Spirituality Sprouts on Mars

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is a deeper understanding about the design of spiritual architecture for a future human colonial society on Mars, through research about existing space technology and the precedents of spiritual architecture on earth. The speculative time frame for the design project is approximately 100 years after the successful establishment of the first human colony on Mars. This project seeks a design proposal that is in harmony with technology for survival, extra-terrestrial colony life, futuristic architecture, spirituality of human early settlements in history and spiritual architecture on earth. To meet their needs of survival and development, the first humans on Mars will have been expanded numerous colonial cities and built infrastructure on the planets surface. During this process, the immigrants who lives on Mars and their next generations will seek for a more luxurious spiritual needs. Considering that the first group of people who are going to live on Mars will be predominantly scientists and technicians, who are commonly less likely to have beliefs in God and spirituality, it is worthy to reconsider the meaning of spirituality on Mars. In comparison to the experience of human early settlement on Earth, the case of Mars shares some similarities but differences as well. The proposition of this thesis is a concept model that makes a contribution to the theoretical understanding of the framework for human space migration and colonization of Mars by proposing an additive enrichment through the translation of my research into a design idea.