. - rebeccah pailes-friedman and michael morris run the forward thinking firm. space exploration architecture, also called search+. they won nasa's inrnational mars habitat design competition. - [michael] what we do is we design habitats for humans to be in outer space. - [rebecca] we use indigenous materials, materials that are native to the planet and we create a beautiful living experience. that's also functional for the astronauts. - [narrator] but that's easier said than done with the red planets lethal environment. - [michael] the primary goal will be to protect against radiation from both solar rays as well as cosmic galactic rays. the best material to protect against radiation is actually water. which makes up most of our atmosphere. - [narrator] and mars does have plenty of water ice to work with. on earth, we're largely protected from harmful cosmic radiation. thanks to our thick oxygen-rich atmosphere and magnetic fields. but with barely any atmosphere, the surface radiation on mars is hazardous. high energy particles from the cosmic rs damageuman dna