Habitats on Mars... and the Art of Frank Frazetta

 Mollusca L5 design by team LeeLabs.
(Click  on images to enlarge.)

"Design the First Human Settlement on Mars

The Mars Society is holding a contest for the best plan for a Mars colony of 1000 people. There will be a prize of $10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second and $2500 for third. In addition, the best 20 papers will published in a book “Mars Colonies: Plans for Settling the Red Planet.”

In scoring colony designs, points will be allocated on the following basis:

• 40 points technical design: What systems will be used? How will they work?
• 30 points economic: How can the colony be made economically successful?
• 10 points social/cultural: What should Martian society be like? What kinds of schools, arts, sports, and other activities, should there be? How, given a fresh start, can life on Mars be made better than life on Earth?
• 10 points political/organizational: How should the colony govern itself?
• 10 points aesthetic: How can the colony be made beautiful?"

- Announcement of a contest for designing the first human settlement on Mars sponsored by the Mars Society. The deadline for the entries is March 31, 2019.

“The rockets came like locusts, swarming and settling in blooms of rosy smoke. And from the rockets ran men with hammers in their hands to beat the strange world into a shape that was familiar to the eye, to bludgeon away all the strangeness, their mouths fringed with nails so they resembled steel-toothed carnivores, spitting them into their swift hands as they hammered up frame cottages and scuttled over roofs with shingles to blot out the eerie stars, and fit green shades to pull against the night.”

“We won’t ruin Mars,” said the captain. “It’s too big and too good.” “You think not? We Earth Men have a talent for ruining big, beautiful things. The only reason we didn’t set up hot-dog stands in the midst of the Egyptian temple of Karnak is because it was out of the way and served no large commercial purpose.” 

- Two excerpts from The Martian Chronicles, 1950, Ray Bradbury (found here).

***

In the mood for a challenge? Have a lot of time on your hands? Want to play God? If you've answered yes to, at least, two of these questions, then the Mars Society has a proposition for you; a chance to create a virtual blueprint for a human society on Mars (!).

It doesn't seem as if the contest is a members only thing, but open to the public. And, although I'm not sure how much scientific or artistic expertise is required, (see sample entry here), there might be a few of you out there who could pull it off.

RedWorks Habitat design by team RedWorks.

As for me, well, I'm a dreamer... so, while I might gain points for the aesthetics, I'd lose them for capitalistic questions like: "How can the colony be made economically successful?,"  or, even worse, "How should the colony govern itself?" Now, there's a can of worms. Frankly, I'd skip those questions altogether. As a matter of fact, I'd never have asked them to begin with.

But, yes, the visuals and logistics of such a project intrigue me, and, as it was, NASA launched its own contest a few years back: a 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge entailing the design of human habitats which can be established on the moon or Mars, and which are capable of being 3-D printed. This contest involves teams as opposed to lone individuals. Pictured above and inset left (with 2 more examples after the jump) are some of the Top 10 designs of the first phase of the contest. The winning design of the second phase can be found here. As for the third phase, well, most likely each team has to have already been involved with the first two phases (not sure), but, the last phase requires an actual 3-D print of the potential habitat. It's deadline is in April of next year. (Note: the prize is 2 million USD!)

The Dream Machines

Hover FI Combat - CG image - 2017, Jomar Machado
(Click-on images to enlarge.)

"Mark my word: a combination airplane and motorcar is coming. You may smile, but it will come."

- Henry Ford, 1940.

"A flying car is a type of personal air vehicle that provides door-to-door transportation by both ground and air. The term "flying car" is often used to include roadable aircraft and hovercars.

Many prototypes have been built since the first years of the twentieth century, but no flying car has yet reached production status.

Their appearance is often predicted by futurologists, with their failure ever to reach production leading to the catchphrase, 'Where's my flying car?'"

- From the WIki entry for Flying Car. Magazine cover found in the NY Times' article: Why We're Not Driving the Friendly Skies.

The "Spinner" from Blade Runner.

"If I'm a member of the "blade runner generation" then where the hell's my flying car?"

- Mac Tonnies from this 2007 Posthuman Blues post.

