inclusive inhabitation [HMM]
Human Mission to Mars
Introduction
As civilisations are awed by Mars for millenniums, the conquest of the Red Planet has not been made possible until our time. The interplanetary journey of [HMM] Human Mission to Mars not only carries our species’ hopes of sustaining humanity across the solar system, it also manifests the testimony of the mutual survival of cultures in the journey itself. A journey to Mars is inevitable in our near future, this competition challenges designers to create a diverse communal living space within a payload volume to carry Earthlings into the space of uncertainty.

the journey
The lowest energy transfer to Mars requires the Hohmann transfer orbit. While a fast Mars mission would take 6 months, an energy efficient journey with the Hohmann transfer orbit would take place for 9 months approximately.
The physical challenges for human missions to Mars include health threat from cosmic rays and other ionizing radiation, adverse health effects of prolonged weightlessness, psychological effects of isolation from hearth and the lack of community, etc.
This competition assumes that the journey to Mars would take 9 months.
SURVIVING DOOMSDAY
“I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space;” “It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn’t have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let’s hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load.”
– Stephen Hawkings interview with Big Think 2010

For all we know, a global disaster could wipe out all living things any time and human race doesn’t have the solution for every possible risk. With all the brilliant scientists and advanced technology we have today, we still struggled to keep the pandemic under control in two years. Human beings remain merely reactive to dangers and are subject to total annihilation in case of any doomsday events.
- pandemic with a stronger virus variant
- random asteroids hitting the Earth
- global warming and climate apocalypse
- detonation of nuclear weapons
- unforeseeable massive natural disasters

The social perspective
[HMM] discussions we have today mostly surround the scientific and economical factors about space missions. Be that data sampling or managing a tourism business in space, the lack of discussion from the social perspective begs your creative input and design solutions.
Multinational Collaborative Project
The proposed Human Mission to Mars [HMM] involves multiple government space agencies – not limited to the six existing ones with launch cappability: CNSA (China), ESA (Europe), ISRO (India), JAXA (Japan), NASA (USA), and Roscosmos (Russia). It is encouraged that you study how the International Space Station overcame cultural differences where five participating space agencies joined forces.
Defying Nationalism, Racism & Separatism
In the recent years, global politics have seen destabilisation of international and domestic integrations in our world. At international level, globalisation has been viewed by more people as a threat to the world’s global diversity. At domestic level, movements such as Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate have indicated the divisiveness within our nations. While perceived differently by people who hold different opinions, the surge of nationalism and separatism raised the conversations of contemporary segregation and systematic injustice. Race as a visible difference is exploited by different parties for their own gain to different interpretations.
Open Call
While leaving an imperfect earth behind, one must ponder upon the balance between recognising the past and delivering a future. An inclusive inhabitation in a spacecraft would require delicate social engineering in its architectural settings. It is because the volume carries the continuation of our survival as one race. The architecture would be a declaration of the level of diversity of the population that it shelters.
We call for architects, landscape architects, interior designers, product designers, urban thinkers, and individual designers to explore the notion of inclusive inhabitation in interplanetary journeys [Human Mission on Mars].


