From: alain245@videotron.ca   
      
   Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars soon. I am wondering what would be a   
   good design for a Martian colony. I am assuming the following:   
   1. Colonists will want to have private quarters (where others can’t go   
   without consent).   
   2. Colonists will want to be able to evacuate their habitat rapidly (in   
   case of fire for instance). And do so from two opposite ends of their   
   habitat. Here rapidly probably means without putting on a spacesuit,   
   unless one can design a spacesuit you can slip into in about 2 seconds.   
   3. Point 2, applies even if there is a party in the private quarters of   
   a colonist (therefore, you can’t just have a shelter sufficient for the   
   number of inhabitants of a given habitat).   
   4. Colonist will want to be able to go see other colonist or go to work   
   without having to put on spacesuits.   
      
      
   My solution, and I am not sure it really is a good one, is to make   
   habitats in pairs. Have two habitats in a big tube, and a passageway   
   between the two habitats. The tube as a whole is pressurized, so you   
   don’t need an airlock to get out of a habitat. You would have airlocks   
   at the end of each tube. So once everyone is evacuated from the tube,   
   you can depressurize to put out a fire. You also need to have sufficient   
   ventilation capabilities in the passageway. If there is a fire in one   
   habitat, there is likely to be some smoke going into the passageway. You   
   don’t want to have to depressurize to get rid of smoke every time   
   someone burns his toasts.   
      
   Workspaces (offices, labs, machine shops etc) would be similarly paired   
   in tubes, albeit possibly much bigger tubes.   
      
   You can link the habitat tubes by the ends and sometimes on hubs. It   
   would be important to have a few hubs, not just a big loop with all the   
   habitats in a circle. Having crisscrossing “streets” allow you to go   
   anywhere even if you have a section that is closed because of a fire,   
   smoke or what not.   
      
   What do you think? How would you design a colony?   
      
      
   Alain Fournier   
      
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