What should urban design look like on other planets?

Mars City Design has raised $30,000 on Kickstarter to fund the next stage of a plan to 3D-print a Martian human habitation prototype in the Mojave Desert, southern California.

The money will be spent hosting a workshop in September at the University of Southern California to select three designs from 25 finalists selected earlier this year by a panel of space experts. These designs will then be finalised.

The start-up, led by French entrepreneur Vera Mulyani, plans to print three prototypes at the Reaction Research Society’s testing facility within the next three years.

According to the organisation’s website, Mars City Design’s mission is to design the blueprint for sustainable cities on Mars.

Mulyani says on her site: "It is not enough to just travel to Mars and survive, now we must develop a way in which we can sustainably live and love on Mars. It is essential that we call on a new generation of thinkers and innovators to make this a reality."

The programme follows NASA’s own 3D-printed habitat competition that took place last year. The design competition was part of a larger, multi-phase printed habitat challenge to advance the technology needed to create housing in extra-terrestrial settings with minimal inputs.

Image: An entry in Nasa’s competition to design extra-terrestrial housing (Nasa)