McMurdo Station, Antarctica, is home to 1,100 individuals in the summer season and has been operated by the United States since 1955 with the mission of supporting peaceful science on the continent. Its success in this endeavor have elucidated pitfalls of extreme settlements: despite five master plans produced over its history, McMurdo stands today a collection of insufficient, haphazardly-arranged buildings. Measurable inefficiencies in station design are apparent in the literature, interviews, and the building information model (BIM) that compose this paper’s methods. This failure of master planning is characteristic of the lack of ongoing capital, human and financial, invested in McMurdo’s long-term development. Throughout McMurdo’s history, the pursuit of science and supportive logistics took precedence over funding for infrastructure and facility maintenance. The political and budgeting processes are far removed from, and uninformed about, the needs of the station. Concomitantly, the local workforce has no avenue for communicating their experience for improving the station. McMurdo is Earth’s closest analog to a future, long-term space colony, but it suffers from precisely the same cascading failures faced by towns and cities that lack communicative, local planning for guiding infrastructure development.

Access the Conference Proceedings Paper on ASCE Library 

McMurdo Station, Antarctica, is home to 1,100 individuals in the summer season and has been operated by the United States since 1955 with the mission of supporting peaceful science on the continent. Its success in this endeavor have elucidated pitfalls of extreme settlements: despite five master plans produced over its history, McMurdo stands today a collection of insufficient, haphazardly-arranged buildings. Measurable inefficiencies in station design are apparent in the literature, interviews, and the building information model (BIM) that compose this paper’s methods. This failure of master planning is characteristic of the lack of ongoing capital, human and financial, invested in McMurdo’s long-term development. Throughout McMurdo’s history, the pursuit of science and supportive logistics took precedence over funding for infrastructure and facility maintenance. The political and budgeting processes are far removed from, and uninformed about, the needs of the station. Concomitantly, the local workforce has no avenue for communicating their experience for improving the station. McMurdo is Earth’s closest analog to a future, long-term space colony, but it suffers from precisely the same cascading failures faced by towns and cities that lack communicative, local planning for guiding infrastructure development.

**[Access the Conference Proceedings Paper on ASCE Library](https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483374.084)** 

Pitfalls of Remote, Extreme Settlements: The Case for Urban Planning Practice for Future Space Colonies

Due to challenges with COVID-19, this 17th Biennial has been moved to April 2021 and will now be offered in a virtual format. This conference aims to bring the experience and knowledge of experts in the aerospace industry together to share and discuss the latest research and engineering techniques that effect the exploration and settlement of space. Presentations will be made in multiple concurrent symposia over three days. Topics will include: Granular materials in space exploration, Exploration in utilization of extra-terrestrial bodies, advanced materials and designs for aerospace and terrestrial structures under extreme environment, Structures in challenging environments, and Space engineering, construction, and architecture for Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Paper Proceedings: https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483381 | https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483374