The First Moon Base Looks To Be 3D Printed
It’s no secret that constructing things in space takes quite a bit of time. The International Space Station is around the size of a football field, but it first began construction in 1998. That’s almost 20 years of space missions to build that thing. As impressive as our technology is, we still have to strap all these things to rockets and fire them up there. It costs around $1,000 per pound to send something into space, so if you want to bring some ramen with to space, it’s really going to cost you. What really seems to be changing the game is 3D printing. How much easier would it be to print things in space rather than to bring it with you? A lot easier. Now apply that to bases on the moon and even Mars.
A company called Planetary Resources is hoping to take asteroid mining and make it a trillion dollar industry. They showed that it was possible to 3D print an object from pieces they got from an asteroid last year, so the plan seems to make sense when you look at it from the outside. I mean, you can’t 3D print things without a resource to convert to, right? That’s basic video game 101 if you want to build bases. You have to use the resources around you to create.
If NASA and other agencies wanted to build a base on the moon, they’re going to have to use the resources available to them on the moon to get the operation up and running. If they were to physically ship all of the pieces to the moon from Earth, the cost would probably bankrupt the planet. NASA, the ESA and others are looking to get the human colonization of space into reality instead of science fiction. They will do this using large scale 3D printing of objects that could be used to build habitats on other planets.
It sounds a little too good to be true, but the ESA has already demonstrated that it can print huge objects. In 2013, the ESA’s D-Shape printed a 1.5 ton hollow block:
What NASA is experimenting with is coming called contour crafting. Professor Behrokh Khoshnevies of the University of Southern California heads the team that wants to use resources that are already out in space to create new structures. When NASA saw that this technology was close to being where it needs to be, they awarded a major contract to the Archinaut project.
The Archinaut project will see comprised of a 3D printer, built by Made in Space, a robotic arm, built by Oceaneering Space Systems, with Northrup Grumman providing the control software and integration with the ISS systems. The project hopes to give an on-orbit demonstration of its ability to build a large, complex structure.
This is all still in its early stages, but the applications for 3D printing become more and more exciting as the news keeps coming out about it. If 3D printing can build things out of existing resources that exist where ever space travelers happened to be, maybe that same technology can take the resources it finds and 3D print other things. Maybe the resources can be broken down the its basic form and revamped to be food or water? I’m just hoping for a Star Trek replicator. Warp speed is cool, but replicating anything would be great. Hopefully, this technology will have a bunch of people living on the moon and Mars in the next 50 years.
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.
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