NASA announces five winners of the Mars Habitat competition

When astronauts finally land to establish a community on the moon or on another planet, they will have to quickly erect unique structures to protect them from the elements. The architectural design of these habitats will depend on their location, including available resources and external conditions. And since it is expensive to ship supplies in the space, we will probably depend on 3D printing to build the buildings with as much ease and local resources as possible.

To better understand what these structures might look like on Mars NASA has partnered with Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., For its Centennial Habitat Challenge Contest printed in 3D, which started in 2014. The first two phases included a design competition and a structural competition. The five winners of the last phase, who challenged the teams to design subsurface habitats, were recently announced and will share the $ 100,000 prize

"We are excited to see the success of this group "Monsi Roman, head of NASA's Centennial Challenges program, said in a statement." They do not only design structures, they design habitats that will allow our space explorers to live. and working on other planets, we are excited to see their designs come alive as the competition progresses. "

The winning teams used digital tools to build the physical and functional characteristics of their Martian habitats, winning their prize based on the scores they were awarded by a panel of judges.Eighteen teams from around the world were considered.The five winning teams were :

1. Zopherus Team of Rogers, Arkansas – $ 20,957.95
2. AI. New York SpaceFactory – $ 20,957.24
3. Kahn-Yates of Jackson, Mississippi – $ 20,622.74
4. SEArch + / Apis New York Horn – $ 19,580.97
5. Northwestern University of Evanston, IL – $ 17,881.10

You can view the virtual template for each entry on YouTube.

"We encourage a wide range of people to come up with innovative designs to imagine a habitat on Mars." Said Lex Akers, Dean of the Caterpillar College of Engineering and Technology at Bradley University. "Virtual Levels allow teams from high schools, universities and businesses that may not have access to large 3D printers to be part of the competition because they can team up with those who have access to such machines for the final level, the competition. "