***

Well, finally we've gotten past Xmas, 2017! It was getting kind of weird there for awhile... like time stood still or something. In reality, I'm having a hard time keeping just one blog afloat these days. But, as so often happens with Post-Mac Blues, just as I begin to think its run has come to an end - and really, gang, it's been over 8 years now - something comes along to change my mind... something that reminds me of Mac and something I know he'd like... in this case: Jomar Machado's retrofuturistic flying machines!

Okay, it isn't as if flying cars are a recent development; the concept has been around for years and years. And, there seems to be a million varieties; many of them prototyped and just waiting to be snatched up by somebody... like the vehicle inset right (and found here). Alas, no. No flying cars for sale. And, even if one just happens to make it as far as the production phase, chances are it won't be remotely affordable by 90% of us (see this article).

Hover Bike II - CG image - 2017, Jomar Machado

However, we can dream. Brazilian designer and CG artist Jomar Machado certainly does... designing all sorts of cool airborne vehicles which are worthy of a sci-fi film series all their own. Think "dieselpunk"... Mad Max meets Blade Runner meets... well, you get the picture. I've posted a few of his gems here, but many more can be found on his CG gallery page. Apart from his tricked-out retro classics, he has a multitude of amazing utilitarian vehicles as well.

Hover Mercedes - CG image - 2018, Jomar Machado

1939 Airstream Clipper.

Which brings me to my final point... because, as it so happens, I'm all about rides these days, and I could not think of anything cooler than an airborne automobile... with defense weaponry! But, personally, what I'm really waiting for is Machado's Hover Airstream! Seriously, folks, if there's people who are thinking in terms of flying houses - and there are - well, seems to me a flying trailer isn't too much to ask for. And, it can be made into an RV or a motorhome... like a Winnebago! :-)

***

On a related note, here's a nod to Elon Musk and his latest dream machine: a Tesla Roadster launched into space (!) earlier this month.

"According to Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and CEO, the car was blasting David Bowie's Space Oddity as it travels through the solar system. Musk also named the dummy 'Starman' after another song by the late musician."

Starman in orbit.

Quote and photo found in Space.com's article: A Car in Deep Space': Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster Leaves Earth With 'Easter Eggs'.

The Halls of Science Fiction

The October, 1962 cover of Galaxy Magazine found here.

All Galaxy Magazine issues can be found here or here.

(All images can be clicked-on for larger views.)

"My fiction writing took a decided turn for the morose after I first really watched "Blade Runner." Now I'm almost incapable of writing a story that isn't set in a bleak, urban near-future where it rains a lot and characters have conspicuously easy access to consciousness-altering technologies ranging from particle accelerators to funky designer drugs.

Here's an excerpt from a blessedly unpublished novel about neurology and quantum physics I wrote in 1998/1999. This particular project, while educational, ultimately failed because of Kitchen-Sink Syndrome. I was trying to graft way too many weird ideas into one story, producing more than a few scenes like the following:

...He looked up at a ceiling festooned with video cable, a kind of sloppy fish-net used to suspend the few books and videocassettes left over from the Roma he had used to know. She had reduced them to squalid ornaments. 

To what purpose? Zak thought. He felt he was traipsing through some piece of misguided conceptual art. He looked back at Roma, who slowly detached herself from the mothering animatrons and walked toward him, bare feet unscathed by the debris covering the floor. Flecks of dried blood fell from her thighs as she walked. Zak could see the illicit dance of sinew in her neck and calves. 

He forced himself to stand still. Roma walked within touching distance and spread her palm, revealing a single Pentium chip. Only on second glance did he realize it had been pressed deeply into her flesh, and even then he wanted desperately to believe it was simply trompe l'oiel, something to be wiped away with a warm, soapy cloth. 

"Look," Roma said. 

"I'm looking" 

"She leaned closer until Zak feared she would collapse into him. "Look closer." 

He did. And for the first time he saw the shimmering matrix embedded in her skin, a rambling fractal composed of strands thinner than spider silk. The strands, faint but unmistakable, branched from the Pentium chip and traced riotous patterns up her wrist, arm and shoulder. 

