NASA plans to build houses on the Moon by 2040

NASA, the US national space agency, plans to build homes on the Moon by 2040, and several scientists from the agency told the New York Times that work is already underway. The agency is preparing to return to the Moon and hopes its astronauts will be able to stay in a 3D-printed house on the Moon for a long time.

Houses will be built on the moon

The Moon is of critical importance for humanity to achieve the next breakthrough. The Moon offers extremely powerful opportunities for humanity to become an interplanetary race. Many space agencies aim to establish bases on the Moon. NASA plans to turn the satellite into a settlement by building houses along with the bases. In fact, this has already gone beyond the plan. Austin-based 3D printing company ICON will build houses using lunar soil in a project called Project Olympus. “We brought together the right people at the right time for a common goal, so I think we’ll get there,” Niki Werkheiser, NASA’s director of technology maturation, said in a statement.

ICON built its first 32 square meter prototype house in Austin in March 2018 with a proprietary machine called Vulcan. The firm builds more than 400 homes in Austin and hurricane-resistant homes for the poor in rural Mexico. The company has been working with NASA since 2020 and received $57 million in funding in 2022 to build construction systems that use lunar and Martian resources as building materials.

Tests will be held next year

The company plans to use dust, rock and mineral fragments from the Moon’s surface to create the concrete-like substance that will form homes and other buildings. However, the challenge here is more about physics than materials. ICON’s printer will be tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center next February to see how it will handle space conditions. Beyond homes, NASA is working with universities and private companies on other household items, from doors to tiles to furniture. There’s no word yet on how (or if) to deal with the atmosphere.

But before all this, NASA needs to successfully send astronauts back to the Moon. If all goes according to plan, the Artemis 2 mission will send astronauts into lunar orbit in 2024. The Artemis 3 mission will land on the south pole of the Moon in 2025 or 2026 with the help of SpaceX’s Starship and send humans back to the surface.