FUTURE space colonists could live inside giant 3D-printed homes on the Moon and Mars – and we might already know what they’ll look like.
A Nasa Centennial Challenge tasked star-gazing designers with creating printable habitats for “deep space exploration”.
The challenge, which ran for four years, showed off the kind of buildings that space-faring Earthlings might end up living in.
Ideally, the homes could be 3D-printed with minimal human input.
And these off-Earth homes would preferably be built from local materials found on the Moon or Mars – or perhaps even further afield.
“Shelter is an obvious necessity as we prepare to explore worlds beyond our home planet,” said Nasa’s Steve Jurczyk, speaking partway through the challenge.
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“But space and weight aboard our vehicles are precious, and taken by the many other resources we will need for survival.
“That’s why we are seeking the technology to reuse the materials we will already be carrying, and combine them with what is already available at our destination, which is, in this case, soil.
“We recycle here on Earth – why not on Mars?”
Sadly there’s no guarantee that any of these designs will make it to the red planet, but here’s what some of the concepts looked like.
Hassell & EOC
The Hassell + EOC concept uses a swarm of wheeled mining robots.
This hi-tech robo-fleet would excavate and collect regolith that could be processed into feedstock – the building material.
Printing would then be used to quickly fabricate structures that blend in with the Martian landscape.
And because they’re built from Mars material, the buildings can colour-match the surroundings.
Kahn-Yates
This space habitat is made out of inner and outer polymer shells that sandwich an interior “sulphur concrete” layer.
But the concrete layer is omitted at certain parts of the design to allow natural light in.
And it would feature panels that could unfold horizontally internally to split the tower into three floors. It’s not far off a townhouse for Martian colonists.
Mars Incubator
The Mars Incubator design uses habitats that are arranged in hub-and-spoke designs.
So the largest living space would be in the centre, built with panels made from polyethylene and basalt fibre.
And robots would fit these panels together on the Martian surface.
Beneath each habitat module would be environmental control and life support systems, as well as mechanical, electric and plumbing systems.
AI. SpaceFactory
The New York-based Team AI. SpaceFactory conjured up a giant tower made from bioplastic that’s reinforced with basalt fibre.
According to Nasa, the cylindrical shape is meant to maximise the amount of usable living space to surface area and for reducing structural stresses.
It also uses a double-shell structure design so that the tower can expand and contract with the temperature swings that you’d expect on the Martian surface.
How long does it take to get to Mars?
It’s not that short of a trip…
- There’s an immense distance between Earth and Mars, which means any trip to the red planet will take a very long time
- It’s also made more complicated by the fact that the distance is constantly changing as the two planets rotate around the sun
- The closest that the Earth and Mars would ever be is a distance of 33.9million miles – that’s 9,800 times the distance between London and New York
- That’s really rare though: the more useful distance is the average, which is 140million miles
- Scientists on Earth have already launched a whole bunch of spacecraft to (or near) Mars, so we have a rough idea of how long it takes with current technology
- Historically, the trip has taken anywhere from 128 to 333 days – admittedly a huge length of time for humans to be on board a cramped spacecraft.
Image credit: Shutterstock
Northwestern University
This bizarre design sees rovers using 3D printing to create a foundation.
And then they would deploy an inflatable shell, which would then be protected by a 3D-printed outer shell.
The base would use a hub-and-spoke design with a central “multi-use” space that’s surrounded by “sectioned spaces”.
These could be used as crew quarters, lab space, or kitchen and dining, for example.
And the idea would be that you have multiple of these modular habitats connected by a network of tunnels.
SEArch+/Apis Cor
These space homes are designed by SEArch+/Apis Cor with specific materials and thickness to provide radiation shielding for anyone living inside.
That’s important, as radiation is a real threat to space colonist health.
They’d be built using high-density polyethylene and regolith, the rocky material on the surface of Mars.
And it’s flanked by overlapping shells that allow for natural light to enter “without compromising radiative protection”.
Mars facts
Here’s what you need to know about the red planet…
- Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun
- It is named after the Roman god of war
- The landmass of Mars is very similar to Earth but due to the difference in gravity you could jump three times higher there than you can here
- Mars is mountainous and hosts the tallest mountain known in the Solar System called Olympus Mons, which is three times higher than Everest
- Mars is considered to be the second most habitable planet after Earth
- It takes the planet 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun
- The planet has a diameter of 4,212 miles, and has an average distance from Earth of 140 million miles
- Martian temperatures can vary wildly, reaching as high as 70F/20C or as low as -225F/-153C
Team Zopherus
The Team Zopherus creation involved using a moving 3D printer.
And it would deploy robots that would retrieve local materials from the surface of the Moon or Mars.
The lander structure would enclose the printer, which would allow the processing of these extracted materials.
That might include calcium oxide and Martian rock, which could then be turned into building materials.
And it would then use these to print out various structures for space colonists to live inside.
Once the 3D-printing is complete, the lander would then move across the Martian surface to start the process again.
X-Arc
The X-Arc habitat concept uses materials that have been extracted from the planet’s surface using robots.
Nasa says that polyethylene would be manufactured on the Martian surface, and then combined with ground basalt to create a printing material.
This would then be used to 3D-print a shell structure with three levels.
Then pre-made parts would be placed inside the habitat with help from robots.
