Recognizing Stagnation - by Karl Schroeder - Unapocalyptic
A few years back, just pre-pandemic, I was asked to participate in a space development workshop in Boston. I was put with an astronaut and several aerospace engineers for one of our breakout sessions. Our topic was Martian colonization. There was a lot of talk about pressure vessels and interior configurations.
The conversation turned to construction materials. I put my hand up and said, “Are we designing to a preconceived notion of what space stations and habitats are supposed to look like? It seems like we’re taking science fiction movies as our template and trying to build to that aesthetic.” I then suggested that the interiors of these pressure vessels should be kitted out using bamboo and Empress tree wood, because these can be quickly grown in an on-site greenhouse. These materials would need some kind of non-toxic fireproofing, but their use eliminated a whole set of industrial processes that would otherwise drain colony resources. Plus, people like wood. They like to live in it; they like to touch it.
Boy, did this group not like that idea. I wasn’t given any rational or technical reason why not. I just got shut down as the unicorn who’d wandered into the wrong room.
