According to Elon Musk, rockets will successfully land on Mars by 2022 — an act which could herald the arrival of humans on the red planet. While the possibility is still decades away, scientists and engineers have already come up with a unique innovation to aid the potential for living on Mars in the future: a sustainable city in space.
Nüwa, named after the mythological Chinese goddess who created the universe, is conceived as a sustainable metropolis for up to 250,000 people housed within the vertical cliff face of Tempe Mensa on Mars. Across five unique cities, the Nüwa hub will allow humans to live peacefully and sustainably alongside the natural Mars environment.
While the city currently exists in concept form only, space living is becoming a real possibility — and the project’s recent nomination as a finalist in The Mars Society’s City State Design Competition means it could become a viable hub in the future.
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According to the ABIBOO team, construction on the project could begin as early as 2054, with its first guests arriving by 2100. That’s a bit far off Elon Musk’s own predictions about establishing a city on Mars by 2050 but it’s likely a more realistic prediction.
Costs haven’t yet been considered and the team is taking a longer-term view of the project, but ABIBOO believes the work it’s doing today is essential for the future of space living.
Alfredo Munoz, the architect who founded ABIBOO Studio and worked on Nüwa, told Space.com it was important to integrate futuristic design choices with scientific backing to create a more realistic and well-rounded pitch for a future city.
“We envision Nüwa city as a completely inclusive city with people coming from all backgrounds,” Munoz told Space.com. “We really want this to be global.”
While the concept itself is fairly novel and seems like the stuff of science fiction, it actually has major future potential and could become a feasible reality in just a few decades.
Nüwa is a city for the future that takes its inspirations from the past to create something new and exciting.
While the ABIBOO team has identified major challenges with the project, including a reliance on steel, Munoz believes it’s a structure that could be ethical, sustainable, and very possible in our lifetime. Nüwa’s potential journey to development will be very intriguing to watch over the next few decades as scientists grapple with the best solutions for our future space-faring adventures.
You can check out more images from the Nüwa project on the ABIBOO website.