Hello everyone!


Ever since I got Fallout 4, I've been thinking about the Vaults. As I thought more and more, I came to a very interesting realization:


The design (ie structure and stuff like that) of the Vaults in the Fallout games would be a fantastic design for a colony on another world such as the moon or Mars. It may sound weird at first, but if you think about it, it does exactly what any extraterrestrial colony needs to do. I could explain more but I don't want to write a mini-novel.


The biggest benefit is that it's underground design allows for a very interesting possibility: one could simply build the Vaults in the lava tubes present on Mars or the moon. These tubes are very long, so over time, one could have multiple Vaults at distant ends of these tubes, and eventually construct a monorail-like system to go from one to the other - this would allow then to traverse far longer distances than any surface rover could safely venture.


I was actually thinking of using 3DS Max to make a hypothetical Mars "Vault", though I am not a super huge fallout buff so I don't know a ton of the details of the Vault architecture. I was wondering if perhaps anyone else would be interested in joining me in this project, or if anyone just wants to discuss this topic I'd love to hear thoughts and perhaps just get input if I must work by myself.


Thanks!

That's a cool idea. I always thought that the first Martian colonies would be sort of connected bio domes on the surface. The most important thing for a colony is self sufficiency, now the problem with the vaults (obviously just talking about the control vaults) is that they aren't truly self sufficient. I know that this is just a hypothetical fun discussion but in order to build something like the vaults on Mars you would need a reasonably well esteblished industry on planet to provide and refine the materials and components as well as equipment necessary for construction of that scale and complexity. With that said, I too have fantasized about fallout vaults as colonies on Mars. The biggest difference would again have to be an established industrial capacity that can provide anything the vault needs, otherwise an entire colony would die out if say a water purifier chip went out and the colony had no way of fabricating another one.

I actually emailed someone from NASA about it, and he actually said that the current plan for their first base on Mars is similar to what I described, which felt really good because it's obviously a good idea if NASA scientists thought of it too

There are just too many problems for the first bases to be on the surface, since there's the issues of dust storms causing damage to equipment (not flipping things over or stuff obviously, but still) as well as the nasty radiation. Being underground means you have literally tons of mass shielding, so you're safe from the radiation and dust storms. There would certainly need to be changes in the design for a first colony if we're talking about a full fallout Vault, but the principle could/should be the same. For example, you would obviously make it self-sustaining, ie have a steady power source (probably geothermal energy, or at least that's the current NASA plan from what I've read of their most recent research papers), water (which they could get both from the permafrost and the water locked up in minerals), and they could simply have a nursery area where they grow their food. They could build it in sections as necessary, so that they had somewhere to live while they worked on the next segment.

My thought would be to figure out exactly how much materials you'd need to create the smallest possible Vault-type settlement that would meet the requirements of all those who would be there. Obviously since this is real life, if there is an alternative type of material or a design change that would make things a lot easier, that would be fine. Once that is figured out, we could develop and send robots out to the areas to work on getting the necessary materials from Mars, and to assemble as much of the base as possible in preparation for the first human crew's arrival. The humans are going to have a hab-module with them anyways, so they can use that as a temporary home until the base is finished.

A good way to work on expanding the base would be to start a 'real estate' program, where someone can, like in Fallout, 'buy' a place in the facility. The difference in this case would be that they would be paying a fee equal to the cost of building an additional unit that would have what they need (ie bathroom, bed, etc.), as well as labor costs for assembling it.

I really would love to build a model of this hypothetical facility thing, partially just for kicks but it's also possible that I might be on to something here If anyone is interested, let me know

I am interested

I am not a 3d modeler however, but I am will to assist in any way possible.

Well, what I really could use right now is someone to help me come up with a sort of schematic type thing - I don't really know much about the Vault's structure beyond what you can see from inside, so coming up with that is kinda important. I could do most of the modeling myself, though it would certainly be easier if I could have more hands working on it.

I am game for that, my main interest in Fallout is the lore so I know quite a bit about Vaults.

