As US space agency NASA celebrate landing their Perseverance robot on Mars, the world is waiting to see whether life might be sustainable on the red planet. It's a challenge that Earth's farsighted designers have been wrangling with for some time, and asking the question: what sort of structure could support human life on Mars? Far from rocketships, these conceptual structures are sleek, stylish and not as far-fetched as you might imagine...

On 18 February 2021, at 20:55 GMT, the robotic rover, Perseverance landed safely on Mars after a seven-month-long journey. Worth $2.7 billion (£1.9bn), the robot is part of the most ambitious effort in decades to find out if there ever was life on the red planet. Travelling through space for 293 million miles, the rover made the perilous journey through the red planet's atmosphere at more than 12,000 miles per hour where it began the landing process that brought it to a soft stop in just seven minutes. 

Perseverance will spend its time on Mars searching for signs of past life, collecting samples to bring back to Earth in 2028. The mission, if successful, could pave the way for humans on Mars. It carries a golden box attached to the rover that will turn the planet's carbon-dioxide-rich air into oxygen, which could eventually aid human habitation. In addition to sending robots up into space, NASA has also worked with young designers on possible accommodation for the red planet. They ran a 3D Printed Habitat Challenge in 2018 that produced the following brilliant designs for a future life on Mars. 

One of the remarkable designs comes from Team Kahn-Yates from Mississippi, who came up with this beautiful virtual vision of potential Mars habitation. The design was specifically created to withstand dust storms and harsh climates that can be found on the red planet.

This ethereal structure is designed to build itself once it has safely landed on Mars. The launched module robotically expands into a very sleek, shell-like model which then 3D-prints the interior layers of the building.

With housing long-term life at the forefront of their conception, Kahn-Yates’ structure is built to sustain daylight for use in areas such as lab work and food production.

Inside, a spiral staircase winds down into the small garden, which would allow any inhabitants to grow plants and food, just like they could on Earth.

French 3D-printing company Fabulous designed SFERO – a bubble home that they want to send into space. The name was inspired by important elements needed to sustain life: it is a contraction of 'sphere' ('sphère'), ‘iron’ ('fer') and ‘water’ ('eau').

Once landed, the structure will be built by a 3-D printer using the planet's soil, due to its iron-oxide richness, which could be perfect to aid the modern technology. With anti-radiation in mind, the planet’s permafrost will coat the double-domed structure in a pocket of water.

Digital mark-ups of the bubble house show a futuristic home with a helix staircase that connects two distinct storeys – a workspace and indoor garden on the top floor and sleeping quarters beneath.

Surprisingly, the most appropriate building material for intergalactic housing may not be what you expect: ice. Design teams SEArch and Clouds AO created the Ice House made out of the water-based material as a prototype of martian living.

Subsurface ice is abundant on Mars and this dwelling made from a thin vertical ice shell would be capable of protecting the interior inhabitants from radiation, while still celebrating life above ground.

A stunning piece of semi-translucent architecture, the group claims it ‘celebrates the presence of a human habitat as a beacon of light on the Martian surface’ by using features that create stunning light refractions.

The comfortable living area sits at the heart of the structure. Interior passages into the building’s perimeter are intertwined with plant life and organic landscapes which merge with the planet. An in-between zone, separating the interior and exterior layers of the building, allows astronauts to experience the great outdoors without a suit.

Hexagonal structures are no stranger to Martian home designs and space architectural firm XArc says their popularity is due to their ‘prevalent geometry in nature’.

XArc’s HexHab starts with a hexagon as a building block to produce three levels of living areas, resulting in 1500 square feet of space. This is sealed by a dome ceiling in order to evenly distribute pressure and gas.

XArc also designed the ArcHab, which favours sturdiness and efficiency, as part of their Mars Projects. The thickness of the arc gives robust radiation protection, while at the same time provides added shelter for any inhabitants.

The habitable area has been designed in a spherical shape and is spread over two floors. The idea is that the round home gives the inhabitants a sense of protection from the tricky elements of Mars, with a sense of "living in a cave without having to be in a cave". 

Artist and designer Bryan Versteeg is the creative vision behind the very Star Wars-esque conceptual colonies found on his website, spacehabs.com.

