Creating Our Hab
When developing a plan for our Hab, we had to consider multiple factors, including size, shape, and materials. When brainstorming preferred materials, we decided that duct tape was our main priority (it would properly hold our Hab together) and we would try to get either canvas or a beach ball for the frame of the Hab; aluminum foil was not needed for our design (assuming we had canvas/a beach ball), but we negotiated for it as a backup plan. We secured a deal with both India (canvas) and Iran (duct tape). In contrast, China ran out of beach balls and the United States did not offer agreeable terms. Both contracts required giving branding on our website and rocket plus a percentage of our profits (5% for Iran and 20% for India). In addition, India wanted research and development space and Iran wanted nuclear warhead transportation. Working with both duct tape and canvas, we decided to use a similar design to the one described in The Martian, making a dome of canvas with pipe cleaners for support and duct tape for pressure seals. We started off building the structure in pipe cleaners, and cutting canvas strips to fill in between each pipe cleaner. We found that this design was not airtight, so we decided to add a layer of glue* to the top of the canvas, followed by a coat of silver paint* (for aesthetic purposes). We also had to include the “necessities for colonizing Mars.” These included a pressure vessel (main Hab), oxygen (oxygenator- made of red paper*), radiation shielding (sewed hydrogen into the canvas), water (water reclaimer- made of red paper*), food (farm inside pressure vessel), and energy (solar panels- made of duct tape). In summary, during the development our final prototype, we needed to negotiate for the required materials, improve pressurization, and meet colonization requirements.
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Works Cited
Weir, Andy. The Martian. New York: Random House, 2014. Print.