About This Project

Extreme environments (i.e. radiation & natural disasters) are the biggest challenges for humans in recent times. We are developing an economical and energy efficient method to design sustainable habitat that will protect us from such harsh environments. We will design a novel 3D printing technique that will process raw materials and develop various structures. At the same time we will adapt this technology for astronauts for living on Mars & Moon, protecting them against space weather events.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

How can Astronauts live safely from radiation and storms on Mars and on the Moon? The purpose of this research is to maximize the use of local raw material to 3D print inhabitable, affordable, feasible, and least, comfortable homes that can save them. And by maximizing the use of local soil, we can minimize the business costs.

On Earth, this technology will save people living in dangerous zones, where natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes have become common challenges. Wherever harsh environment, this innovative manufacturing process is the solution.

Phase 1: Develop 3D printed habitable shelter for humans to protect from harsh environments.

Phase 2: to understand how these shelters will be adapted for space environments such as those on the surface of Moon and Mars.

What is the significance of this project?

An inexpensive technique is highly demanding for a rapid building process. The data generated from preliminary research will be useful to develop scientific knowledge on improvising quality of 3D printed structures.

A comparative analysis will be performed with various 3D printed objects. It will allow us to understand the material behavior under various atmospheric conditions for building infrastructures and heat-shield to protect human from radiation and natural disasters. Our material composition and mixing technique will be able to 3D print homes with concrete, Martian and Lunar soil without consuming much energy or power.

This will leverage the project’s capacity to meet the high demand for affordable and reliable 3d printing safety homes in outer space and on Earth.

What are the goals of the project?

The main objectives are,

i) Synthesis and processing of raw materials.

ii) Develop better compositions and apply 3D printing technique to design structures.

iii) Analysis and measurements of properties of the 3D printed structures.

The goal is to process raw materials to optimize and develop mixture with proper composition that will be used for 3D printing. The binding strength will be decided by maintaining a certain weight ratio of raw materials. Prepared mixture will be extruded through a mechanism to design 3D structures.The next stage is to place the designed 3D printed parts inside a furnace to obtain dense product. The final stage is to analyze and measure the properties (i.e. density, mechanical strength, rigidity, toughness) of the 3D printed sintered solid objects.