Texas company wins grant to 3D-print moon bases

Saul Elbein
·2 min read
11

AUSTIN: A Texas-based company that aims to 3D-print future moon and Mars bases received $57 million from NASA this week.

Austin-based ICON received the five-year contract to build out construction methods to fabricate future roads, landing pads and habitats from lunar or Martian materials.

“In order to explore other worlds, we need innovative new technologies adapted to those environments and our exploration needs,” Niki Werkheiser, a director at NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement.

The grant is a continuation of an existing partnership to develop construction methods that allow infrastructure to be built from lunar or Martian soil, according to NASA.

NASA is trying to scale up its base construction technology to “prove it would be feasible to develop a large-scale 3D printer that could build infrastructure on the Moon or Mars,” said Corky Clinton of NASA’s Marshall Space flight center in Huntsville, Ala., when ICON received its first 2020 grant.

For the past two years, ICON has worked with NASA to build prototypes for extraterrestrial bases using its proprietary large-scale 3D printing technology — which it is also using to build a 100-home planned community north of Austin.

The needs of these new structures will strain the bounds of existing metal and inflatable architecture, according to ICON.

That’s because lunar structures will need to protect inhabitants from temperatures that oscillate between 250 and -208 Fahrenheit, as well as DNA-corroding radiation and frequent pummeling from micro-meteorites, according to the company.

In collaboration with NASA, ICON has 3D-printed a simulated Mars habitat — Mars Dune Alpha — that the space administration will use for simulated missions beginning next year.

Project Olympus, ICON’s proposed self-driving 3D printer, would be delivered to the Moon — or Mars — by rocket, and would motor to its build site to begin printing structures, according to the company.

NASA has billed its upcoming Artemis lunar programs as “the testbed for crewed exploration further into the solar system.”

The new contract will focus on experimenting with how simulated lunar dirt — regolith — behaves under reduced lunar gravity, NASA representatives told Space.com.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.