NASA Offers $ 2.25m For Building 3D-Printed Space Habitat
WASHINGTON: NASA is offering USD 2.25 million in prize for designing and building a 3D-printed habitat for deep space exploration, including the journey to Mars.
The multi-phase 3-D Printed Habitat Challenge is designed to advance the additive construction technology needed to create sustainable housing solutions for Earth and beyond, NASA said.
Shelter is among the most basic and crucial human needs, but packing enough materials and equipment to build a habitat on a distant planet would take up valuable cargo space that could be used for other life-sustaining provisions.
The ability to manufacture a habitat using indigenous materials, combined with material that would otherwise be waste from the spacecraft, would be invaluable, NASA said.
The first phase of the competition held by NASA and the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, runs through September 27.
This phase, a design competition, calls on participants to develop state-of-the-art architectural concepts that take advantage of the unique capabilities 3-D printing offers.
The top 30 submissions will be judged and a prize purse of USD 50,000 will be awarded at the 2015 World Maker Faire in New York.
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