Arcadia — Technical Manual for the First Martian City
This is the technical and educational companion to I Walked on Mars: a genuine work of Martian design, intended to imagine seriously the first large human city on the Red Planet.
At once an engineering manual, a prospective essay and a guide accessible to the general public, this book explains how a sustainable colony on Mars could be born, organized and then developed, more precisely in the plain of Arcadia Planitia: siting, burial, energy, water, oxygen, food, habitats, pressurized galleries, logistics, safety, redundancy of vital systems, medicine, artificial intelligence and demographic growth.
The goal is not to dream vaguely about Mars, but to show, step by step, what the establishment of a human civilization beyond Earth would really require.
Particular attention has been paid to popularizing technical notions, so as to make the constraints, solutions and orders of magnitude required for such a project accessible to as many readers as possible. The book is accompanied by several dozen illustrations devoted to the systems, infrastructures and technical choices adapted to a sustainable Martian colonization.
Who is this book for?
For enthusiasts of space conquest, readers of realistic science fiction, engineers, architects, students, teachers, decision-makers, but also for all those who closely follow the progress of NASA, ESA, SpaceX — the main source of inspiration for my quadrilogy — international space agencies and the major industrial players in the sector.
It is intended for those interested in what space conquest could offer our generation: no longer only exploration missions, but the first permanent human colonies on Mars.
Beyond these audiences, Arcadia — Technical Manual of the First Martian Colony is a passionate, civic, technical and civilizational proposal.
This book does not describe a distant future: it presents the issues involved in something that many of us could see within our lifetime.