Martian House - A Living Vision | Duravit
Martian House - Vision meets Design
What might living on Mars look like? How would everyday life be managed? Two artists from Bristol, working with an interdisciplinary team, have taken it upon themselves to answer this question by building the Martian House. Duravit is also in the mix thanks to development engineer Franziska Wülker and products like SensoWash® Starck f – the Martian Toilet.
Artists Ella Good and Nicki Kent have teamed up with Hugh Broughton Architects and Pearce+ to explore the possibilities of what living on Mars might be like.
Concept Martian House -Cutaway credit Hugh Broughton Architects
Upgrade your everyday – even on Mars
Franziska Wülker, Head of Research & Development, Duravit AG
“Mars is a relatively hostile environment for humans. Many activities that we take for granted on Earth are simply impossible on Mars. A walk in the fresh air is only possible in a space suit because there is no fresh air on Mars – the atmosphere is mainly made up of CO2. Overall, everyday life on Mars is challenging and fairly arduous as a result.
That’s why it’s so important that everyday items in the home are designed to be as simple and comfortable as possible. That applies especially to the things we don’t like talking about, such as using the toilet.
For that reason, we’ve selected a toilet that is not too dissimilar to what we’re already familiar with. We’ve integrated a shower function, which is comfortable and hygienic – plus there’s a lot more water than toilet paper on Mars.”
Hygienic and comfortable: the shower-toilet as a Martian toilet. Find out more about SensoWash® shower-toilets:
Water extraction on Mars
Water on Mars? Water ice!
The total volume of the ice reservoir on Mars is 5.000.000 km³. If the ice were
distributed equally over the whole of Mars, the ice sheet would be around 35 m
thick.
Franziska Wülker:
“On Mars there are ice caps at the north and south poles. The volume of the polar caps is equivalent to the Greenland ice sheet on Earth. Subterranean ice sheets and glaciers can be pretty big. In some areas they’re up to 100m thick and close to the surface, around 1m to 2m – all you need is a shovel. So it’s best to build the Mars base where there’s lots of ice that’s easy to get at.
Bore holes could be made to extract water. This would involve drilling a hole through the cover layer and using a heat probe to melt and collect the ice. Empirical data from glaciers on Earth could be used for the ice drilling operations.”
Franziska Wülker’s sketch: Water extraction by drilling and melting water ice
Requirements and potential solutions for a Mars toilet