Cool! Are you any good at drawing or sketching? I'd just like to have a basic concept art type thing (doesn't need to be detailed) so I can work on making the actual model.

I do vector art so I will start working on it, where should I send the drawing?

I will PM you my email. Let me know when you start working on it, because I may email the guy from NASA to ask how wide the lava tubes are, so we can now how much space we'd have to work with.

Whoops, replied twice by accident. My bad!

Yes I agree that underground vault like structures protected from radiation are probably the best form of habitat for long term colony occupation of Mars, barring terraforming at least. Like I said that has long been a fantasy of mine as well. I wasn't saying the idea is impossible, I was merely presenting some of the obstacles that such an endeavor or construction would encounter. The reason I bring up a need for an established industry for extracting, refining, and fabricating materials and parts on planet is the incredible cost in time and money transporting anything to Mars exacts. I was following in the example of Zubrin and Baker with their proposed Mars direct plan, pretty sure Andy Weir used it almost to the letter for his book the Martian, in which they propose using on planet materials to make transportation incredibly easier (producing the fuel using Martian atmosphere blew the guys at NASA away when it was presented)


Now I bring this up because how something is constructed or is planned to be constructed will affect the blueprints or schematics that you are looking to create. With that in mind I would also like to bring up that it would be much faster for this vault to be constructed using humans on planet rather than remotely from earth using robots and I'm not just talking about the 20 minute delay for communication between Earth and Mars. That's why these construction colonists would need surface structures greater than the proposed hab module which I think actually comes from the Mars direct plan. These colonists will be constructing the more permanent vaults for longer than just months possibly years (not the same colonists through the entire construction necessarily but a constant human presence) therefore a surface settlement already self-sustaining and with an aim on creating and expanding on-site industrial capabilities would be the immediate goal before construction can even take place. Then using materials produced on planet and perhaps some things sent from earth that can't be produced on Mars construction could begin. At this point we would get into where to construct how to bore the tunnels and other things.


Just for your consideration as you plan out these vault colonies, you might want to consider the small town or village that would need to be created on the surface for construction as well as how it would affect the structure created.


Please do post whatever you come up with I'm very interested in what you create, I love considering human colonization of space.

Moon could have a top secret government facility, Mars not so much. The US government did fund a group to make a thruster that could theoretically reach mars but it was near completion of a prototype phase around the time the great war broke out and was never finished or used by the USSA (Fallout's version of NASA)

Cider, I did not mean a Vault in the sense of being exactly LIKE a Fallout 4 Vault, I simply meant the design itself was ideal for a potential settlement. Griffin, I certainly agree with you to a large extent, though I will say that the guy from NASA that I emailed about my idea (who even said that my idea was a pretty good one and that it is sort of what the general plan is) said that they are going to be trying to use robots to do a lot of the work at least in the initial stages. I think the main thing is getting the first basic, bare-bones area that can house, feed, and provide water for the first few people to get there, and then those people can do any tasks that the robots are unable to do (or even just control the robots from a shorter distance to avoid comms delay due to distance). You send the robots first to actually find and produce construction materials, which will then be ready for the people when they first arrive. Though a big problem with having people do the work is the fact that even walking in a space suit is extremely strenuous, so construction labor would be even harder.

If you give the robot commands such as "find these materials and make them into this", they can simply continue with that task for a long period of time, since you don't necessarily have to micromanage them. If they preform the same task for many years, you only have to send that command for them to start (and perhaps some other tasks on occasion as needed), and then they just go on their own without constant communication required.

The good thing about a subterranean settlement on Mars or the moon is that you don't need to excavate tunnels - you simply build inside the lava tubes there. You send the robots a few years before to make construction materials at the very least, then the first astronauts get there, and use those materials to make the final product (so to speak).

Key thing design-wise is to avoid adhering too tightly to a Fallout Vault, though it is great inspiration. When making this model, I'm using that as a template but I know that there will be plenty of areas where I would need to make changes to the design in order to account for the different purpose and availability of resources.