WhatsNew2Day – Latest News And Breaking Headlines
NASA is ready to create an Airbnb that’s out of this world.
The US Space Agency awarded a construction technology company $60 million to build a house on the Moon by 2040 that would be not only for astronauts but also for average civilians.
The plan is to launch a giant 3D printer to the moon and use lunar concrete made of rocks, mineral fragments and dust to layer the structure on the surface.
NASA is also working with universities and private companies to build doors, tiles and furniture for the lunar house.
The agenda includes the creation of a facility on Mars for space heroes who will one day live on the Red Planet.
Plans are in the early stages, with only 2022 renderings available to show a picture of what the home could look like; the idea could change over the next decade.
Plans are in the early stages, with only 2022 renderings available to paint a picture of what the home could look like; the idea could change over the next decade.
And NASA does not share how much it would charge civilians for their stay in the lunar house.
Austin-based ICON, which will receive the NASA contract in 2022, uses its 3D printing expertise on Earth to build luxury homes layer by layer using its system, The Vulcan.
The technology uses a mixture of cement, sand and water as a filament.
Filament is effectively ink that comes out of the printer as thick ribbons stacked on top of each other.
All components of the house, such as walls and roof, are printed separately and then joined together.
The idea is to send a 3D printer to the Moon, which will cover the structure with lunar concrete.
The technology uses a mixture of cement, sand and water as a filament. Filament is effectively ink that comes out of the printer as thick ribbons stacked on top of each other.
ICON shared that infrastructure must better protect temperature, radiation and micrometeorites
The printer can build properties in as little as 48 hours.
ICON has been 3D printing homes since 2018 and has built over 100 throughout North Austin.
Homes built this way have become increasingly popular because they are built quickly, and developers say they could solve America’s housing crisis.
And NASA looks like 3D printed houses could be the next stage of its lunar mission.
Raymond Clinton, 71, deputy director of the science and technology office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, said The New York Times that you don’t see average Americans living on the lunar surface in your lifetime, but hopefully you will for future generations.
“I would like to be there to see it,” he told the New York Times.
NASA is also working with universities and private companies to build doors, tiles and furniture for the lunar house.
A neighborhood of ICON’s million-dollar 3D-printed homes has gone up for sale in the middle of the West Texas desert.
‘To me, when we talk about a sustainable human presence, that means that there is a lunar settlement and there are people living and working on the Moon continually.
“What that could happen depends only on the imagination of entrepreneurs.”
ICON shared that the infrastructure Temperatures, radiation and micrometeorites must be better protected.
NASA will first have to install landing pads for the rockets that will take the 3D printer to the lunar surface.
These platforms will be far from habitats to mitigate dust raised during landing and takeoff.
Jason Ballard, co-founder and CEO of ICON, said: “To shift the space exploration paradigm from ‘there and back’ to ‘there to stay’, we will need robust, resilient and broadly capable systems that can utilize the Moon’s local resources. and other planetary bodies.’
ICON plans to test its printer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center next February to see how it handles the vacuum conditions and radiation levels of space.
But it will all come down to when NASA installs the landing pads on the moon.
NASA will launch the second phase of its Artemis mission in 2024, which will send astronauts around the moon.
Then, in 2025 or 2026, the space agency will take humans to the moon on the Artemis 3 mission.