Ten finalists have now been chosen in the Mars City State Design Competition. The finalists include teams from the U.S., Australia, France, Canada, 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 finals, the 175 teams were divided by lot into 10 groups of 17 or 18 teams, each of which were selected by a panel of five judges. Each group of judges chose the top two teams from their group. These 20 teams were the semi-finalists, all of whom will have their designs published in the book.
All the judges then rated the 20 semi-finalists, to arrive at the group of ten finalists who will present virtually before the global community at the 23rd Annual International Mars Society Convention, scheduled for October 15-18, 2020, where the winners will be selected.
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 finalist teams, along with the titles of their reports and the countries they represent, are listed below.
| 1. | Paul Meillon | Nerio Underground Capital of Mars | Canada |
| 2. | Dr. Muhammad Akbar Hussain | MAREEKH – A Human Civilization on Mars | Australia |
| 3. | NAVARRO Rémy | Mars City State Foundation | France |
| 4. | Nexus Aurora | Nexus Aurora Mars City State Contest | United States |
| 5. | Tharsians@USCViterbi | The Republic City State of Tharsis | United States |
| 6. | The Sustainable Offworld Network (SONet) | Nuwa Report | Spain |
| 7. | Southern Cross Innovations | The Engineering, Economics and Ethics of a Martian City-State | Germany |
| 8. | Phlegra Prime | Phlegra Prime Submission | United States |
| 9. | Korolev Crater SAR | Korolev Crater SAR | Australia |
| 10. | Space Generation Advisory Council | 200701 MCDC20 SGAC Team | Austria |
Congratulations to all the finalists, and good luck on the final round!
