Architect Explains How Homes Could be 3D Printed on Mars and Earth

[Arielle Pardes] This is what building a home

on Mars might look like.

This structure is being 3D printed by a robot,

and could one day be the solution

to housing on the red planet.

Now, a trip to Mars,

let alone a home there,

is still a long ways off,

but AI SpaceFactory,

the company behind the 3D printing system,

thinks this unusual design and construction method

could be used to make more sustainable

earthbound structures too.

AI SpaceFactory calls them TERA,

and the first is set to open early next year.

It already has a waiting list to stay the night.

To learn more about this futuristic

interplanetary building system,

we spoke with AI SpaceFactory CEO and architect.

I'm David Malott,

I'm the confounder and CEO of AI SpaceFactory.

Recently you've been doing work around 3D printing

both for a Martian landscape and here on Earth.

Can you talk about some of the technology

that's involved in that?

The building in space is extremely expensive,

and it's the launching of materials into space

that really cost a lot of money.

So, our specific solution was to look at habitat on Mars,

which could be 3D printed

from materials that you'd find on the Martian surface.

So, you're not having to launch materials from Earth.

Are we talking about the same 3D printers

that people use to make plastic paper weights?

Technology wise it's not entirely different

from the desktop 3D printer,

because we're still printing

with similar materials actually.

It's just scaled up,

and it has to be mobile and deployable,

and obviously operate in extreme environments.

So, part of the challenge here with the NASA competition

was trying to make use of materials on Mars,

and this new technology that can turn that

into a feasible structure.

What were some of the other parameters of that challenge?

The system needs to be totally autonomous.

When we think about wanting to send astronauts to Mars,

when they get there,

they kind of need a place to stay once they arrive,

which means that the infrastructure needs to be built out

in advance of human arrival.

So, 3D printing was one solution,

but to do it completely autonomously.

So, that the rover could go in advance,

basically build a house,

so that when the astronaut crew arrives

a habitat and all the other infrastructure

that you need is already there.

Could you describe what these structures look like?

In terms of color,

I think definitely they will have a Martian hue,

because the actual material is the Martian rock.

We have a piece of simulated Martian matter.

Obviously this is not from Mars,

but it's built--

It's 3D printed from the materials

that we would expect to find on Mars.

The TERA where we're definitely printing it larger

than the prototype we made for NASA,

so it's 21 foot diameter, 24 feet tall.

Two story homes at 500 square feet.

It falls definitely in the tiny home category.

The Martian habitat we designed was about double that size,

so it's a 1000 square feet.

Now, the design itself is quite unique,

and if you can take a look,

it has this egg shape.

This is to optimize for the structural forces

that we anticipate on this structure.

Maybe our previous imagination

of what buildings on Mars might look like

is more like a dome or something that's low lined.

We found that it was actually

more efficient to build vertically.

It's shape is,

if I can draw an analogy to a Coca-Cola can,

because the fundamental force that's acting on this

is the inside pressure is much higher than

the outside Martian atmosphere,

which is very thin,

and so, it tends to want to expand.

So, this shape is just very very efficient

at containing that internal atmosphere.

How exactly does the 3D printer work

when it's building a structure?

It prints it layer by layer.

I think the easiest way to describe it,

is it comes out looking like toothpaste.

It just sort of squirts out a nozzle.

As it cools down, it sets,

and it becomes extremely hard,

but it comes out in this molten form.

So, the interesting thing is,

we don't blueprints

like in the traditional sense of architecture.

We can go straight from a digital model,

and we have a process that converts the 3D model

into a language that the robot understands.

What have we learned about 3D printing houses

from this experiment?

It seems like building something similar on Earth

might be easier [laughs].

You would think so,

and we're going through that process right now.

So, after we designed Marsha,

and built a prototype for NASA,

we began a project we call TERA.

So, if you think about the whole concept

of 3D on Mars with Mars material,

apply that to Earth,

it's a much more sustainable way of building.

To be able to send the robot out to a site,

gather the materials that are there.

So, that's where this space technology

really has applications to Earth.

Now, on Earth we have to

deal with problems like rain and snow,

and things we're not gonna find off world,

which frankly we're having to go through right now

as we build our first TERA.

Um, unique challenges on Earth.

[laughs] Yes.

