Any well-designed home should have lots of natural light and some kind of greenery . While it’s a principle that’s easy to follow on Earth, it’s a much bigger challenge when you start designing homes in outer space. But the design concept firm Space Exploration Architecture has included these crucial qualities of life in its new concept for NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Centennial Challenge , a multistage competition to design a 3D-printed habitat that would provide astronauts with a safe home base on Mars. The firm’s concept, a vertical structure with a curving staircase on the outside called Mars X House, recently came in first place in virtual design in the challenge’s second stage. [Image: courtesy SEArch+] Mars X House’s exterior is dotted with small windows that would give astronauts a connection to the outside world, while providing some small exposure to sunlight to help keep their circadian rhythms on […]

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