Nüwa, First Sustainable City on Mars: Can This Capital City on Red Planet Accommodate 250,000 Residents?

Nüwa, created by the scientific think tanks ABIBOO Studio and Sustainable Offworld Network (SONet), might accommodate up to 250,000 people. They built the city for Tempe Mensa's 1,000-meter-high rock face, and the competition won The Mars Society's sustainability competition in 2020.

Alfredo Munoz, the founder and chief architect of ABIBOO, and his team created the designs. Construction could begin in 2054, with the first settlers arriving in 2100, according to the organization. Nüwa will be the capital of a network of five cities. Each region could house between 200,000 and 250,000 people, according to the plans.

According to National Geographic, Space.com recently interviewed Munozza. ABIBOO and SONet, the expert said, are serious about Nüwa being the first sustainable city on Mars. Munozza added that the settlement's name is derived from Chinese mythology. It refers to the goddess Nü-va, who created the universe and safeguarded humanity.

How Experts Will Approach the Aesthetic and Logistical Concerns for Nüwa City

Munoz told Space.com that experts developed experts from various fields made the city's concept. The team has been successful in overcoming some issues that may arise in future Martian cities.

Professionals would construct virtually the entire city from locally sourced materials, which could be difficult. Because of the rapid advancement of technology, robots and artificial intelligence will play a significant role in the project.

Although the exact cost of construction is unknown, Munoz compared the project's potential budget to that of the Panama Canal.

Human Survival on Another Planet Another Thing

Gisela Detrell, an aerospace engineer at Germany's University of Stuttgart, said human survival on another planet -- particularly one as hostile to humans as Mars -- depends on finding solutions to four main factors: infrastructure, sustainability, shelter, and life support.

"There are several issues that we have to face on Mars: from radiation to providing all the food and oxygen that the people living there would need -- but also looking at how to use the resources on Mars, starting from where would our city be located or which different locations we could have," Detrell told CNet.

Detrell works in life support systems, ensuring that astronauts on future missions have enough food, water, and oxygen to live in space. Astronauts, on the other hand, bring their energy from Earth. She points out that this is obviously not possible in a city like Nüwa.

The aerospace engineer said the city depends only on the resources directly on Mars and recycling as much as they could as Nüwa grows."All the ways that we humans produce, we should be able to produce enough oxygen, water and food to sustain humans and close the cycle almost completely," Detrell said In the same CNet report.

Engineers should be able to produce enough oxygen, water, and food to sustain humans in almost all of the forms that humans produce, according to Detrell.

It's one thing to imagine a city on Mars; she said she would leave anything behind on Earth to live on the red planet if given a chance.

Check out more news and information on Space on Science Times.