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Life On Mars
Dec. 2nd, 2011 01:40 pmAs a science fiction geek and space optimist, I often wonder what it would be like to live on other planets. In my role as optimist, I frequently hear how difficult, not to say impossible, it would be to live on Mars.
Then I recently found out about Earthships. Despite the name, these aren't "ships" at all, but rather very innovative houses. I saw a TV clip where the designer said "I could do these on the Moon." I'm not sure about the Moon, but Mars, I'm pretty confident about.
Wikipedia has a good summary, but an earthship is a house that passively heats and cools itself, recycles its own water, and generates electricity and some food for the owner. On Earth, they tend to be built from old car tires filled with rammed dirt because it's cheap, but they can be built from any readily-available material. Since they already recycle water, and work in even very cold and dark climates, the chief modification is to recycle air. That's a matter of sizing the interior greenhouse.
In short, we really could live on Mars, if we could get there.
Then I recently found out about Earthships. Despite the name, these aren't "ships" at all, but rather very innovative houses. I saw a TV clip where the designer said "I could do these on the Moon." I'm not sure about the Moon, but Mars, I'm pretty confident about.
Wikipedia has a good summary, but an earthship is a house that passively heats and cools itself, recycles its own water, and generates electricity and some food for the owner. On Earth, they tend to be built from old car tires filled with rammed dirt because it's cheap, but they can be built from any readily-available material. Since they already recycle water, and work in even very cold and dark climates, the chief modification is to recycle air. That's a matter of sizing the interior greenhouse.
In short, we really could live on Mars, if we could get there.
