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The Growth of Martian Cities

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Sun, 2010-09-26 01:13

Jürgen Hubert Jürgen Hubert's picture

The Growth of Martian Cities

In preparation for a campaign set on Mars, I am trying to get a feel for the layout of the Martian domed cities. And reading through [i]Sunward[/i], I get the impression that the five domes of Valles-New Shanghai predate the Fall, and it's similar with the other domed cities. Yet given the circumstances of the Fall and the influx of tens of millions of infugees to Mars, I'd expect that the vast majority of the inhabitants got added in the last ten years (as the infugees slowly got first synth and then pod or biomorph bodies). This implies a tremendous physical growth of the cities - yet how was the physical infrastructure - and in particular, the domes - expanded? Were new, larger domes built over the old ones (which there then subsequently removed), similarly to how European cities grew when new city walls were built when the old ones became too small? Or were new, smaller domes built around the older domes of smaller ones, meaning each "dome" neighborhood of Valles-New Shanghai is now actually a cluster of different domes of various sizes? Or a mixture between the two? What are your thoughts on this?

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Sun, 2010-09-26 03:07

Rhyx

Re: The Growth of Martian Cities

Hmm building a dome over another is a pretty nice idea. personally I always thought that the Ruster Morphs were created as an answer to the dome overpopulation problem and they basically give rusters, cases and synths to the newcomers (hence the Clanking masses and their bad reputation.) Imagine you're a bold and intrepid martian colonist before the fall and all of a sudden you have to double and triple book your room with new people. The wonderful thing about Rusters and Synthmorphs is that they can live outside, exposed to the elements but it is also that fact that sets them apart as a ghetto on mars.

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Sun, 2010-09-26 06:38

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: The Growth of Martian Cities

The souks seem to be easily extendable without major investments (lots of little domes instead). So I would expect that most of the big domes are surrounded by a souk-sprawl. Extending the domes then gets the usual excitement of major redevelopment - local inhabitants get evicted, the land that ends up inside becomes much more valuable, people move in to the more expensive high density places, the remaining outside souks depopulate and become slums.

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Sun, 2010-09-26 07:25

750

Re: The Growth of Martian Cities

Iirc there was a experiment done where a dome shaped balloon was placed on a foundation, then spring like reinforcements where placed on top. Then a layer of concrete was poured over it, and the balloon inflated. This resulted in a reinforced concrete dome once things hardened and the balloon was deflated. There is also geodesic domes: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Geodesic_dome that i suspect could be built using glass made from martian sand and a metal framework. One could then either build a dome leaning partially on a existing dome (and remove the sections between them once done), or build a new on one top as needed. One could even combine that by first building a adjacent dome, and then build a larger one over them all later on. I guess one could also see filled up souks get domed over and then dismantled (probably with some hypercorp goons chasing away "squatters"). btw, i looking up the source of the word souk: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Souk specifically this image: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/File:Aleppo_Khan_Shuneh.jpg This gives me the impression of them forming from rows of smaller domes (perhaps personal dwellings) that then get linked via a hallway. This then from the outside would look like a archway with half-domes along its sides. A proper dome could then form as these elements bets built upon more and more, having the dome slowly grow outwards layer by layer. something like: step 1: ()()()() ()()()() ()()()() step 2: (|-|)(|-|) (|-|)(|-|) (|-|)(|-|) step 3: (|-|)(|-|) (|-|()|-|) (|-|)(|-|) and then the center dome grows outwards on top of the nearby souks.

Sun, 2010-09-26 11:21

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: The Growth of Martian Cities

Geodesic domes have the disadvantage that while they are amazingly stable when finished, before completion they are really unstable. So they are a bit tricky to make. However, given material strengths in EP making huge domes without geodesic optimality is quite doable. A simple method is just to erect a giant plastic tent/bubble and allow air pressure to maintain it. Not very elegant, but quick and cheap. Once the bubble is up you can use construction nanotechnology to add fullerene bracing and turn it into a real dome over time. An attached bubble can similarly be reinforced and eventually the partitioning plastic removed, making an extension. So maybe the big cities look a bit like globs of dividing cells rather than neat superdomes.

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Sun, 2010-09-26 19:55

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: The Growth of Martian Cities

I had heard about the concrete domes on Discovery Science, and always envisioned smaller settlements, towns and villages built like that. especially on the sides of roads (I'm sure there are more local and regional roads and freeways than the major highways mentioned in Sunward). as a matter of fact, one of the articles I'm working on for the fanzine concerns a road cirlcling the TQZ, and the villages build around it. what causes me trouble, is the mapping of it. I'm a lot of things, but cartographers isn't one of them. anyway, if you're looking for new towns for Mars, take a look on the anime "Zone of the Enders Dolores, I" There are several good exemples

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Sun, 2010-09-26 20:13

Sepherim

Re: The Growth of Martian Cities

I always imagined Valles as five major domes connected by souk areas and many more smaller domes surrounding it. And remember that also the whole valley is partially terraformed, so it could be possible that smaller communities surrounded the city. Do note, though, that I'm still in the Venus chapter of Sunward (don't have much time for leisure) so maybe this all is contradicted in the martian one. ;)

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Sun, 2010-09-26 21:00

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: The Growth of Martian Cities

speaking of the Valles Marineris cities, I've been wondering, which parts/towns those huge bridge have been linking? are there part built in the Noctis Labyrinthus' cliffs, à la Total Recall?

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