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Life on Mars: How could humanity’s greatest feat in design be pulled off?

Written by on 20/10/2019

Forty-five years after David Bowie first sang about Life On Mars, a new exhibition at the Design Museum in London is exploring the challenges humans might face if we lived on the Red Planet.

Ellie Watson, co-curator of Moving to Mars, says the concept came about because “the reality of a Mars mission is fast approaching”.

“We thought it’d be interesting to explore why we are interested in going, how we would get there and, as the Design Museum, fundamentally what role design plays in making that mission possible.”

Mars is about 100 times further away than the Moon, so not only would it require a giant leap forward in space travel, contending with lethal space radiation, dust storms and harsh temperatures would also mean pulling off arguably humanity’s greatest feat in design.

More than 200 exhibits, including original objects and material from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and SpaceX, help tell the story of designing for Mars.

One of the most impressive pieces is a multi-sensory room designed for viewers to experience the terrain.

There’s also a full-scale prototype of how and where astronauts might live, created by international design firm Hassell.

Xavier De Kestellier, the company’s head of design and innovation, says their prototype – which in layman’s terms is a series of inflatable pods under a cave-like structure – was originally produced for NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge.

“On earth we have magnetic poles meaning all the radiation gets deflected off.

“On Mars it’s going to hit us, and it’s going to be really bad, so the best thing to do is live almost in a shell structure which would be 3D printed by robots.

“They’ve printed it before any humans even come to Mars and underneath would be where the astronauts live, the pods are like pop-up tents almost, inflated underneath.”

Visitors will also be asked to consider whether we should we go to Mars, as curator Ellie Watson explains.

“We have this wonderful piece in the exhibition by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, a young designer… She said quite openly there’s a supreme arrogance on the part of humans to think of Mars as belonging to us and to think of it as being the Plan B in case something bad happens on earth.

“Her proposal is to not treat Mars like a lifeboat for humans but as a lifeboat for non-humans like bacteria and plants.”

Professor Mark McCaughrean, senior adviser for science and exploration at ESA, says the biggest obstacle isn’t actually design or innovation but something rather more basic – getting the cash.

“Going to Mars is a very expensive proposition and it means that the governments around the world will have to come together and say ‘this is something we want to do together’, and at the moment we don’t show many signs in working together very well internationally…. It’s not going to be one country that does this on its own.

“Getting the money together is just as important as getting the technology solved, I don’t think we’re quite there, but if we push ahead on the technology maybe we can make it seem like this is the thing to do.”

The Design Museum’s Moving to Mars exhibition runs until 23 February 2020.

(c) Sky News 2019: Life on Mars: How could humanity’s greatest feat in design be pulled off?