So, now we have 3D printing.

We have the ability to print with natural materials.

We're not restrained by form anymore.

As for developing the technology,

where we're sort of rethinking the design as well.

So, the buildings that will emerge from this process

will look nothing like the buildings that we've seen so far.

How long does it take to build one of these structures,

for Mars or for Earth?

Yeah, so on Earth

I know that answer a little bit more clearly.

So, like in a TERA,

if we would sort of print it around the clock,

we'd be looking at something like 200 hours.

When you're talking about a Martian environment,

I think it's a lot different,

because just the amount of time that it would take to

sort of collect the materials, right?

So, it could be a far longer process,

because you have more extreme temperature swings.

I think you also run into considerations there.

So, I can't fathom a guess,

but if I were to throw out a number,

it would be in the order of months.

So, it's not a super fast instantaneous process.

The part of the technology

that's the least understood at the moment,

is the sort of harvesting of the natural materials,

and then how do you process these things on site.

So, right now these steps are done in the lab

or the factory environment,

and what we're gonna be doing next year

is taking the material aspect of what we're doing,

and moving it out into the field.

So, on Mars you are harvesting materials

from the planet itself.

How exactly do you turn that into something

that's a feasible building material?

It's like pasta.

If you've ever made pasta at home,

you put the ingredients in one end,

and then you turn a crank,

and it sort of comes out through a die.

All right, so you make this long strand of spaghetti

from the raw ingredients.

It is about raw ingredients.

How do you mix them?

What temperatures do you cook them at?

That's sort of really what 3D printing is like actually.

It's about your raw ingredients.

It's about your temperature.

It's about your timing.

We're like harvesters and scavengers.

It's just like taking what's there,

scavenging the waste.

Can you cannibalize the lander itself,

and extract the materials from that.

Then you sort of take this line of thinking

and pull it back to Earth, and you say,

well, what are the natural resources on Earth

that we can use,

and yes there's the rocks on Earth and the plants on Earth,

but we also have a lot of garbage on Earth.

So, when you talk about

what is your potential building material,

and it's going to be waste,

and there's no reason why we can't

3D print from plastic waste.

So, TERA will actually be about 50% recycled plastic waste,

and then 50% biopolymer.

We're talking about robots that are

big enough to build an entire house.

Are you developing these robots yourself?

What do they look like?

How do they work?

Our strategy is not to build a giant robot,

but to take a lot of robotic systems

and put them together.

And so, our main 3D printing robot

is a typical industrial robot

that would normally build a car,

and we're connecting it with other,

other elements that move.

For example, when we're printing the TERA,

we're printing it on a turntable.

So, we're spinning the print

like a potter's wheel,

and then we put the robot on a fork lift,

so that it can reach up to 24 feet high.

You're not having to talk about giant machinery.

You can actually talk about modest machines,

as long as their given a kind of mobility solution,

then they can begin to reach all parts of the building.

So, that's why I think that

there's no theoretical limit in terms of

how tall or how large,

or how many you can build.

I'm sort of reminded of the hype

around 3D printers themselves.

10 years ago when everyone sort of thought

you'd have these things in your home,

and you would be able to print anything you wanted,

and of course that hasn't really panned out.

Why do you think 3D printed architecture is different?

We have over 300 people signed up

to stay in the TERA over 400 nights,

and because of the success of that,

we're already talking with one of our customers,

let's call them our future TERAns,

and they want to build their own.

I think the interesting part about it

is the people that we're talking to,

they bring their own views to the table,

but everyone is sort of linked together

about this greater mission about

wanting to find more sustainable ways

of living and building on this planet.

So, I think it will be quite interesting

to see how this evolves

over the course of the next couple of years.

Um, so believe the hype,

but give it time to mature.

Exactly.

So, see this in the long term.

We're in a business that when you talk about space,

it's extremely long term horizons,

and 3D printed buildings is something shorter

than the space horizon,

but nonetheless, it's going to take time

until this is really cost competitive,

and as scalable as traditional construction.

But that shouldn't limit us from starting this,

because if we don't start it now,

there's simply no way that we can build enough buildings

to help growing populations and rapid urbanization,

and do it in a sustainable way.

So, we need this through technology, it's an absolute must.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you, it's been my pleasure.

[techno music]