Stunning Nasa-backed space homes that will be ‘printed’ by giant robots so humans can live on brutal Moon surface
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NASA astronauts of the future could live inside space homes built by giant 3D-printing robots. These robots would be part of Project Olympus, which hopes to construct buildings on the Moon and eventually Mars. Importantly, they'd use local resources – building with lunar rock, rather than shipping heavy materials across space from Earth.
![[Nasa has backed a 3D-printing design company called Icon to craft space homes from lunar rock]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/icon-moon-003.jpg?strip=all&w=960){kind=icon}
It's the brainchild of Texas-based 3D-printing company Icon, which has received millions of dollars in funding from Nasa. The plans to build giant space homes from lunar rock won a contract from Nasa in 2020, and is valued at around $60 million. "In order to explore other worlds, we need innovative new technologies adapted to those environments and our exploration needs,” said Nasa's Niki Werkheiser, speaking at the time.
![[Icon will work to design the very first human colonies on the lunar surface for Nasa]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/icon-moon-002.jpg?strip=all&w=960){kind=icon}
"Pushing this development forward with our commercial partners will create the capabilities we need for future missions.". Icon was the company behind Nasa's simulated Martian habitat – Mars Dune Alpha. It was used in last year's CHAPEA mission, where astronauts lived and worked inside the habitat to see what it would be like.
![[Giant robots will 3D-print structures on the Moon's surface using local materials]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/icon-moon-004.jpg?strip=all&w=960){kind=icon}
Now Icon hopes to help Nasa build space homes as part of the agency's Artemis mission to create a continued human presence on the Moon. Not just homes either: Icon is plotting designs for landing pads, roads, and other pressurised buildings too. "To change the space exploration paradigm from ‘there and back again’ to ‘there to stay,’ we’re going to need robust, resilient, and broadly capable systems that can use the local resources of the Moon and other planetary bodies," said Icon chief Jason Ballard.
![[Robots will harvest lunar rock – known as regolith – for construction of the off-Earth buildings]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/icon-moon-001.jpg?strip=all&w=960){kind=icon}