Roma pivoted like a runway model striking a pose, letting the light reveal the matrix in its entirety. It spanned her entire body: galaxies of triangles and squares that caught the light and threw it back at him in eye-scalding clarity..."

- Mac Tonnies from a May 17, 2004 Posthuman Blues post. The cyborg image (inset, right) by Victor Habbick can be found here. (Sorry, Victor, I found the image before I found your site. I liked your cyborg best. Think of it as free press. If you'd rather, I will most certainly remove it... only please don't send the goon squad.) And, if cyborgs are your thing, here's more.


"The literary genre of science fiction is diverse, and its exact definition remains a contested question among both scholars and devotees. This lack of consensus is reflected in debates about the genre's history, particularly over determining its exact origins. There are two broad camps of thought, one that identifies the genre's roots in early fantastical works such as the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh (earliest Sumerian text versions c. 2150–2000 BCE). A second approach argues that science fiction only became possible sometime between the 17th and early 19th centuries, following the scientific revolution and major discoveries in astronomy, physics, and mathematics.

Question of deeper origins aside, science fiction developed and boomed in the 20th century, as the deep integration of science and inventions into daily life encouraged a greater interest in literature that explores the relationship between technology, society, and the individual. Scholar Robert Scholes calls the history of science fiction 'the history of humanity's changing attitudes toward space and time ... the history of our growing understanding of the universe and the position of our species in that universe. In recent decades, the genre has diversified and become firmly established as a major influence on global culture and thought.'"

- An excerpt from Wikipedia's The History of Science Fiction. For lists of Science Fiction categorized by country of origin, go here. For a listing of Sci-fi/Fantasy artists, see this page. Inset, left is the cover from Philip Jose Farmer’s Strange Compulsion, a science fiction novel published in 1953, and found in this Huffington Post article.

***

Seven Oracles found here.

Call me crazy, but, while science and technology may have evolved in leaps in bounds in the past several centuries, science fiction has gone a lot further and faster into the unknown realms. Scientific discovery, after all, is limited by its very nature. It can only analyze existent phenomena and is focused on the here and now. Science fiction, however, is only limited by the human imagination... and from what we can gather, there are no limits to the human imagination.

Of course, science fiction authors are often science fans to some degree - Mac was - but, as for the general public, well, when it comes to topics like Mars, robots, exoplanets, spaceships and the like, they are likely to prefer the more entertaining fiction over the disillusioning facts. And, why not? NASA might still be searching for water on the Red Planet, but a host of sci-fi visionaries - up to and including Ray Bradbury - "discovered" it years and years ago. In other words, scientific data pales in comparison with the pseudo-scientific dreams which pre-date it...

NASA's Mars Recruitment Posters

(click to enlarge)

"BE A MARTIAN!

Mars needs YOU! In the future, Mars will need all kinds of explorers, farmers, surveyors, teachers . . . but most of all YOU! Join us on the Journey to Mars as we explore with robots and send humans there one day. Download a Mars poster that speaks to you. Be an explorer!"

-  Found on this NASA page.

***

In 2009 - the year Mac Tonnies took his own solo mission into the aether - NASA apparently commissioned a number of Mars recruitment posters. Who knew?

Well, now we all do.

Because, just in time (and not a moment too soon), NASA decided to share them with us. I took the liberty of downloading a few more below, but to enjoy the full effect, I suggest you head on over to the NASA page. As "the man" says: "be an explorer!" ;-)

In a related story:
You can eat vegetables from Mars, say scientists after crop experiment

Sigh... don't you just wish the posters applied to us older "explorers" in the here and now... and that a certain someone could see them?

Shigeru Komatsuzaki

Recently showing at Pink Tentacle: a series of examples of the science fiction artwork of visionary artist Shigeru Komatsuzaki. I think Mac would've gotten a kick out of these, so, help me out here, folks, and let's send them to him via the aether. Your mission: just take a look.

And, if we had any doubts about when Mac's enthusiasm for monsters and space began, we just have to read this charming bit of juvenilia at Macbots!