$10 000 for Designing a Martian City State

Fancy yourself a city-planner who wants to create an alien city on a faraway planet? Well, your ship has come in! The Mars Society is looking for a design that will be used for the first permanent settlement on Mars.

The Mars Society – a non-profit space advocacy organisation based in Colorado, USA – expects contestants to produce a 20-page report for their city state that can produce all its needs. These include food, clothing, shelter, power and other amenities for a one-million citizen population.

The organisation’s website explains: “The city state has to be self-supporting to the maximum possible extent.”

Last year, the contest ran for a thousand-person colony design; the winner was “Star City” by a project team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The team was led by PhD candidate, George Lordos.

The design that takes first place wins $10 000, with second place earning $5 000, and $2 500 for third.

The competition deadline is 30 June 2020.