Where, you might wonder, is the best place on Earth to simulate a mission to Mars? The bare rocky slopes of a volcano in Iceland? The arid red deserts of Arizona? Nope. Bristol is your best bet.

That’s where you can find a public art project called Martian House (pictured), the brainchild of local artists Ella Good and Nicki Kent, which has been made reality by contractors BAM.

The project brought together space scientists, architects, engineers, designers and the public to imagine a future home for the red planet. Contributors ranged from children to the designers of the British Antarctic Research Station.

The result is a two-storey habitat with a bubble-like building above ground, and a lower living module buried below the surface. At its current home in the city’s M Shed museum, both sections have been installed above ground.

The 570 sq ft house is designed to be self-sufficient, to cope with temperatures as low as -63°C and to withstand a brutal battering by cosmic radiation. So surviving Bristol should be no bother.

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