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NASA Announces the 3D Printed Habitat Challenge For Moon and Mars Bases

posted by martyb on Tuesday May 19 2015, @01:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the windows-not-included dept.

kaszz writes:

NASA wants to use 3D printing technology to build deep space habitats onsite instead of bringing the materials with them. Towards that end they have announced the 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, in partnership with America Makes, as part of the ongoing Centennial Challenge program.

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Tuesday May 19 2015, @02:57PM

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Tuesday May 19 2015, @02:57PM (#185078) Homepage
    I thought that mass was the expensive thing to transport, not volume. Unless they'll be 3D printing using space-dust, all of the raw materials (thus mass) needs to be transported to the bases. So what's the benefit of this? The downsides seem almost limitless (restricted choice of materials, no ability to do QA to reject bad parts before shipping, need for additional high-power energy sources at the base itself...)

    Then again, it's not gonna happen, not in my lifetime, not in yours. The cynic inside me thinks this is just NASA trying to say "I'm still here, I'm still relevant".
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by kaszz on Tuesday May 19 2015, @03:07PM

    by kaszz (4211) on Tuesday May 19 2015, @03:07PM (#185081) Journal

    One can make use of local materials. Most dust will form nice sturdy objects when exposed to directed heat and then allowed to cool. For precision objects one can melt the dust and use components like titanium etc. Which can then make up the object. Energy can be retrieved on site either in the form of heat for melting or in the form of electricity by using solar cells.

    The whole point of 3D printing is to use materials on site. And only bring the tool, the 3D printer.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday May 19 2015, @03:34PM

    by VLM (445) on Tuesday May 19 2015, @03:34PM (#185089)

    Unless they'll be 3D printing using space-dust

    From the official rules that's section (2.0) subsection (2.1) where the semi-fictional mission goal seems to be air dropping printer factories over a geographic area to manufacture multiple housing projects on Mars.

    I guess if your rover breaks down and you figure the suit will keep you alive for 2 miles on foot, worst case, then you have an emergency-ish shelter every 4 miles or so along the road. There is some chicken and egg logic, if you knew the conditions were geologically suitable for an emergency shelter, then you wouldn't need to take a geological road trip requiring the shelters, more or less, sort of.

    There is also the amplifying effect that a lot of hollywood movie plot seems to rely on "the one critical element" failing so obviously instead of launching one shelter or even two, you launch a printer and keep manufacturing independent buildings until the darn thing breaks, you might end up with 20 huts for a 10 person crew, well that's OK I guess.

    I've been on the fence about entering since I heard about it on the weekend, I've been studying the rules since Saturday, thinking about it on and off... I really don't have time for this, on the other hand it looks like fun. If I'm going to enter a centennial challenge I'd MUCH rather do the sample return robot, but that takes even more time and a pretty good chunk of money too.