3D printing lunar habitats (podcast)

Credit: Foster + Partners/ ABC

If human beings are to explore the Solar System, first stop is the Moon.  Partly for its own sake, partly as a learning exercise for further exploration.  Long term exploration of the Moon requires some kind of dwelling.

Question: So how do we transport building material to the Moon?
Answer: We don't.

Launching 1 kg into low Earth orbit still costs thousands of dollars.  This is in large measure why the International Space Station was so expensive.  Transporting materials for a dwelling to the Moon would involve (literally) astronomical costs.

Question: So it can't be done?
Answer: Use local materials.
Question: What local materials?
Answer: We'll, there's lots of dust.
Question: Are we talking about building something humans can live in, or are we talking about playing in the Lunar dust?
Answer: A consortium set up by the European Space Agency is exploring the possibility of "printing" buildings using 3D printing techniques.  This would not use a printer in the usual sense.  Printers are large compared to the paper documents or 3D objects they produce.  Since the point of the exercise is to reduce the amount of material which has to be transported from the Earth to the Moon, a printer bigger than a house would be pointless.  What is envisaged is a small number of robotic devices, which could take lunar dust & turn it into a structure by applying a binding agent.  More at:

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bydesign/xavier-dekestelier---foster-26-ptrns/4581536

http://www.space.com/19602-moon-colony-3d-printing-lunar-dirt.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2013/02/06/esa-moon-base-3d-printing-_n_2624567.html

If you want to stream or download the podcast from the ABC (1st link above), do it soon, as they are normally only available for a relatively short time. / regolith simulated material paper Monolite ESA ink binding salt stone like solid structure structures habitat dome radiation gama foam magnesium oxide /