Bartlett graduate George Bradford-Smith has designed an astronaut training facility that clings to the face of Mont Blanc to imitate Mars' extreme environmental conditions.
Named Manipulating Mont Blanc, Bradford-Smith's proposal imagines a future where humans will inhabit the red planet. It is intended to push astronauts "close to the limit of survival" to help them prepare for life in a martian colony.
The steel structure would be precariously-placed on the face of Mont Blanc, the Alps' highest mountain, and imitate Mars' physical environment for four astronauts living and working there for a month.

"There is no doubt that astronauts will require training and preparation to withstand Martian environmental conditions if a future colonisation of Mars is to be a success," Bradford-Smith told Dezeen. "Manipulating Mont Blanc proposes a training facility offering the The European Space Agency (ESA) to prepare a clearer insight into how astronauts acclimatise and adapt to the environmental and psychological challenges of Mars."

Bradford-Smith developed the proposal as his final-year project for Unit 11 at The Bartlett School of Architecture in London, which is led by Mark Smout and Laura Allen.
Students on the programme were asked to look "at the last uncharted regions of our universe or to search more metaphorically, looking at scientific discovery, where exploration is a continually moving boundary".

"Located close to the summi...