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Jan 23, 2015

A 3D Printed Moon Base: Science Fiction or Science Fact?

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, space travel

By Jason Dunn — Singularity Hub

http://cdn.singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/14052995866_fdc6531cb2_k-1000x400.jpg

One day everything in space will be made in space, and this will radically increase the potential for human space exploration.

I recently read a novella that explores this very idea (see below for an excerpt). Cory Doctorow’s “The Man Who Sold The Moon” appears in Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future, an anthology of hopeful, ambitious, technically-grounded science fiction stories set in the near future. In the story, a small team takes on the daunting mission of launching a machine to the Moon that collects lunar regolith (moon dirt) and 3D prints structural housing panels for a future settlement.

This idea is at the heart of a decades-old quest to create truly sustainable and Earth-independent space exploration. In the summer of 1980, a team at NASA Ames Research Center showed a simple set of machines could be sent to the lunar surface to mine resources and replicate themselves.

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