LINA, the 3D printed technology structure, can provide support for a future human mission to Moon.
FREMONT, CA: "Our Mars habitat prototype MARSHA proved that 3D printing with a polymer composite was a strong solution for habitation off-world," said AI SpaceFactory CEO David Malott. "Developing LINA and printing in an environment that is void of atmospheric pressures or weather systems advances that technology through a new context, with new and more precise variables."
The space architecture and technology company AI SpaceFactory unveiled its plans for LINA, the first lunar colony created in association with engineers and planetary scientists from NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
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As part of NASA's 2020 Notifications of Cooperation Opportunity (ACO) project, Relevant Environment Additive Construction Technology (REACT), AI SpaceFactory, and NASA KSC are progressing the innovative methods and equipment that SpaceFactory developed for NASA's 3D Printed Habitat Challenge. This includes the design and testing of LINA.
The initial polymer created by AI SpaceFactory using a Martian regolith simulant was changed through the ACO to use lunar regolith, or lunar dirt, and both its material composite and the mechanical extruder will be tested in a NASA vacuum chamber that mimics the lunar environment. The findings will help develop a long-lasting 3D printing system that can build substantial structures on the Moon's surface and will ultimately be used by AI SpaceFactory to produce LINA.
LINA is envisioned as being built by autonomous robots close to the Shackleton Crater at the Moon's south pole, where solar energy production on the crater's peaks might be enabled by near-constant sunlight and water ice collecting by eternal shadow on its core. The 2.7 meters of lunar regolith covering its 3D-printed Romanesque arches, which can sustain high compression forces with minimum substance, would give the highest amount of shielding against radiation, micrometeorites, lunar seismic activity (moonquakes), and extreme heat swings. The LINA geometry will be supported by the strength of AI SpaceFactory's polymer composite for a durable construction that might support long-term habitation and further exploration of other planets.
