D-Shape, whose 3d printers are capable of fabricating amazing mega scale free-form building size models, are now working with the European Space Agency to create a 3d printer that can extrude within the moon’s vacuum environment using lunar dust.
They are currently experimenting with ’simulant’ lunar dust, and hope to conduct trials in a vacuum environment in the near future.
If trials are successful such technology could help future lunar colonists and provide ‘thick-walled structures that protect against solar storms or micrometeorites’.
(via space.com)
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June 13th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
[...] of fuss (even organics, which would make growing plants there much easier), and we already have some of the sort of oft-touted “emerging technologies” that will allow us to begin [...]