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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NASA has announced three winners who will share the $100,000 prize in its competition to make virtual Martian habitats.
The 11 participating groups were tasked with making a full-scale habitat using modeling software, building on an earlier stage of the competition that required partial virtual modeling.
The teams were graded on their layout, programming, use of interior space, and their habitat's ability to be scaled to full size for construction, according to a NASA statement announcing the winners. The groups also received points for their aesthetic representation and realism.
The three winning teams were
SEArch+/Apis Cor - New York - $33,954.11
Zopherus – Rogers, Arkansas - $33,422.01
Mars Incubator – New Haven, Connecticut - $32,623.88
This is the third stage in NASA's 3D Printed Habitat Challenge.
The final stage of the competition will be open to the public in Peoria, Illinois and will be held May 1-4 of this year. It will consist of a head-to-head reduced scale print of the structures. The prize in the last stage of the competition is $800,000.
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
COâ‚‚ 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.
Texas-based construction company ICON has gained a NASA contract to develop a 3D printed off-world construction system for the Moon.
Project Olympus will see ICON partner with architecture firms BIG and SEArch+ to design robust lunar structures that can be built using materials available on the Moon's surface. As part of the program, ICON has also created a new division, dedicated to developing and demonstrating prototype elements for a full-scale space-based 3D printing system.
Through the project, NASA aims to develop a more sustainable presence on the Moon, and in doing so, allow humanity to become a permanently spacefaring civilization.
See also: 3D-printed houses completed for Austin's homeless population
Related: NASA Announces the 3D Printed Habitat Challenge For Moon and Mars Bases
Startup Can 3D Print Small Homes in 12-24 Hours, for Up to $10,000 Each
(Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Tuesday May 19 2015, @02:14PM
The link you probably want is the rules at
https://americamakes.us/wp-content/themes/3dchallenge2015/assets/Design_Competition_Rules.pdf [americamakes.us]
Somehow mysteriously the PR award is "$2.25 million" but in the rules 1st prize is only $25K. I suppose the rest of the dough goes to "overhead", hookers and blackjack and stuff like that.
Basically you need to design a small house with at least 4 rooms of certain sizes for Mars that can be 3-d printed.
And you gotta submit a report and a "normal" 3-d print of the hut bigger than 8x8x8 smaller than 14x16x16 so they're kinda restricting you to cubes, which sucks. "normal" print as in you can use PLA or ABS to make your model, you're not required to gather your own mars dust and make your own mars dust filament, although that would have been awesome.
Its definitely an architecture competition, not engineering, so you need lots more knowledge of tudor style and colonials rather than an engineering background so I'm not very interested in participating in it personally. Architectural styles tend to be boring mashups, so they're gonna pick the most boring cross between a McMansion and a bad episode of "this old house", which is too bad because I think a Gothic cathedral would be cool looking on Mars. Or a Parthenon inspired building. You think there's been pyramids on mars for the last 30 years? Well F those alien weirdos we're gonna build a genuine pyramid on Mars, that kind of thing. Also you know some joker is going to enter a Schwarzenegger/Total Recall inspired building. Maybe I should enter this thing after all...
Personally I thought the balloon thing in "the martian" was ingenious, or land a tunnel boring machine and make a nice long tube (yup, gonna goatse Mars). But no, we gotta have a vaguely cubical McMansion, albeit 3-d printed. Boring!
The main advantage of 3-d printing wouldn't be bulk buildings anyway, but repair parts and accessories. Think of that bit from "The Martian" book where he needed a way to mount solar panels on his roof, "and then I went to thingiverse and downloaded a scad file of a solar panel rack and edited in emacs and ran it thru slic3r and printed it out" instead of... whatever it is he did, I forget, probably bungie cords and duct tape.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday May 19 2015, @02:26PM
What is the purpose if not engineering? is it just a PR stunt?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday May 19 2015, @03:17PM
Well... its part of Centennial Challenge, so kinda PR yeah
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/CCP-FactSheet-May-2015.pdf [nasa.gov]
Which has a lot of stuff in its mission like:
"Provide a forum for public outreach"
Its the same place that ran the robot sample return competition. I watched the movie about that from NASA TV, pretty interesting, I liked the movie. The movie pretty well mesmerized my kids, also. I wonder if they'll make an equally interesting movie about this. I think that would be difficult...
From observation of the program I'd say its kind of like "vex robotics" for adults. Exactly like my kids vex robotics competition, they're not going to actually do or apply anything even tangentially related to the competition, but its entertaining and fun. Vex robotics is "build and drive a homemade RC car made out of lego while pushing blocks thru a course" pretty much.
The more I try to talk myself into not entering because its obviously an architecture competition and not engineering, the more "great" ideas I get for architecture. If the didn't limit the build envelope to being bigger than 8x8x8 I could do it, I only have access to a printer with 100x100x100 mm, but of course I could glue or snap together...
As almost a joke entry / almost serious entry to remind the astronauts of home I'm envisioning the martian meme-plex, with some amazing copyright violation memes bas-relief into all the surfaces.
Conceptually if it were a minecraft modpack maybe distributed by FTB then I'd be in. That would be pretty cool. Like the "crash landing" minecraft modpack scenario but for "real" on Mars. And probably not with all the zombies and creepers etc. It would probably be a heck of a lot like a hyper high tech version of Terrafirma craft, without the bears anyway. Maybe they should have gone "minecraft" instead of "3d printer". More people have a box capable of running modded minecraft than are capable of large prints.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2015, @07:11PM
it does seem like the best approach would be to bore a shaft into the surface, then 3d print a 'tower' into the shaft. this is how the infamous wizard, Mordellicus, created his dungeon of evil - or so it is rumored in the local tavern where your party has assembled. the son of a local shepherd claims to have found an entrance when he fell in a shaft while tending his flock.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Tuesday May 19 2015, @02:57PM
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".
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Informative) by kaszz on Tuesday May 19 2015, @03:07PM
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: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday May 20 2015, @03:27AM
Yup. Another approach would be mixing concrete from locally available materials. [wired.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday May 19 2015, @03:34PM
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.