CIVTERRA is a specific city type developed specifically for the terraforming process, advanced by the Mars Planetary Development Corporation and established in the Mars Directive Treaty.  It is a short-term energy enhancement source, a long-term population/cultural center and a protective shell during the long terraforming process.

CIVTERRA is an enabler of population accelerant with least disrupted land consumption.  After the 20th century concept of Arcology (architecture and ecology) envisioned by Paolo Soleri, CIVTERRA concentrates the city into a richly dense, vertically arranged composition for a new form of dynamic urban life.

This new urban life is void of cars, making pedestrian travel the ideal and preferred mode of transportation.  Distances in a CIVTERRA are measured in minutes and not miles.

The CIVTERRA is further ideally suited to the evolution of Mars in the following ways:

1.  With Mars' land area at about 1/2 that of Earth, the CIVTERRA dramatically reduces the land area required for large population that would otherwise rapidly consume this small planet.
2.  One-third gravity on Mars will allow urban structures to go three times higher than here on earth.
3.  Mars' surface is thick with permafrost.  As terraforming occurs, this surface will warm and melt, thus initially creating unstable land surfaces.  The CIVTERRA's small footprint will allow engineers to preheat and condition small land areas for the city and thus allow the surrounding large tracts to slowly adjust without impacting the city.



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