Underground Mars colony for 1000 people by InnSpace

A weak ago we posted a concept of Mars colony for 1000 people created by InnSpace team from Poland for Mars Colony Prize contest (held by The Mars Society). In some of the responses there was a critique stressing out the colony should be built underground for better radiation protection. Since then the authors of the concept sent us some additional renderings from which we can conclude it's actually the case - the concept includes most of the buildings being built underground (with only the transparent rooftops sticking out from regolith cover for natural lighting) and interconnected via underground passages.

A hyperloop line entering the colony:

Mars colony for 1000 people by Innspace team (Mars Colony Prize contest)

This year The Mars Society held Mars Colony Prize - a contest for "the best plan for a Mars colony of 1000 people. The colony should be self-supporting to the maximum extent possible - i.e. relying on a minimum mass of imports from Earth. The goal is to have the colony be able to produce all the food, clothing, shelter, power, common consumer products, vehicles, and machines for 1000 people, with only the minimum number of key components, such as advanced electronics needing to be imported from Earth." According to speculations laid out in our Mars Colonization Timeline the first human base on Mars could reach a thousand inhabitants by late 2040s.

The winners of the contest were chosen at the International Mars Society convention in Los Angeles, California in October 2019. Here are images of the Ideacity concept by InnSpace team from Poland which got the 5th place:

Central cluster of the colony: