Life on Mars: NASA Reveals Winning Design of 3D-Printed Habitat Competition

By: | May 9th, 2019

Image courtesy Team SEArch+/Apis Cor

NASA recently announced top 3 designs for its 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge.

NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge began in 2015, with the goal to create sustainable shelters that could one day shelter humans on the surface of the Moon or even Mars. The multimillion-dollar contest was structured in phases, each with multiple levels.

SEArch+ and Apis Cor have won first place, Zopherus of Arkansas took second and Mars Incubator of Connecticut are placed third.  These top three designs are awarded a share of the $100,000 prize purse. 

First Place

SEArch+ and Apis Cor plans to build twisted, tower-like “Mars X House” on Mars before humans arrive to live in them. They consider building Mars X House by AI-powered robots using indigenous Martian materials.

Second Place

Design of Zopherus was simpler; and they plan to construct the structures using a roving 3D printer.

Third Place

Connecticut group Mars Incubator came up with a modular design having four distinct spaces, one of which includes space to grow plants for food.

Nidhi Goyal

Nidhi is a gold medalist Post Graduate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

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