Title
designing for Har Decher: ideas for Martian
Habitats in the 20th century
Synopsis
To go to Mars and settle a new planet could be one of the greatest
non-military achievements humanity may ever accomplish. This view is often
associated with science fiction, nonetheless a large number of people in
the aerospace industry have been contemplating this possibility since the
early decades of the twentieth century. The early concepts where not very
concrete and were more reminiscent of H.G. Wells then of Wernher von
Braun, yet they persisted and towards the end of the century the plans to
go to Mars were becoming more solid as more information was gathered via
telescopes and satellites. The Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers obtained even
more information and in the closing decade of the last century more was
known about Mars then was known about the Moon in the 1960's. No real
attempt to travel to Mars however was made prior or since the Apollo
mission to the moon.
So far theoretical bases are the only bases that have stood on the surface
of Mars.
This paper primarily deals with the possibilities and problems aerospace
scientists, designers, architects and others encountered during the latter
part of the twentieth century when designing and planning a Martian base
for the near future.
Technical info
115 page document (including a 15 page supplement), document is supplied in color
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