The US Space Agency has given a construction technology company $60 million to build a house on the moon by 2040 that can be used by astronauts and ordinary tourists.
The plan is to launch a giant 3D printer to the moon and use lunar concrete made of rocks, metal fragments and dust to create the structure on the surface layer by layer, reports Al-Rai daily.
NASA is also working with universities and private companies to build doors, tiles and furniture for the Moon House.
The plans are still in the very early stages, with renderings only available from 2022 to paint a picture of what the house could look like, and the idea may change over the next decade.
ICON, a company based in Austin (Texas), which received a NASA contract in 2022, uses its expertise in 3D printing on Earth and is building luxury homes layer by layer using its “The Vulcan” system.
All components of the house, for example the walls and roof, are printed separately and then assembled together.
The printer can create these structures in less than 48 hours.
ICON has been working in the 3D printing field since 2018 and has built more than 100 homes in North Austin.
Raymond Clinton, 71, deputy director of the Office of Science and Technology at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, told the New York Times, “When we talk about sustainable human presence, to me that means you have a lunar settlement and you have people living on Earth.” They work on the moon continuously. “What this could be is up to the imagination of the entrepreneurs.”
ICON pointed out that the infrastructure must better protect against heat, radiation and micrometeorites.
NASA will first have to prepare landing pads for rockets to carry the 3D printer to the surface of the moon.
These stations will be far from habitats to mitigate the dust rising during landing and take-off.
“To change the paradigm of space exploration from there and back there to stay,” said ICON co-founder and CEO Jason Ballard, “we will need systems that are robust, flexible, and capable of broadly utilizing the local resources of the Moon and other planetary bodies.”
ICON plans to test its printer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center next February to see how it deals with vacuum conditions and radiation levels in space. But it will all stop when NASA prepares landing pads on the moon.
NASA is scheduled to launch the second stage of the “Artemis” mission in 2024, which will send astronauts around the moon. Then, in 2025 or 2026, the space agency will return humans to the moon on the “Artemis 3” mission.