Mars City

Dubai has unveiled plans to build a prototype Mars City in the desert. The United Arab Emirates government has assigned Danish architect Bjarke Ingels to work on the Mars Science City project. At a cost of nearly $140 million, it will cover 1.9 million square feet and will provide "a viable and realistic model to simulate living on the surface of Mars." The project aims at attracting "the best scientific minds from around the world," according to the press release. Mars Science City is part of Dubai's Mars Strategy, which seeks to build the first settlement on the red planet by 2117.