REAL LIFE NEWS: PRINT ME A MOONBASE
by Hazed
Wouldn’t it be great if we could set up a colony on the Moon? Frankly, I’m appalled that we’ve reached the 21st century without there being a permanent presence there.
But suppose we wanted to set one up. What would the colonists live in? How would we build a moonbase?
Well, one idea is to print one! A firm of architects have suggested that moon soil could be used as the raw material for a 3D printer. Their plan is for an inflatable structure to be transported from Earth to the moon. Robots would then use the soil on the moon, known as regolith, to build the layered cover.
These plans have been drawn up by the ESA in collaboration with architects Fosters and Partners. They tested the practicalities of using a 3D printer on the Moon by trying it out in a vacuum chamber with simulated lunar material.
It’s an intriguing idea!
