Cue the Bowie.
The Moon is so 1969, darling. Since man took a giant leap for mankind, Mars has been on the hitlist for any space explorer worth their salt, hovering forever on the edge of our consciousness. But just how viable is it to imagine humanity’s future on Mars? London’s Design Museum has dared to try and answer that very question, with an incredibly, multi-sensory exhibition called Moving to Mars that’s open now – and tickets are available here.
Imagine moving house, but with the added problems of weaker gravity and unbreathable air, and you’ll start to get a sense of the challenges involved in upping sticks and heading off to the Red Planet. Recognising the scale of this endeavour, Moving to Mars features contributions from NASA, the European Space Agency, and SpaceX, along with works from Foster & Partners architects and fashion designer Christopher Raeburn.
You’ll be able to wander round a full-scale Mars home, and marvel at the first spacesuit designed for the Mars surface. Life on Mars will have to be zero-waste, powered by clean energy, and involve growing a good, sustainable supply of food, all of which necessitates a lot of Earthbound design work in the meantime. As with all stargazing missions, what’s just as important as imagining the future is developing the solutions that can help humanity right now – and with the climate crisis only intensifying, the importance of this can’t be understated.
The generation being born today is likely to witness the first successful landing on Mars, so whilst this still appears to be in the realm of the science-fiction, the reality of a future on Mars continues to gather pace. So before you start planning your trip to Mars, pencil in a visit to Kensington for an eye-opening glimpse of the future!