20 semi-finalists have been chosen for the Mars Society’s Mars City State Design Competition. The semi-finalists include teams from the U.S., Australia, France, China, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Canada, Indonesia, India, the United Kingdom, Austria, Spain and Germany.
In February 2020 the Mars Society announced the holding of an international contest for the best design plan of a Mars city state of 1,000,000 people. There will be a prize of $10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second, $2,500 for third, $1,000 for fourth and $500 for fifth. In addition, the top 20 papers will be published in a new book “Mars City States: New Societies for a New World.”
No less than 175 teams entered the competition contest. In order to narrow the field down to the semi-finals, the teams were divided by lot into 10 groups of 17 or 18 teams, each of which were judged by a panel of five judges. Each group of judges selected the top two teams from their group. These 20 teams are now the contest semi-finalists, all of which will have their designs published in the book.
All the judges will now rate the 20 semi-finalists to arrive at a group of ten finalists who will present before a global audience at the 23rd International Mars Society Convention, set for October 15-18, 2020, where the winners will be selected. [For details about registering online for the virtual Mars Society conference, please click here.]
In scoring city state designs, points are allocated on the following basis:
- 30 points technical design: What engineering systems will be used? How will they work?
- 30 points economic: How can the city state be made economically successful?
- 20 points social/cultural/political: What should Martian society be like? What kinds of schools, arts, sports and other activities should there be? How, given a fresh start, can life on Mars be made better than life on Earth? How should the city state govern itself?
- 20 points aesthetic: How can the city state be made an attractive and enjoyable place to live?
The names of the semi-finalist teams, along with the country of their corresponding member, are listed below.
| 1 | Paul Meillon | Canada |
| 2 | Dr Muhammad Akbar Hussain | Australia |
| 3 | Stephan Zlatarev | Bulgaria |
| 4 | Dina Turuk | Ukraine |
| 5 | NAVARRO Rémy | France |
| 6 | Zilu Wan/The Ohio State University | China |
| 7 | Chris and Will – Aurora | United Kingdom |
| 8 | Nexus Aurora | United States |
| 9 | Tharsians@USCViterbi | United States |
| 10 | Pax Ares | Canada |
| 11 | Architecta (TAU) | Indonesia |
| 12 | The Sustainable Offworld Network (SONet) | Spain |
| 13 | Arvind Mukundan | India |
| 14 | Supaero Team | France |
| 15 | Vanaheim | United Kingdom |
| 16 | Team Nirgal | United States |
| 17 | Southern Cross Innovations | Germany |
| 18 | Phlegra Prime | United States |
| 19 | Korolev Crater SAR | Australia |
| 20 | Space Generation Advisory Council | Austria |
Congratulations to all the semi-finalists, and good luck in the next round!
[Image: SpaceX]
