Several NASA scientists told the New York Times that the agency plans to build homes on the moon by 2040. Forbes he says:
The agency is about to return to the moon and hopes its astronauts will be able to stay long-term, in a house built on the moon using a XNUMXD printer.
The idea is to make the house structure out of a special lunar concrete from the surface of the Moon, and NASA has found just the company to do it: Austin-based XNUMXD printing company ICON.
The program was named Project Olympus by ICON.
ICON built the first 350-square-foot prototype house in Austin in March 2018 with a proprietary machine called the Vulcan.
This year, she unveiled the first model of her Wolf Ranch home in Georgetown, Texas, which is part of the 3-home 100D printed community project.
The start-up first received funding from NASA in 2020, and in 2022 announced an additional $60 million for a space-based manufacturing system that can also be used off-planet. The idea is to send a XNUMXD printer to the moon on a rocket and the printer will do its job from there.
"We have all the right people and the time is right for a common goal, so I think we'll get there," NASA technology maturity director Niki Werkheiser told the New York Times.
"Everyone is ready to take this step together, so if we develop our core competencies, there's no reason why it can't be possible."
