This past May, NASA and America Makes announced a competition calling on Makers everywhere to submit 3D printed concepts of space habitats, offering $2.4 million to the most creative and realistic submission. The first phase of the 3D Printed Habitat Challenge ends on September 27th and one participant, a company made up of aerospace engineers and additive manufactures called RedWorks, seems to have the conceptual answer that NASA and America Makes is searching for. Their structural concept, influenced by a combination of the Fibonacci spiral pattern of a nautilus shell and the simplistic design of a pueblo, is designed to be both sturdy and self-efficient. And, although RedWorks is technically still in their conceptual stages of design, winning this NASA-sponsored competition could certainly help their 3D printed settlements come to fruition.
The internal build of RedWorks’ space habitat, which is laid out like a spiraling staircase, is built with multiple levels that are individually designed to serve specific needs. The layout contains four main sections, which from top to bottom of the structure, includes one for habitat maintenance and surface exploration, another for living quarters, the third for laboratory facilities, and the last for storage and life support purposes. RedWorks have also refined initial designs to deal with the challenge of wind erosion and radiation that may become an issue once the settlements make it onto Mars. These designs (which are laid out in the picture below) seem structurally sound and innovative in nature, but the most exciting part of the concept isn’t what RedWorks is planning to build, it’s how they’re planning on building it.
RedWorks doesn’t seem to be trying to build Earth-like settlements on this foreign planet, instead they are aiming at using Martian dirt as means of creating an organic 3D printed structure. What these ‘3D printing robots’ will be able to do is both utilize and adapt to the surface of Mars, which includes a great number of crater rims, lava tubes, and open pits, and other natural conditions of the red planet that will take precedent during construction. The team then plans to excavate the particular surface area and rebuild the settlement from the ground up, combining the process of 3D printing with the organic components of Mars in order to make this conceptual habitat into a reality. Ultimately, RedWorks’ vision is to combine traditionally natural building methods from Earth (such as the pueblo) with the process of 3D printing with Martian resources. If RedWorks is able to convince NASA and America Makes of their prototypical space community, the funding is there to help make these settlements come to life.
