Jump Aboard This 3D Printed Simulated Mars Home – for a Year

NASA is testing the concept of a 3D-printed home for Mars – and they’re looking for beta testers.

Rob Spiegel

January 12, 2022

NASA is recruiting people to live in a test Mars home for a year with almost no contact with the outside world. The test facility will be a 3D printed structure of 1700 square feet with living quarters and space for growing food. The idea is to prepare for a structure that will ultimately be built on Mars from materials found on the red planet.

ICON, a developer of advanced construction technologies was awarded a subcontract through Jacobs to build the structure. The project supports NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA). The goal is to deliver a 3D-printed habitat, known as Mars Dune Alpha, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. ICON used its next-gen Vulcan construction system to complete the structure. The building was designed by architecture firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group to simulate a realistic Mars habitat to support long-duration, exploration-class space missions.

About the Author

Rob Spiegel

Rob Spiegel serves as a senior editor for Design News. He started with Design News in 2002 as a freelancer covering sustainability issues, including the transistion in electronic components to RoHS compliance. Rob was hired by Design News as senior editor in 2011 to cover automation, manufacturing, 3D printing, robotics, AI, and more.

Prior to his work with Design News, Rob worked as a senior editor for Electronic News and Ecommerce Business. He served as contributing editolr to Automation World for eight years, and he has contributed to Supply Chain Management Review, Logistics Management, Ecommerce Times, and many other trade publications. He is the author of six books on small business and internet commerce, inclluding Net Strategy: Charting the Digital Course for Your Company's Growth.

He has been published in magazines that range from Rolling Stone to True Confessions.

Rob has won a number of awards for his technolloghy coverage, including a Maggy Award for a Design News article on the Jeep Cherokee hacking, and a Launch Team award for Ecommerce Business. Rob has also won awards for his leadership postions in the American Marketing Association and SouthWest Writers.

Before covering technology, Rob spent 10 years as publisher and owner of Chile Pepper Magazine, a national consumer food publication. He has published hundreds of poems and scores of short stories in national publications.

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