Exhibition Review: Moving to Mars at The Design Museum
‘On Mars Today’ multi-sensory experience, Moving to Mars exhibition. With thanks to Oxygen Model Management. Image credit: Felix Speller for the Design Museum
Matt Cross reviews the Moving to Mars exhibition, which takes a concept straight out of science fiction and engagingly shows how this once-fantasy idea can become reality – and why we should care.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph in 2001, Professor Stephen Hawking claimed that “the human race will not survive the next 1,000 years unless we spread into space.” This sci-fi fantasy notion will excite some, but many would argue that we should prioritise fixing our own planet before colonising others. After all, one of the most frequently used slogans we’ve seen written on placards at the recent climate protests has been the simple but sobering, “There is no Planet B”. However, The Design Museum’s Moving to Mars exhibition takes us to our “Planet B”, and explains how we’d survive there and why this is all necessary.
This absorbing, multi-sensory experience provokes the visitor to think deeply about some of the universe’s most profound, unanswered questions, and lets your imagination take off as the focal question is addressed: just how would we successfully migrate to one of our interplanetary neighbours and begin to lay down roots on its dusty, red plains? Make no mistake, the challenges to overcome are extensive and seemingly insurmountable. But, if you’re incredulous about the idea before you arrive, the exhibition goes a long way to rid you of your scepticism and send you home thinking, “wow, they’ve thought of everything.”
First there is the why, and then comes the how. Huge, immersive panoramic screens give you a virtual experience on the surface of Mars where the scale of the challenge is laid out. Freezing temperatures, unbreathable air, and the lack of water are the more obvious difficulties, but add to that the harmful cosmic radiation, frequent dust storms, and soil riddled with toxic perchlorates. It’s no surprise that plans for a manned mission to Mars have been in preparation for decades. Aside from the practical difficulties, one must also consider the psychological strain it would have on an astronaut bound for Mars to look back and see Earth slowly reduce to a dot amongst the backdrop of space. Who could handle such a profound sense of separation? For reference, a trip to the moon takes three days; a journey to Mars is seven months.
A number of “opt-in” videos are dotted around the exhibition which provide fascinating insight of life onboard a space shuttle — how one eats, sleeps and washes, as well as a look at the mandatory daily treadmill run whilst harnessed to bungee cords that keep you on the belt; a faff, but necessary to stave off muscular atrophy and brittle bones. A replica of a space shuttle’s dining table is an important reminder of how the novelty of zero gravity may wear off when you have to velcro yourself to your chair every mealtime before you can think about tucking into your meat and vegetable paste.
The most impressive display of human ingenuity at the exhibition comes when we see how settlements will begin to develop with 3D printed models on display, and rather neat animations of the remote controlled bulldozers shovelling dirt. Blueprints for the “closed-loop” living quarters are a masterclass in resourcefulness and self-sufficiency. Food is converted into waste, and waste into food. The oxygen produced by plants and algae can be harvested from the air and stored using state-of-the-art technology. Even the tiles beneath one’s feet can generate electricity as you saunter around. There’s a solution for everything.
MARSHA Habitat by AI Spacefactory, Moving to Mars exhibition, image credit: Ed Reeve
The exhibition ends with a speculative look to the distant future. It supposes that Mars will be a destination not just for scientific research, or a tourist hotspot for rogue billionaires, but a self-sustaining civilisation in its own right where people can live, laugh, and fall in love. A place where perhaps after disembarking the spaceship and making your way to the passport checks, there might be one queue for Martians and another for Earthlings. It’s easy for one to get carried away. Perhaps no one more so than Elon Musk. The tech entrepreneur is also the founder of Space X; a private launch business which aims to send a manned mission to Mars as early as 2024, with the ultimate dream of “making life multiplanetary”.
Now that really would be a giant leap for mankind.
Moving to Mars is on at the Design Museum until 23rd February 2020.