tubes provide a space that is already protected from these extreme conditions. Because of the different gravitational acceleration on the planet, they are much bigger in sizes than they are on Earth. This thesis aims to offer lava tubes as a safe alternative for the location of the habitats of long term colonies on Mars. To do so, the goal was to enable the habitability of these below ground structures with the creation of a new landscape inspired by previous terrestrial examples, such as “Los Jameos del Agua” by the Artist César Manrique in the island of Lanzarote, focusing on the importance of vegetation and natural light. For the creation of the needed structures and materials, native resources and cutting edge technologies (3d printed, sintering..) were considered.