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from the give-me-a-rover-with-a-long-enough-arm-and-I-will-build-a-world dept.
AI SpaceFactory was named the final winner in NASA's competition to use 3D printing technology to build a habitat that could be used on the Moon or Mars.
AI SpaceFactory will receive $500,000 for winning the competition with second-place Penn State receiving $200,000.
The winning habitat, called Marsha, is tall and slim, to reduce the need for construction rovers on unfamiliar terrain, according to AI SpaceFactory. It is designed to be built on a vertically telescoping arm attached to a rover, which stays still during construction.
Marsha was built using a biopolymer basalt composite, "a biodegradable and recyclable material derived from natural materials found on Mars." It proved superior to concrete in NASA's pressure, smoke, and impact testing.
The final stage of the competition ran from May 1 through May 4 in Peoria Illinois in partnership with Bradley University and was hosted by Caterpillar inc.. Other sponsors included Bechtel, Brick & Mortar Ventures and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The competition was part of NASA's Centenial Challenges program. Which also includes the
Cube Quest Challenge
Space Robotics Challenge
Vascular Tissue Challenge
CO₂ Conversion Challenge
We developed these technologies for Space, but they have the potential to transform the way we build on Earth," said David Malott, CEO and Founder of AI SpaceFactory. "By using natural, biodegradable materials grown from crops, we could eliminate the building industry's massive waste of unrecyclable concrete and restore our planet.
AI SpaceFactory plans to adapt Marsha's design for an eco-friendly Earth habitat called Tera; a crowdfunding campaign will begin shortly on IndieGogo, the design agency said in a statement.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday May 12 2019, @08:54PM
I was sort of wondering about that. It's a bit weird. On their homepage they show two structures "the bunker" and "the beacon", this tall structure is the beacon -- it's obviously the focus piece. At first I thought that the first floor or two was about to be covered or that the bunker was somehow submerged but then in their 3D-renderings (and the layout) they have doors on the bottom floor and an access hatch to the vehicle so they can't really be. Which naturally makes one wonder since the walls don't appear to be that thick, even tho there are no scales or measurements so who really knows.
If one looks at the TERA images (basically the same house but on earth) it still looks very short, if you are getting four floors in there. Each floor should be 3-3.5m in height so that thing should be at least 12m tall minimum height, probably more up towards 15m tall. So is it going to be a home for dwarfs or a playhouse for children? Or is that thing just one giant building code violation. Or are the whole scaling between background/people/building are just horribly off.