The outpost, designed by the European Space Agency, will be built using state-of-the-art 3D printing technology to transform raw lunar soil into livable domes.
The ESA teamed up with architectural firm Foster + Partners in a bid to set the wheels in motion for a permanent human presence on Earth's only natural satellite.
And experts say it could be ready for humans to move in within the next 40 years.
The ESA's human spaceflight team's Scott Hovland said: '3D printing offers a potential means of facilitating lunar settlement with reduced logistics from Earth.'
The theory is that 90 per cent of the materials needed to build the structure already exists on the Moon, so only the robots and light-weight parts, such as inflatables and the solid connector and entry segments, will have to be ferried from Earth.
The few parts that would need to be made on Earth would be folded from a tubular module that can be transported by space rocket.
Xavier De Kestelier of Foster + Partners Specialist Modelling Group told Gizmodo: 'As a practice, we are used to designing for extreme climates on Earth and exploiting the environmental benefits of using local, sustainable materials. Our lunar habitation follows a similar logic.'
They say the 'hollow closed-cell structure' - reminiscent of bird bones - 'provides a good combination of strength and weight.'
The raw lunar material is turned into a pulp and sprayed to form a solid block that is then used to build walls at a rate of around two metres an hour.
Great, all you have to do now is get back on the moon.
ReplyDeleteThe moon has the ingredients for making water and air. Hydroponics could be used for food production and the gravity well of the moon makes much more sense for going to Mars, etc. than does earth. However, we have a myopic unimaginative and cheap government that doesn't get that going to the stars is not only our destiny, it is the only way to insure the expansion and survival of the human race.
ReplyDeleteWhy build a moon base? For helium 3 mining workers?
ReplyDeleteNewt Gingrich would be proud.
ReplyDeleteWhy build it? Because last time people went there it created insane amount of benefits as a by-product. Also this: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/163561main_WhyTheMoon20090818.pdf
ReplyDeletewho designed this thing jrr tolkein? it looks like a hobbit hole
ReplyDeleteThe fact that people are actually clueless to the need for space exploration and habitation is appalling to me. Right now there are several supervolcanoes, massive asteroids and supermassive solar flares that could wipe out our civilization and we would have no way of stopping it. We live on a fragile little eden in a vacuum of chaos and destruction and it should be our species' primary goal to found a self-sustaining civilization off this rock but unfortunately the majority of our species believe that their respective mythological deities will protect them individually and collectively so we stay utterly complacent to our immense peril.
ReplyDeleteRobin - We need the government out of the space game. Governments are inherently inept, they can't even deliver mail efficiently. Private firms are our only hope for space travel. We need the government to shrink so it can free up resources so the private sector can take on such ventures. Putting faith in government fails to recognize history.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the model. Why the need for interconnected pods? Why not go up or down? Leave the surface area for agricultural purposes. Create a genuine biosphere.
ReplyDeleteBecause digging is very hard, and expensive in space.
ReplyDeleteAEIOU
ReplyDelete"We live on a fragile little eden in a vacuum of chaos and destruction..."
ReplyDeleteYes but what a beautiful vacuum of chaos and destruction! The universe is our home. If we're going to colonize the moon, let us at least *attempt* to have it be a fresh start and let us at least *attempt* to have it be an act of humanity, not of one nation or group. I think we owe that much to the universe; fine, let our species shit all over Earth, but it's a long, long, long, long, LONG way to anywhere else in the universe once you get past our solar system. A way so long that it is really and truly not properly fathomable or describable here, even to the closest star from the sun, and that's just our next-door neighbor! So please, let's not rush into this just so we can say we took the historic step of fucking up our solar system as well as our own home planet.
Plenty of things could kill us off. We're not exactly magical or super special, we're living beings, and like all other living beings that have ever lived, we die, it's what living beings do, it's the cycle of life. We can't just crap our pants and move to the moon; one thing or another will eventually wipe us out either way. Let's make sure that we go out knowing we gave life our best effort, and let's go out knowing that we used our time well. Yes, colonize space, that's very well and good, but seriously, let's bury our bullshit before we head up. Please. If not for us, then for everything else out there.
my vision is to emulate the structure of bubbles with nested air bag form work sprayed with composite tough facings and insulation laminate applied with computer guided jib arm applicator to reproduce classic rock formations to fit into the natural environment linked with bike tracks and fruiting gardens to rescue whats left of the environment and actually assist it to survive the present swarming over hill and dale with vulnerable to extremes of nature and war . I call my vision Hollow Cast Houses.
ReplyDelete