Challenges in illumination analysis and design for Martian surface-level habitation.

It is needless to say that travel to and settlement on Mars are associated with extreme levels of scientific and engineering issues. This will only be amplified with the long-term duration of the mission, not only due to scarcity of resources, but also as the psychological aspects of the dynamics among the crew increase drastically. It should be emphasized that this is a scientific crew, who have undergone high levels of confinement during space travel to Mars, O (10 Earth days), are living in semi-solitude and partial confinement conditions for durations of O (10 Earth days), and even at the nominal termination of the mission, foresee a high-risk and arduous travel time of O (10 Earth days) back to the Earth. The mental weight of the described mission with its slow pace and tardy episodes, puts the crew under severe psychological issues. Minimal and conservative design of spaces, lack of constant access to the exterior, and social solitude are among major factors contributing to the psychological well-being of the crew. Furthermore, the overall lower levels of natural light, accompanied by the minimum possible area of transparent facades, protecting the crew from harmful radiations and cold exterior, burden the mental conditions of the crew even more. Given the limited availability of data from the surface of Mars, study of the effects linked to the lighting and illumination design of the habitats is challenging. The current manuscript hopes to shed light on the illumination and lighting design and simulation procedure, required data, assumptions, and final results for the surface-level habitats on Mars.•Mars / Sub orbital configuration allows for limited natural lighting, however, upon site-specific analysis, it might be considerable as a base passive source.•Current simulation tools are design based on Earth-bound design requirements. These need to be re-oriented to match available planetary data.