The Texas company aims to take its innovative household approach to the limit.
Austin is known for the Stein-based startup Icon 3D-printing Houses on Earth, an ambitious effort to develop a space-based construction system, the project Olympus Limpus just launched. If all goes according to plan, the program will eventually help humanity set foot on the moon and Mars.
“Since the founding of ICON, we’ve been thinking about off-the-world construction. If you ask about additive construction and 3D printing can create a better future for humanity, surprisingly natural progress is being made,” said Jason Ballard, ICN co-founder and CEO. The company said in a statement.
“I am confident that even learning to build on the other world will give us the success we need to solve the housing challenges we face in this world.” “These are making mutual efforts.”
Related: 10 Ways 3D Printing Can Transform Space Travel
Project Olympus will be boosted by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) agreement that ICON recently signed with the US Air Force to enhance the capabilities of its 3D-printing technology.
The four-year deal is worth 14 14.55 million, according to the Stin Business Journal. (You can find the story of the outlet Here, But it is behind the payroll.) NASA contributes 15% of the SBIR amount, Ike IC representatives told Space.com.
NASA’s interest in ICN tech makes sense. The space agency is run by him Artemis program of crew lunar research, To establish a long-term human presence around the moon by the end of 2020. NASA officials have insisted that this would require extensive use of lunar resources, including water ice (for life support and rocket fuel) and lunar dirt.
“The same kind of devotionLiving off the groundNASA officials said that the continuous human exploration of Mars will be necessary, Artemis will report and move forward is an ambitious goal, NASA officials said.
As part of the newly announced SBIR deal, ICON will partner with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, which will test a variety of processing and printing technologies using simulated lunar land. The research will build on N Tech which was demonstrated by ICON during NASA in 2018 3D printed housing challenge, Company representatives said.
Corkey Clinton, associate director of Marshall’s Science and Technology Office, said, “We want to increase the level of technical readiness and testing system to prove that the development of large-scale 3D printers that can build infrastructure on the moon or Mars is possible.” NASA said in a statement. “The team will use what we learn from tests with the lunar simulator to design, develop and demonstrate prototype elements for a full-scale addition construction system.”
Project Olympus will also be supported by other partnerships. For example, Icon is joining two architecture companies on the program – CIRH + (Space Exploration Architecture) and Denmark-based BIG-Berke Ingles Group.
“To illustrate the power of architecture, ‘formgiving’ is a Danish word meaning design, which literally means to give form to something that has not yet been given form. When we go beyond the earth and imagine how we are. We are going to build on a whole new world and build a living life, “said Bazark Engels, founder and creative director of the BIG-Bajark Engels Group, in a statement to the ICON.
“With the icon, we are creating new landmarks, both physically, technically and environmentally.” Engels said. “The answers to our challenges on Earth can be found on the moon.”
Mike & Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Carl Tate), a book about the quest for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @Mamildld. Follow us on Twitter @speed.com or Facebook.
