The European Space Agency (ESA) is testing the idea of building a lunar habitat using 3-D printing.
Architects Foster + Partners have joined with ESA to create a dome design with walls to shield lunar soil from meteoroids, radiation and extreme temperatures.
"Terrestrial 3D printing technology has produced entire structures," said ESA project head Laurent Pambaguian. "Our industrial team investigated if it could similarly be employed to build a lunar habitat."
"3D printing offers a potential means of facilitating lunar settlement with reduced logistics from Earth," said Scott Hovland, a member of ESA's spaceflight team. "The new possibilities this work opens up can then be considered by international space agencies as part of the current development of a common exploration strategy."
The building would be constructed with hollow supports, like the bones of a bird, for a good balance of strength and weight, according to the ESA.
"As a practice, we are used to designing for extreme climates on Earth and exploiting the environmental benefits of using local, sustainable materials," remarked Xavier De Kestelier of Foster + Partners Specialist Modelling Group. "Our lunar habitation follows a similar logic."
Monolite supplied the D-Shape printer. The U.K. company's founder, Enrico Dini, explained in 2013, "First, we needed to mix the simulated lunar material with magnesium oxide. This turns it into 'paper' we can print with ...Then for our structural 'ink' we apply a binding salt which converts material to a stone-like solid."
By sending only a lighter-weight 3-D printing rover and using materials from the moon, the ESA can save billions of euros, according to Silicon Republic.
Earlier this month, the ESA announced it started exploring a new lunar 3D printing method using sunlight to melt regolith instead of using a binding liquid.
