MARS PROJECT
Romain Dubus’s Master Plan
Sustainable energy and housing, sharing knowledge about life on Mars and other planets, and saving the world.
Here’s how Romain Dubus’s vision is becoming reality.
Think Cosmopolitan Master Plan, Part 1
From 0 to Mainstream: Hot off the heels of his knowledge, experience, background and determined to change the status quo, Dubus launched Romain Dubus Corporation and Makyun Corporation in 2013, in 2016 he created Think Cosmopolitan, Inc., to fusion the three companies toward a larger goal. His Master Plan for the nascent company is essentially as follows:
- Build a sustainable hotel projects, implementing the first design of Martian lifelike
- Use the revenue to build a more advance, and more individualize housing project for everyone at a higher price point, implementing new technologies
- Use that revenue to build the first habitat for human on Mars as well as the basic life support
- Use the revenue to build a more advance, more affordable, high volume Mars type housing on earth
- Use that revenue to keep developing new technologies to enable more human on Mars
“The strategy of Think Cosmopolitan is to enter at the high end of the market, where customers are prepared to pay a premium, and then drive down market as fast as possible to higher unit volume and lower prices with each successive model,” he writes on Think Cosmopolitan’s blog.
1. Create one high volume housing, which would necessarily be open to the public
The Hotel, Redefining the Hotellerie: Think Cosmopolitan debuted developing the Hotel, a modern Mars like design, in 2017. The hotel will be the first Space design establishment, open to the public, it will start showing to the world what living in Space feels like, as well as being the first establishment keeping its customer, in the loop toward the Mars Project development.
Just as he envisioned, the Hotel will immediately break preconceptions about what life on Mars could be. The hotel will set the world’s first public place, for everyone to start getting to know what life in space and another planet will be like.
Think Cosmopolitan is trying to open its hotel’s doors in Tokyo, Japan before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Think Cosmopolitan is targeting an income of $20,000,000.00 within the first 6 month of operation and funneled the revenue into development of the individualized housing model. The original Hotel will serve its purpose by raising eyebrows, funding the individualized model, and setting Think Cosmopolitan’s Master Plan into motion.
Dubus will put as much of the profits from the Hotel as possible back into research and development, with the aim of creating a more advance, individualized housing for everyone, at a higher price point, with the implementation of new technologies.
2. Use that money to develop a low volume housing at a higher price
Individual Model Housing, Setting the Standard for Luxury Mars Type Housing: Think Cosmopolitan will release the low volume individualized housing model, a first-generation luxury Mars type housing at a higher price point, in 2020. The new model will become first to implement new home technology, all-autonomous housing in the world, with the first in and out Mars design, it will be satellite connected, it will also include an upgrade plan option, and a lifetime software update plan, that will be released as Think Cosmopolitan keeps developing its technologies.
3. Use that money to develop a medium volume housing at a lower price
Individual Model Housing, Setting the Standard for Mars Type Housing: Think Cosmopolitan will release the medium volume individualized housing model, a second-generation luxury Mars type housing at a lower price point, in 2021. The new model will become one of the top-selling all-autonomous housing in the world, it will also include the first home robot for everyone.
4. Building the first habitat for human on Mars as well as the basic life support
Our aspirational goal is to send our first cargo mission to Mars in 2022. The objectives for the first mission will be to put in place initial power, mining, and life support infrastructure. A second mission, with both cargo and crew, is targeted for 2024, with primary objectives of starting to build the first Mars base, from which we can build a thriving city and eventually a self-sustaining civilization on Mars.
5. Use that money to create an affordable, high volume housing
The 3rd Mars Type Model, Mass-Market Adoption: With the 1st and 2nd model under its belt, Think Cosmopolitan will then start working on the key piece of its strategy—a high-volume housing with a low price point. Meant for the masses, the 3rd Mars Type Model will start at a mere $200,000 and hopefully lower before government incentives.
Production of the 3rd Mars Type Model is slated to begin in mid-2023 and ramp up to 200,000 houses per year in 2024. The first deliveries are scheduled for late 2023.
This model will be the keystone to more developments on Mars itself, almost all its revenue will be directed toward building more housing on Mars and enabling the first mass human migration to Mars.
In Romain’s own words:
As you know, the initial product of Think Cosmopolitan is a unique modern design hotel called the Think Cosmopolitan Hotel or TCH. However, some readers may not know our long-term plan is to build a wide range of Mars type house, including affordably priced family house. This is because the overarching purpose of Think Cosmopolitan (and the reason I am funding the company) is to help expedite the move from a traditional earth like house towards a Mars like house, which I believe to be the primary, but not exclusive, sustainable solution as well as implementing the idea of having people migrating to Mars.
Critical to making that happen is a Mars like house without compromises, which is why the Think Cosmopolitan Hotel is designed to beat a modern yet traditional hotel like a Hilton or Ritz Carlton in a head to head showdown. Then, over and above that fact, it has much higher energy efficiency of any hotel on earth. Even so, some may question whether this does any good for the world. Are we really in need of another high-end hotel? Will it make a difference to global carbon emissions?
Well, the answers are no and not much. However, that misses the point, unless you understand the secret master plan alluded to above. Almost any new technology initially has high unit cost before it can be optimized, and this is no less true for sustainable building. The strategy of Think Cosmopolitan is to enter at the high end of the market, where customers are prepared to pay a premium, and then drive down market as fast as possible to higher unit volume and lower prices with each successive type.
Without giving away too much, I can say that the second type will be a modern large family house at roughly half the $1M price point of the Mars house Type 1 and the third Mars Type house will be even more affordable. In keeping with a fast-growing technology company, all free cash flow is plowed back into R&D to drive down the costs and bring the follow-on products to market as fast as possible. When someone buys the Mars Type 1 house, they are helping pay for development of the lower cost family house.
I’d like to address two repeated arguments against sustainable housing — battery disposal and grey water disposal. The answer to the first is short and simple, the second requires a bit of research:
Batteries that are not toxic to the environment!
For example the Tesla Lithium-Ion cells are not classified as hazardous and are landfill safe. However, dumping them in the trash would be throwing money away, since the battery pack can be sold to recycling companies (unsubsidized) at the end of its design life. Moreover, the battery isn’t dead at that point, it just has less capacity.
Grey water disposal, or more accurately “grey water recycling”
A common rebuttal to off-grid housing as a solution to grey water disposal is that they simply dump it to the nature. The obvious counter is that it can be recycled, transform onto clear water, oxygen, or even fertilizer for the green house and possibly something else.
Becoming Energy Positive
I should mention that Think Cosmopolitan will be co-marketing sustainable energy products from other companies along with the house. For example, among other choices, we will be offering a modestly sized and priced solar panel from a photovoltaics company. This system can be installed in an out of the way location, because of its small size, or set up as a carport and will generate extra electricity if you plan on having an electric vehicle for example.
So, in short, the master plan is:
- Build a sustainable hotel projects, implementing the first design of Martian lifelike
- Use the revenue to build a more advance, and more individualize housing project for everyone at a higher price point, implementing new technologies
- Use that revenue to build the first habitat for human on Mars as well as the basic life support
- Use the revenue to build a more advance, more affordable, high volume Mars type housing on earth
- Use that revenue to keep developing new technologies to enable more human on Mars
Don’t tell anyone.