Texas-based additive construction company ICON just announced that it’s been charged with creating a 3D printed habitat, called the Mars Dune Alpha, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, also in Texas. The company received a subcontract through Jacobs supporting the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) for its Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) sequence, and will use its next-gen Vulcan concrete 3D printing system to fabricate a 1,700 square-foot structure that will simulate a realistic Martian habitat that can support long-term exploration science missions in outer space.
The structure is being designed by architecture firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, which is based in Copenhagen, Barcelona, New York, and London.
Continue reading… “Terran Mars Habitat Being 3D Printed by ICON for NASA”“Together with NASA and ICON, we are investigating what humanity’s home on another planet will entail from the human experience. The data gained from this habitat research will directly inform NASA’s standards for long-duration exploration missions, and as such will potentially lay the foundation for a new Martian vernacular. Mars Dune Alpha will take us one step closer to becoming a multiplanetary species,” said Bjarke Ingels, the Founder and Creative Director of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group.