NASA isn’t done sending humans back to the moon. It also wants to give them a chance to live there.
The space agency plans to build homes on the moon by 2040, according to a report check in New York Times The magazine spoke with several NASA scientists to learn about the work underway. “We are at a critical juncture, and in some ways this feels like a dream sequence,” Niki Werkheiser, director of NASA’s Technology Maturity Division, told reporters. era. “In other ways, it feels like it was inevitable that we got here.”
Subdivision on Mars is also under discussion.
The moon landing program was called “Project Olympus”.While this is an ambitious goal, scientists era Respondents said they are now on track.
Austin-based ICON has partnered with NASA on this project. The company, which uses 3D printers to build homes out of concrete on Earth, has built more than 400 homes in its hometown to help the homeless and built hurricane-resistant homes for poor people in rural Mexico. The company has been working with NASA since 2020 and received $57 million in 2022 to build construction systems that use lunar and Martian resources as building materials.
The company plans to use dust, rocks and mineral fragments from the lunar surface to create a concrete-like substance that can be used to build homes and other buildings. In theory, using lunar materials would make these structures less susceptible to the sharp, toxic dust swirling around the Earth’s surface.
The challenge, though, is less about materials than physics. ICON’s printer will be tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center next February to see how it handles the vacuum conditions and radiation levels of space. Even if they do a good job, they won’t be able to get to the moon until the lunar landing site is built.
In addition to the homes themselves, NASA is working with universities and private companies to develop other home furnishings, from doors to tiles to furniture. No word yet on how (or if) they plan to handle the atmosphere.
However, before that, NASA must successfully return astronauts to the moon. If all goes according to plan, the Artemis 2 mission will put astronauts into lunar orbit in 2024. In 2025 or 2026, the Artemis 3 mission will land on the lunar south pole with the assistance of SpaceX Starship to return humans to the lunar surface.
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