The innovative ArmorHab mission architecture was presented at the Mars Society Conference in 2016. This novel approach should be considered as part of a strategy for settlement of the Red Planet. The concept integrates several engineering solutions for habitat design to address radiation protection, life support, and transportation while leveraging in situ resource utilization to enhance crew health, safety and reduce costs.
The basic building block of the architecture is a cylindrical Mylar shell wrapped in superconductive tape providing radiation protection through emulation of a magnetosphere. This structure is encased in a protective aerogel for strength and insulation including layers of water ice to further protect the crew from micrometeorites and algae bioreactors for scrubbing carbon dioxide for life support.
Leveraging Buzz Aldrin’s Mars Cycler invention, the plan starts by building out infrastructure in cislunar space including automated factories on the Moon, then expanding out to Mars with space stations, cycling habitats and connecting “trucks” to provide transport to and from the surface of each destination.
