ESA investigating building lunar base with 3D printer

Architects Foster + Partners and the European Space Agency are looking at how feasible it would be for a 3D printer to construct a base with moon soil.

“3D printing offers a potential means of facilitating lunar settlement with reduced logistics from Earth,” saidScott Hovland of ESA’s human spaceflight team.

“The new possibilities this work opens up can then be considered by international space agencies as part of the current development of a common exploration strategy.”

“As a practice, we are used to designing for extreme climates on Earth and exploiting the environmental benefits of using local, sustainable materials,” remarked Xavier De Kestelier of Foster + Partners Specialist Modelling Group. “Our lunar habitation follows a similar logic.”

The group have already tested the concept on earth.  A ‘D-Shape’ printer was used to build a radiation proof dome suitable for astronauts.  The design was guided by the properties of lunar soil. 

“First, we needed to mix the simulated lunar material with magnesium oxide. This turns it into ‘paper’ we can print with,” explained Monolite founder Enrico Dini.

“Then for our structural ‘ink’ we apply a binding salt which converts material to a stone-like solid.

“Our current printer builds at a rate of around 2 m per hour, while our next-generation design should attain 3.5 m per hour, completing an entire building in a week.”

If the idea does prove feasible, it could rapidly speed up the progress of martian and lunar colonies construction as well as potentially saving a huge amount of money.

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