Food for Thought
- What is an inclusive way to select volunteers to be on the [HMM]?
- What would accessible designs in a weightless or low gravity environment look like?
- How do you maintain harmony and encourage cultural exchange in the payload volume?
Competition Parameters
This competition assumes that the journey to Mars would take 9 months. We would invite you to consider factors such as the diverse cultures represented by the 24 astronauts (backgrounds and relationships to be proposed by participants), the comfort in a cramped space, the absence of gravity, etc. Participants will design a communal payload volume (dimension outlined in the Design Guideline on the next page). In the design, it is assumed that the communal payload volume will have a connection to life support systems in a separate location on the spacecraft. Therefore, participants are invited to design only the astronauts’ habitation spaces with a cockpit in the communal payload volume. The habitation spaces can be designed as part of the spacecraft, or as an assembly of components fitted in the payload volume.
- Journey: 9 Months to Mars
- Site: Rocket Payload Volume (3D massing model provided)
- Design: Habitation spaces for 24 civilian / astronaut volunteers with a cockpit
submission guide
Contextual Rendered Drawing: The Journey @ [ HMM ] x 1
The first design requirement is to visualise your proposed communal payload volume in a rendered drawing. This will be your CONTEXT drawing which expresses the ideas behind your proposal. The payload volume should manifest your concept of Inclusive Inhabitation. The designs do not need to be detailed, but the drawing must demonstrate a general configuration of the habitation spaces, and specifically how they link to each other.
Technical Drawings: The Volume @ [ HMM ] x 2
The other two drawings will illustrate your design for the implementation of the cockpit and multiple functional spaces into the communal payload volume. The two drawings can be of any scale and any format, which may include and are not limited to 2D drawing, section, axonometric drawing, worm eye view drawing, etc.
The design must demonstrate the following:
– How your design exercises the potentials of DIVERSITY
– How the design fits into the communal payload volume
– The ability to benefit users of the space socially and culturally
– The proposal being an inclusive structure

1-Minute Video Submission (New Optional Format)
We are introducing a new type of media format for design submission. One of the 3 winners will be selected from this category. You may submit your design entry as:
1. Three design drawings in the usual mOOO square format + 300 words
2. A single 1-minute video / render / animation / walk-through of your design + 300 words
3. Three design drawings + 1-minute video + 300 words (one single scheme)
If you would like to learn how to create design animations with Unity – we have a software tutorial pack here at studio • mOOO :
download Competition Brief & Site

awards & publication
20% of the entry fee will be put towards improving racial equality
2 x WINNER + 1 WINNER (VIDEO)
[ PUBLICATION + SHARE PRIZE POOL ]
9 x FINALIST
[ PUBLICATION ]
3 x PEOPLE’S CHOICE
[ FREE COPY OF PHYSICAL PUBLICATION ]
UP TO 24 x HONOURABLE MENTION
[ PUBLICATION ]
jurors
Harbinder Singh Birdi
Partner & Infrastructure Sector Lead at Hawkins\Brown
Architects’ Journal 40 under 40
Mayor of London’s Infrastructure Advisory Panel (IAP)
Rosa Rogina
Programme Director at New London Architecture (NLA)
Leading the curatorial approach for the London Festival of Architecture
Tutor at the University of East London
Lykke Pedersen
President of the Danish Astronautical Society since 2016
Editor of the Danish Spaceflight since 2016
Project lead of the exhibit ‘Around the Moon’ at Rundetaarn in Copenhagen
Dr Tolulope Onabolu
Teaching Fellow in Architecture at the University of Edinburgh
Design work profiled at the Venice Biennale and the London Festival of Architecture
studio • mOOO
DD03: Vacation Hotel to the Solar System – Tutor Panel
David Lin – Zaha Hadid Architects
Tony (Meng) Zhao – Zaha Hadid Architects
Ben Tseng – Foster and Partners
more jurors full intro to be published at our news page
competition Schedule
Brief Launch – 19th Jul 2021
Early Bird Entry Deadline – 26th Jul 2021 – 11:59pm (GMT)
Standard Entry Deadline – 02nd Aug 2021 – 11:59pm (GMT)
Last Minute Entry Deadline – 23rd Aug 2021 – 11:59pm (GMT)
Submission Deadline – 30th Aug 2021 – 11:59pm (GMT)
Public Vote – Nov 2021
Announcement of Winners – Dec 2021
Competition Entry
You may enter the competition as an individual designer or as a group with up to three members. 20% of all entry fee will be donated and the rest will be put into the prize pool as awards for the 3 Winners.
Early Bird Entry – €20Standard Entry – €35
Last Minute Entry – €50
Next Phase of Entry Countdown
Sign up form (1 -3 members per group)
#mOOO5 is brought to you by mOOO team members:
Jordan Mok
Event Coordinator @ mOOO team
Brief Development & Event Coordination
Ben Tseng
Co-founder @ mOOO team
Brief Development & Event Coordination
Stefanie Tao
Publication board @ mOOO team
Event Graphics & Design Publication
and Co-hosts