The Mars Homes That NASA Awarded $500k

when you think of future Martian habitats what do they look like maybe a squat half-buried windowless dome or a glorified fallout shelter but how about this this is Marsha designed by a eyespace factory it has windows multiple floors private rooms and even a skylight but best of all NASA loves it [Music] the rocket scientists and engineers at NASA are pros when it comes to landing robots on Mars and they're figuring out how to get humans there next but when it comes to living on Mars well they decided to ask the public for help in the 2010s NASA launched its 3d printed habitat challenge over the years it's held multiple stages of the challenge that started with virtual designs and has since progressed to full-fledged 3d printed models challengers compete not only for bragging rights but for you know money and in 2019 first prize was half a million dollars challengers were judged on multiple criteria including the material they used the structures durability and how airtight it was after four days of building testing and judging NASA announced the winner first place goes to theme hey space Factory so let's take a closer look at Marsha for starters the construction material is made out of a basalt composite something no other competitors used and the team says could be easily made on Mars that's because Mars has basalt speckled all across its surface thanks to volcanoes that erupted there hundreds of millions to billions of years ago and once you have a good source of basalt it's mixed with some plant-based polymers which when you're on Mars you'd have to grow after that all you need is a robot to 3d print the house other stuff like windows that can't be printed on site and time this prototype is only a third of the size that the team envisions for Mars you had to personally be about that's all and it alone took 30 hours to complete from start to finish the team had to step in and help the machine a few times but in the future they plan to make the entire process fully autonomous because in the real world there won't be many people on Mars to help plus the team says this basalt composite is an effective shield against the high-energy radiation at Mars surface and that is very important because a person living on Mars unprotected would receive about five thousand times more radiation in their lifetime than if they had lived on earth that's more than enough to cause cancer and would almost surely result in premature death from radiation poisoning now some experts argue that any freestanding building on Mars is a bad idea specifically because of the high radiation problem which is why some concepts proposed for Martian habitats are underground and look a lot like nuclear fallout shelters here on earth but Marcia's designer says that homes above ground are essential to the long-term success of life on Mars because of the hostile environment people associate bunkers with good ideas but I think one thing Marcia does is ask the question isn't psychological health also mission-critical and he isn't the only one worried about psychological health for years nASA has been testing how humans withstand long periods of isolation for example it requires astronauts in space to complete regular psychological tests that monitor their mood they also conduct experiments on the ground like the high seas study short for Hawaii space exploration analog and simulation where a small crew lives in Mars like homes for usually eight months at a time and face many of the same physical and psychological challenges of living on Mars but compared to the high seas living quarters Marsha looks different for one it has multiple floors each with a distinct purpose the first contains a wet lab and space for Eevee a prep one floor up the kitchen and dry lab on the third floor a hydroponic garden bathroom and sleeping quarters and above that a gym and recreation center not to mention there's multiple windows throughout the home windows are key it's our relationship to the environment the landscape changes on a daily basis and it really would help to mitigate monotony which is known as a major psychological threat Wow you're probably saying that place is really nice I'd stay there even if it were on earth well buddy you're in luck ai space Factory is taking their concept and building it here what we've developed so far printing at scale and basically taking that application directly to you know an hour north of New York where people can go and experience this new type of habitat it's called Terra not only does it look like Marcia it will be made out of Marcia after the NASA competition a eyespace factory broke their model down and will reuse it to build Terra it hopes to finish by fall 2019 and soon after you might be able to book your stay but Terra is more than just a futuristic cabin in order to get to the next step of building on the Moon or Mars we need more practice and and so this this is an opportunity for us to refine our technology do more prints increase our level of autonomy solve some of the problems that we found in in our NASA print and push it to the next step you

Channel: Tech Insider

Views: 5,333,085

Rating: 4.9203601 out of 5

Keywords: Tech Insider, TI, Tech, Science, Innovation, Digital culture, nasa, mars, planet, earth, space, ai space factory

Id: LCuZC-CRg4M

Length: 6min 34sec (394 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 17 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/wait_just_a_minute]

So I actually worked on a team competing for this while I was pursuing my Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering. Unfortunately we ran in to funding and logistical issues being a team of students, but it was interesting and exciting to be a part of it.

For these teams to win they had to have a well thought out design and completely model the building including laying out electrical systems and plumbing. It wasn't just do a fancy render.

They also had to build a 3D printer that could print a 1/3 scale model of the habitat they design. So they had to design something that looks nice and is logically laid out, that could also be 3D printed. This was where my team had issues. It's expensive and time consuming to build something that large and meeting the NASA criteria, but we managed to get something working eventually, just not in time to compete. There were also many steps in the way of demonstrating that the printer worked and was safe, and then material testing of whatever the teams would use to print. It was rather extensive.

I see a lot of criticism in the comments and while there are a ton of unanswered questions and reasonable doubts, the competition wasn't just an architects wet dream. There was real work behind it.

More information:

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/centennial_challenges/3DPHab/index.html

https://www.bradley.edu/challenge

[u/DeathByChainsaw]

I'd live in one of those! The interior renders don't look too much different than the inside of some swanky townhouses I've visited.

[u/UsefullSpoon]

Cool, the bit I don’t get is the plant based material required to manufacture these very handsome structures.

It seems to me they’d need several of these to grow the plants before they have the right material to build them.

The short clip doesn’t give enough detail and just glosses over that.

Any idea anyone?

[u/BazookaShrooms]

UGH! I get so friggin pumped when I see stuff like this!

[u/Ekor69]

Okay so the radiation is an issue and the material used to build the walls can resist it but what about the windows? Wouldn't those be considered a weak point? Wouldn't it better to have a few cameras on the outside transmitting a live feed to some fake window flat screens on the inside?

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[u/darcMadder]

One day we will have earlthings and martians...the martians will wage a revolution to be it's own independent planet.

[u/amgin3]

I really wonder how strong these 3D printed structures are. They do not contain any rebar and there must be some additional weakness between the printed layers..

[u/onyxtrix]

These houses look like they are going to spray me every time I walk by