Five teams have won the latest stage of NASA’s competition for habitations that can be 3D-printed on Mars.
The designs for the third phase of the Habitat Centennial Challenge, which began back in 2014, required teams to construct Building Information Models, or BIMs, of the habitats to prove that they would function in Martian conditions – as far as these are understood.
This means developing detailed designs for structures large enough to allow four people to live there for a year.
The BIMs will also have to take into account pressure resistance, heating and thermal insulation, structural strength, air filtration and energy generation.
Zopherus project
The winning design was from Zopherus, an Arkansas-based team that plans to print its modules inside a large lander.
The idea is to have the lander crawl around the surface of the planet until it finds a level site. It then deploys rover robots to test the surface. When suitable materials are found, the lander seals itself to the ground to create a pressurised chamber.
When complete, it rises and moves a short distance to create another, a process that resembles a chicken laying an egg.
Al SpaceFactory project
The second-placed design is by AI SpaceFactory from New York.
Its Marsha (MARS HAbitat) is aimed at handling the difference between internal and external pressure – the Martian atmosphere is thought to be about one hundredth of the density of Earth’s.
It envisages a vertical egg-like container with a double shell and a minimal footprint. One advantage of the shape is that it avoids the need to move the printer in between modules.
The design would be made from a reinforced type of thermoplastic called PLA, which is recyclable has lowest coefficient of thermal expansion among plastics.
The ground floor features marsha’s wet laboratory in addition to the majority of its mechanical, electrical and plumbing equipment
Source :
designboom
Marsha’s two-shell structure creates flexible, hybrid spaces which offer a variety of lighting conditions, privacy, noise levels and uses
