Last month, we read about how the European Space Agency was teaming up with architectural firm Foster and Partners. The idea is that they would use 3D printing technology to build a lunar base. This makes a lot of sense, since it utilizes existing resources on the moon to build those structures, rather than shuttling all those materials from Earth. It seems that NASA is working on a similar idea.

NASA is also considering the implementation of 3D printing tech for a lunar base near the moon’s south pole (where sunlight is nearly constant; good for solar energy), but they’re going about it in a slightly different way. The tech is called SinterHab and the spider robot would “sinter” the lunar dust. This means that it will heat it up to just below its melting point, allowing the super fine nanoparticles to fuse together into a solid block of ceramic-like material. The particles would reach temperatures of up to 1500 degrees Celsius during this process.

The main advantage that SinterHab has over the ESA proposition is that this doesn’t require the shuttling of binding agents from Earth. The resulting blocks of material could then be assembled into habitats and other structures that the astronauts could then use as a base.

Embedded above is a video of the Athlete rover, which is a half-scale model of what they would want to bring to the moon for this project. There are 48 3D cameras on board. All they’d have to do is attach the microwave 3D printer to one of its six legs and we’d have ourselves a lunar construction vehicle. Interestingly, Athlete can also split in half into two three-legged rovers for increased versatility.

More work is needed, to be sure, but projects like this clearly demonstrate that there’s more to 3D printers than just making awful-sounding records and 3D busts of Yoda.

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Rather than shuttling all the necessary materials up to the moon (which can be heavy and thus costly), the approach being considered is 3D printing. Architectural firm Foster and Partners is working with the European Space Agency on the effort. The idea is that you send the 3D printing robots to the moon, they collect the local moon rocks and soil, grind them all up, and 3D print out a dome-like structure where people can live and work.

In addition to the 3D printed portions, we’ll also need to bring in a lightweight pressurized inflatable. Together, they should be able to provide suitable protection against extreme temperatures and radiation. Foster and Partners has already tested this kind of technology in extreme Earth conditions, so they don’t see why it couldn’t be adapted to the moon’s surface. The structure itself will utilized hollow closed cells, not unlike what we find with bird bones. This provides strength while keeping weight low.

Monolite founder Enrico Dini has been working on these 3D building printers since 2010 and he says that current machines can produce at about 6.5 feet per hour. The next generation of machines will increase that to 11.5 feet an hour, effectively printing that lunar base in about a week. It seems like a fascinating idea, but I can’t help but think that this picture looks a lot like Tatooine. Maybe old Ben Kenobi can help us. You might even say he’s our only hope.

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