Scientists say huge lake of salty water buried on Mars
If the findings are confirmed, this is the discovery so many scientists have been waiting for: A specific place to target in their search for microbial alien life.
If you’re looking forward to the time when humans can decamp to the Red Planet, you’ll be happy to know that NASA is envisioning what those Martian habitats might look like—and the results are incredible.
The space agency partnered with Bradley University for its Centennial Challenges competition and set a task of designing structures that could house astronauts and can actually survive the Martian terrain, weather and atmosphere.
All the entries of Mars-appropriate housing had to incorporate 3-D printing, as well.
“They are not just designing structures, they are designing habitats that will allow our space explorers to live and work on other planets,” Centennial Challenges program director Monsi Roman said in a statement.
A total of 18 teams competed in the challenge and the five selected below split a $100,000 prize. You can watch virtual model videos for each entry here and learn more about the rules of the multi-year challenge here.
1st Place: Team Zopherus of Rogers, Arkansas
(NASA)
2nd Place: AI. SpaceFactory of New York
(NASA)
3rd Place: Kahn-Yates of Jackson, Mississippi
(NASA)
4th Place: SEArch+/Apis Cor of New York
(NASA)
5th Place: Northwestern University of Evanston, Illinois
(NASA)