In collaboration with Mars One – a project which seeks to establish a permanent community on the planet by 2025 – he imagined a series of UFO-style homes on Mars that could explore the possibilities of outer space living.

A must-have for the housing unit is sustainability, so a key feature of one of Versteeg’s domed designs – reminiscent of Cornwall’s Eden Project – is its ability to grow produce.

Anticipating human occupation, a sneak peek inside Mars One’s living quarters reveals a forward-looking living space built around sociability.

We’ve seen intergalactic homes above ground, but what about those burrowed below? German firm ZA Architects have dreamt up a concept for the colonisation of Mars and it all happens in caves below the cratered surface.

Inside the futuristic project, spider-like webs are draped wall-to-wall, made from versatile basalt fibres, creating pathways to different levels.

If spaciousness is what you require for a Martian home, then these dramatic dwellings may be at the top of your list. Built by solar-powered robotics, the underground structure resembles something of a beehive; we can see the hexagonal shapes moulded by basaltic lava.

Although an amazing alternative to spaceship living, we aren’t wholly convinced by the colonisation possibilities of ZA Architects’ concept. Could you imagine making a full-time abode out of this cave?​

When asked to imagine what Shanghai might look like in 2117 as part of the Shanghai Urban Space and Art Season festival, Italian architect Stefano Boeri’s answer was a direct response to the dire problem of climate change.

Instead of flash forwarding to a stable future on the Chinese shore, he foresaw the city to be irrevocably devastated by flooding, and his vision was bound for Mars.

He designed a series of eco-cities made up of vertical forests and domed in seed-like pods that would be launched to Mars via an interplanetary space station. The red planet’s New Shanghai would favour sustainable natural life for humans and plants alike.

Taking an architectural rather than a scientific approach to life on Mars, Boeri’s intergalactic vertical forests are heavily based on his Earthly projects. His vertical forests – which create an urban, oxygen-rich landscape can be found all over the world. 

In September 2017, the United Arab Emirates government took conceptual designs one step further and revealed plans for a simulation of the colonisation of Mars.

Costing $136 million ($500m AED) to construct, the Mars Science City will also be 3D-printed, but instead of using the natural resources from the planet, it will instead use sand from the Emirati desert.

A totally unique structure, it will be a not-so-mini city, spanning 1.9 million-square-foot, hosting facilities for researchers and visitors alike, such as laboratories, space-like landscapes and museums.

Beyond this, a specialist team will enroll themselves into the exploratory simulation full-time, living like an astronaut for a year in order to try and test out life on Mars.

In a particularly desolate environment such as the red planet, it’s important that a home is self-sufficient and protective. Luckily, this out-of-this-world home by Zopherus – which is inspired by Earth-based biologies such as honeycombs and spiderwebs – is both of those things.

Once landed on a suitable spot, it begins the 3D-printing process. Impressively, Zopherus’ creation deploys autonomous robots that gather useful materials from the surrounding environment to use in printing, creating a special blend of Martian concrete that absorbs harmful radiation.

Inside, the communal shell is the building’s social hub where astronauts can absorb breathtaking views from the mezzanine level and grow plants and greenery on an elevated shelf.

There is an abundance of useful features built into the residence, such as storage cubbies and airlocking facilities. The technology can also make additional prints once landed, and it’s even able to produce more interlocking domes for future residents. How’s that for a luxury home?

Conceived for NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, AI SpaceFactory have presented a concept entitled The Marsha Project: a 3D-printed house that is optimised for construction on Mars.

The shell of the structure is designed to withstand Martian winds and is firmly shackled to the planet’s surface. Not only will this relieve any atmospheric stress, but it will also leave the ground unblemished.

The ingenious dwelling can be printed in situ and have been endorsed by NASA. If their experiments go to plan and they find the core of Mars is stable, could we be living in these sleek cocoon-shaped dwellings of the future?

Each hub houses four astronauts in its futuristic living spaces, allowing enough room to work, eat, sleep and play. It also utilises Martian Circadian Light technology which recreates earthly light – beneficial for one’s mental health.

On Mars, we'll need to grow our own food to survive, and the Marsha project has designed special indoor gardens to produce essential food sources on this infertile planet.

Aside from the sophisticated science behind these designs, you can't deny their inherent beauty. After the successful landing of Perseverance, who knows what will happen next regarding life on Mars? 

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