The National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States has summed up the results of its large-scale competition for the "invention" of housing that can be used in the colonization of Mars, the Moon and other planets. The winner of the final stage was New York's AI SpaceFactory, a multi-planetary architecture and technology design agency. The 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge started in 2015 and consisted of several series. In total, 60 teams managed to prove themselves in this "long-term" project of NASA.
The final competition was held from May 1 to May 4 at the training ground
Bradley University, Illinois. In three days, the participants had to build a prototype of their project using robots and a 3D printer. Martian dwelling MARSHA, 4.5 meters high (three times smaller than the alleged original), proposed by AI SpaceFactory, attracted the judges with its "humanistic" design. The engineers deliberately abandoned the volumes popular in space architecture: instead of a dome resting on the surface of the planet or a half-bunker dug into it, they proposed a structure in the shape of an elongated egg. The developers took care not only of the minimum impact on the environment, but also of the psychological comfort of the expedition members.
The four-story building is filled with natural light from a large ceiling opening and small perimeter windows. Windows are located on all four floors and in total cover a 360 ° panorama around the building. They also plan to integrate a lighting system into the house that will match the earth
circadian cycles.
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zooming 1/8 MARSHA Project © AI SpaceFactory and Plomp
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zooming 2/8 MARSHA Project © AI SpaceFactory and Plomp
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zooming 3/8 MARSHA Project © AI SpaceFactory and Plomp
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zooming 4/8 MARSHA Project © AI SpaceFactory and Plomp
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zooming 5/8 Project MARSHA © AI SpaceFactory and Plomp
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zooming 6/8 Project MARSHA © AI SpaceFactory and Plomp
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zooming 7/8 Project MARSHA © AI SpaceFactory and Plomp
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zooming 8/8 Project MARSHA © AI SpaceFactory and Plomp
The atmosphere of the Martian hideout is close to home: there are separate cabins for the crew members, a room for informal communication and relaxation, and even a mini-garden. Double walls are called upon to save the inhabitants of MARSHA from large temperature drops on the "red planet". The authors of the project also paid great attention to the resistance of the structure to atmospheric pressure and structural loads.
The judges assessed the environmental friendliness of the building material, as well as the durability, tightness and strength of the building. The construction is made from a mixture
basalt fiber (on Mars it is going to be mined from local soil) and plant-based bioplastics. According to the results of tests, this material turned out to be stronger and more durable than its concrete competitor (at this stage, the team from the University of Pennsylvania also participated in the competition).
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zooming 1/4 Construction of the MARSHA prototype © AI SpaceFactory
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zooming 2/4 Construction of the MARSHA prototype © AI SpaceFactory
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zooming 3/4 Construction of the MARSHA prototype © AI SpaceFactory
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zooming 4/4 Construction of the MARSHA prototype © AI SpaceFactory
As AI SpaceFactory founder David Mallott explained in an interview on the Space Bandits website, the biggest obstacle to building in space is the extremely expensive transportation of building materials. So, according to Mallott, for $ 100 million, you can bring 5 tons of cargo to the moon, while the average house on Earth weighs about 50 tons. Therefore, the construction of a similar one on the Moon will cost $ 1 billion, and to deliver all the necessary resources to our natural satellite, it will take about 10 flights. "For the same price, we could land [on the moon] 50 robotic vehicles and build [an entire] lunar village - when we learn to collect materials from the surface," says the founder of the space startup.
Engineers hope to adapt technologies of construction on distant celestial bodies to earthly needs. “The colonization of the Moon and Mars will pave the way for deep space exploration and provide access to energy and resources. The Earth has limited resources, and [although] we have already brought our climate to a tipping point, a third of the planet [still] lives in unusable conditions. AI SpaceFactory technologies designed for space will change the way we build on Earth,”says David Mallott. In the near future the agency plans to start the TERA project (from the terrestrial analogue) - the “terrestrial analogue” of MARSHA. Funding is planned to be collected through the crowdfunding scheme.
Note that at one of the
Former Russian startup Apis Cor (now based in Boston) was named among the winners of the previous rounds of the NASA competition. Together with the New York-based SEArch + team, the Boston firm came up with NASA's best architectural plan and interior for the space dwelling. The consortium project is a twisted tower where four people can live and work during the earth year.
Apis Cor, which makes equipment for 3D printing buildings, was created by a young engineer from Irkutsk Nikita Chen-yun-tai. In 2017, using its own machines, Apis Cor printed a house in Stupino near Moscow. The SEArch + company - in addition to professional achievements - is interesting because its leadership is predominantly women. For more than a decade, they have been working on the design of dwellings outside the Earth.
