Video: ESA Plans 3D-Printed Moon Base

As we told you earlier this year, the European Space Agency (ESA) has begun a program for designing a 3D printer that will work in space making metal components. But that's not all they're doing: as we reported then, the agency is also working with architects Foster + Partners to test the validity of using lunar soil and the enormous D-Shape 3D printer to make structures for use on the moon. Now there's a video showing animations of a hypothetical lunar mission that carries out this vision.

Architects have often used the D-Shape printer to make buildings from sand, combined with a binder. This approach to building is not unique. The Foster + Partners team are working on adapting the D-Shape to use lunar soil. 3D printing with lunar soil is also not a new idea, as we've reported. NASA's also working on that one to build space structures on the moon.

The D-Shape has already been used successfully to make large objects, so it's possible that the ESA/Foster + Partners project will come to reality first. In any case, the video has some cool animation graphics that show a hypothetical lunar lander that lands in the Moon's Shackleton Crater, where there's lots of light for solar power. Robots with attached 3D printers, which look like rovers a lot smaller than the D-Shape, construct an entire moon base out of lunar regolith, or moon rocks.

The base is first unfolded from a tubular module transported by the lander. An inflatable dome then extends from one end of this cylinder to provide a support structure for construction. Layers of lunar regolith, or moon rocks, are built up over the dome by a robot-operated 3D printer to create a shell, protecting the occupants against space radiation, temperature fluctuations, and meteorites. The process takes about three months, and the completed lunar base houses about four people. You can find out more about the project on ESA's project page.

At a recent ESA workshop, Additive Manufacturing for Space Applications, held at its ESTEC technical center in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, more than 350 European experts discussed a development roadmap for the technology, as well as common standards and verification methods for its future use.

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