This is the technical and didactic 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 an accessible guide for the general public, this book explains how a sustainable colony on Mars could be born, organized and developed, more precisely in the plain of Arcadia Planitia: site selection, burial, energy, water, oxygen, food, habitats, pressurized galleries, logistics, safety, redundancy of life-support systems, medicine, artificial intelligence and demographic growth.
The goal is not to dream vaguely about Mars, but to show, step by step, what the installation of a human civilization beyond Earth would actually require.
Particular care has been devoted to explaining technical concepts, so that the constraints, solutions and orders of magnitude required for such a project remain accessible to as many readers as possible. The book is accompanied by several dozen illustrations devoted to the systems, infrastructures and technical choices suited to sustainable Martian colonization.
Who is this book for?
For space exploration enthusiasts, readers of realistic science fiction, engineers, architects, students, teachers, decision-makers, but also all those who closely follow the progress of NASA, ESA, SpaceX, which was 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 for the First Martian City is a passionate, civic, technical and civilizational proposal.
This book does not describe a distant future: it presents the issues at stake in what many of us could see within our lifetime.