- 2037
- design deployment horizon
- 2 phases
- deployment → occupancy
Mission study target
Robotic preparation before crew arrival
Before a crew can land, a habitat needs power, shelter, water, and a way to survive failures without immediate human help. Columbia’s ARES proposal for NASA RASC-AL studies an autonomous construction mission for an ice-rich site on Mars. The proposal connects the landing site to the machinery, materials, and sequence needed to make it habitable.
Ice extraction and landing-site selection
The two-phase mission architecture and site-selection logic combine radar mapping, cryospheric analysis, and terrain constraints. Accessible ice matters because the habitat’s water supply and construction process depend on resources already present at the landing site.
The ISRU work connected MOXIE-derived oxygen production, Aqua Factorem ice extraction, and regolith chemistry for geopolymer cement. Those systems had to support each other under the mission’s mass, power, and payload limits.
Building before the crew arrives
Use ice, terrain, and radar evidence to choose a site that supports resource extraction and landing.
AERODOME enclosure and regolith-printed interior
The AERODOME study explored a layered TPU, aerogel, and ETFE enclosure with an auxetic structure. The materials and systems study considered pressurization, insulation, radiation exposure, and how the shell would protect construction inside it.
SPEAR and RASSOR robotics prepare the site and handle regolith; continuous printing forms the interior. That construction sequence depends on Kilopower, thermal loops, and failure-mode analysis.
Mass, power, deployment order, and failure analysis
The integrated study evaluates mass and power budgets, technology readiness, risk mitigation, and construction order under Starship payload limits. Each subsystem had to fit into an autonomous deployment sequence, including a response to failures in robotics, thermal loops, or regolith printing.
Explore the ARES · Mars habitat geometry in 3D ↗
A spatial reconstruction of the project drawings: geodesic enclosure, printed modules, airlock, and surface equipment. Separate the shell to inspect the interior; dimensions are illustrative.
Context & sources
Project records and published references provide the context below.
3D study: Reconstruction of the team’s habitat drawings, with an illustrative enclosure and interior.