As US space agency NASA celebrate landing their Perseverance robot on Mars, the world is waiting to see whether life might be sustainable on the red planet. It's a challenge that Earth's farsighted designers have been wrangling with for some time, and asking the question: what sort of structure could support human life on Mars? Far from rocketships, these conceptual structures are sleek, stylish and not as far-fetched as you might imagine...

On 18 February 2021, at 20:55 GMT, the robotic rover, Perseverance landed safely on Mars after a seven-month-long journey. Worth $2.7 billion (£1.9bn), the robot is part of the most ambitious effort in decades to find out if there ever was life on the red planet. Travelling through space for 293 million miles, the rover made the perilous journey through the red planet's atmosphere at more than 12,000 miles per hour where it began the landing process that brought it to a soft stop in just seven minutes. 

Perseverance will spend its time on Mars searching for signs of past life, collecting samples to bring back to Earth in 2028. The mission, if successful, could pave the way for humans on Mars. It carries a golden box attached to the rover that will turn the planet's carbon-dioxide-rich air into oxygen, which could eventually aid human habitation. In addition to sending robots up into space, NASA has also worked with young designers on possible accommodation for the red planet. They ran a 3D Printed Habitat Challenge in 2018 that produced the following brilliant designs for a future life on Mars. 

French 3D-printing company Fabulous designed SFERO – a bubble home that they want to send into space. The name was inspired by important elements needed to sustain life: it is a contraction of 'sphere' ('sphère'), ‘iron’ ('fer') and ‘water’ ('eau').

Digital mark-ups of the bubble house show a futuristic home with a helix staircase that connects two distinct storeys – a workspace and indoor garden on the top floor and sleeping quarters beneath.

The habitable area has been designed in a spherical shape and is spread over two floors. The idea is that the round home gives the inhabitants a sense of protection from the tricky elements of Mars, with a sense of "living in a cave without having to be in a cave". 

Artist and designer Bryan Versteeg is the creative vision behind the very Star Wars-esque conceptual colonies found on his website, spacehabs.com.

In collaboration with Mars One – a project which seeks to establish a permanent community on the planet by 2025 – he imagined a series of UFO-style homes on Mars that could explore the possibilities of outer space living.

A must-have for the housing unit is sustainability, so a key feature of one of Versteeg’s domed designs – reminiscent of Cornwall’s Eden Project – is its ability to grow produce.

We’ve seen intergalactic homes above ground, but what about those burrowed below? German firm ZA Architects have dreamt up a concept for the colonisation of Mars and it all happens in caves below the cratered surface.

If spaciousness is what you require for a Martian home, then these dramatic dwellings may be at the top of your list. Built by solar-powered robotics, the underground structure resembles something of a beehive; we can see the hexagonal shapes moulded by basaltic lava.

When asked to imagine what Shanghai might look like in 2117 as part of the Shanghai Urban Space and Art Season festival, Italian architect Stefano Boeri’s answer was a direct response to the dire problem of climate change.

Taking an architectural rather than a scientific approach to life on Mars, Boeri’s intergalactic vertical forests are heavily based on his Earthly projects. His vertical forests – which create an urban, oxygen-rich landscape can be found all over the world. 

In a particularly desolate environment such as the red planet, it’s important that a home is self-sufficient and protective. Luckily, this out-of-this-world home by Zopherus – which is inspired by Earth-based biologies such as honeycombs and spiderwebs – is both of those things.

There is an abundance of useful features built into the residence, such as storage cubbies and airlocking facilities. The technology can also make additional prints once landed, and it’s even able to produce more interlocking domes for future residents. How’s that for a luxury home?

Aside from the sophisticated science behind these designs, you can't deny their inherent beauty. After the successful landing of Perseverance, who knows what will happen next regarding life on Mars? 

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