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Bjarke Ingels BIG’s studio is working with construction technology company ICON and NASA to create Mars Dune Alpha, a 3D printed structure designed to simulate life on Mars.
Under construction at the Johnson Space Center in Texas, USA, the 158 square meter “habitat” has been developed by BIG and ICON to help prepare humans for living on the Red Planet.
The Mars Dune Alpha will be occupied by four people for long periods of time and, by simulating the expected experience of life on Mars, will help NASA understand the physical and mental challenges that can impact the crew during a long-term space mission.
“In collaboration with NASA and ICON, BIG is investigating what humanity’s home on another planet will involve in the human experience that will potentially lay the groundwork for a new Martian vernacular,” wrote Kai-Uwe Bergmann of BIG in an Instagram post.
Mars Dune Alpha is built using 3D printers as it is the preferred technology for building alien habitats, due to the lack of required building materials.
The specific technology that will be used is Vulcan, ICON’s 3D printing system that uses the company’s Portland cement-based mixture called Lavacrete.
When built, the structure will feature four private crew quarters on one side, accessed through shared living spaces found at its center. On the other side will be workstations, medical and food.
According to ICON, the ceiling heights will be varied to ensure that each room is visually unique to “avoid spatial monotony and crew member fatigue.”
Each room will also feature customizable lighting, temperature and sound control, as well as a mix of stationary and movable furniture to allow users to rearrange and personalize interiors.
“This is the highest fidelity simulated habitat ever built by humans,” said Jason Ballard, co-founder of ICON.
“Mars Dune Alpha is intended to serve a very specific purpose, to prepare humans for living on another planet. We wanted to develop the most faithful analogue possible to help humanity’s dream expand into the stars.”
“Habitat 3D printing has further illustrated to us that construction scale 3D printing is an essential part of humanity’s toolbox on earth and to go to the moon and Mars for stay, ”Ballard added.
“Together with NASA and ICON, we are studying what humanity’s home on another planet will involve in the human experience,” said BIG founder Bjarke Ingels.
“The data obtained from this habitat research will directly inform NASA’s standards for long-duration exploration missions and, as such, potentially lay the groundwork for a new Martian vernacular. Mars Dune Alpha will bring us closer to becoming a multiplanetary species. “
Mars Dune Alpha is built in support of the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), which is part of The Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA).
CHAPEA is a series of three one-year simulations of Mars surface missions at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to provide insight into future space missions.
NASA is currently recruiting a crew for the long-term mission study to Mars inside the 3D printed Mars Dune Alpha, which will begin in the fall of 2022. The mission will mimic the challenges of a mission to Mars, such as as equipment failure, communication delays and simulation spacewalks.
BIG and ICON are also collaborating with NASA on Project Olympus, which explores ways to create 3D printed infrastructure on the moon using materials found on its surface.
BIG is not the first architecture studio to develop buildings to support life in space. In 2015, Foster + Partners proposed a settlement for four astronauts on Mars that could be 3D printed from the earth and rocks of the planet by semi-autonomous robots.
More recently, the SOM architecture studio and the European Space Agency designed a camp to live on the Moon, aptly named Moon Village. The proposal includes inflatable modules to provide hubs for scientific research.
Photography and video are from ICON.
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