How is Architecture Supporting the Exploration of the Moon and Mars?

From inflatable and 3D-printed structures to entire habitats, architecture plays an unprecedented role in space exploration missions. As NASA plans for long-term human exploration of the Moon and Mars under Artemis and CHAPEA missions, new technologies are required to meet the unique challenges of living and working in another world. In response, figures like Buckminster Fuller, Foster + Partners, SOM, and BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, in collaboration with emerging businesses such as ICON and SEArch+, have nourished the architectural catalog in outer space.

In the latest update, NASA awarded Austin-based company ICON a contract to continue ICON's Olympus construction system in partnership with BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group. The project will help build infrastructures such as landing pads, habitats, capsules, and roads on the lunar surface and Mars, using extrusion-based additive construction technology (3D printing) and local materials like lunar regolith. The contract runs through 2028 and supports Artemis, a mission for long-term human exploration of the Moon.

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Along with Olympus, ICON will work with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center under STMD’s Moon to Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technologies (MMPACT) project. ICON printed a 1,700-square-foot simulated Martian habitat called Mars Dune Alpha that will be used during NASA's Crew Health and Performance Analog or CHAPEA, an analog mission starting in 2023.


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NASA and AI Space Factory Develop a 3D-Printed Lunar Structure

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3D Printed Lunar Structure. Image Courtesy of NASA/Frank Michaux

BIG and ICON Imagine Project Olympus, a Space-Based Construction System Developed with NASA

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Project Olympus. Image Courtesy of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

The Red Planet: Design on Our Race to Mars

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The Red Planet. Image © Qingshan Wu

AI SpaceFactory Builds 3D Printed Mars Prototype for NASA

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MARSHA. Image Courtesy of AI SpaceFactory

SEArch+ and Apis Cor Win Latest NASA Competition for 3D Printed Habitats on Mars

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SEArch+. Image Courtesy of SEArch+

Foster Among 30 Shortlisted in NASA-Backed Mars Habitat Competition

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Vision of Lunar Settlements. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu

SOM Presents Vision of Lunar Settlements at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale

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Mars Habitat Competition. Image Courtesy of Foster + Partners

From NASA to Bouncy Houses: The Evolution of Inflatables

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The Evolution of Inflatables. Image Courtesy of Stewart Hicks

Clouds AO and SEArch Win NASA's Mars Habitat Competition with 3D-Printed Ice House

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3D-Printed Ice House. Image Courtesy of Clouds AO and SEArch

UAE Announces $140 Million BIG-Designed Mars Science City

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UAE Science City. Image Courtesy of Dubai Media Office

Life on the Moon, According to 8 Architects and Artists

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Asif Khan's Vantablack Pavilion at the Pyeongchang Olympics. Image © Luke Hayes

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on December 08, 2022.

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Cite: Paula Cano. "How is Architecture Supporting the Exploration of the Moon and Mars?" 12 Apr 2023. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/993439/how-is-architecture-supporting-exploration-of-the-moon-and-mars> ISSN 0719-8884

A new award from NASA will support ICON in developing construction technology that could be used on the Moon and Mars. Image Courtesy of ICON/BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

建筑如何支持对月球和火星的探索?

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