when you think of future Martian
habitats what do they look like maybe a
squat half-buried windowless dome or a
glorified fallout shelter but how about
this this is Marsha designed by a
eyespace factory it has windows multiple
floors private rooms and even a skylight
but best of all NASA loves it
[Music]
the rocket scientists and engineers at
NASA are pros when it comes to landing
robots on Mars and they're figuring out
how to get humans there next but when it
comes to living on Mars well they
decided to ask the public for help in
the 2010s NASA launched its 3d printed
habitat challenge over the years it's
held multiple stages of the challenge
that started with virtual designs and
has since progressed to full-fledged
3d printed models challengers compete
not only for bragging rights but for you
know money and in 2019 first prize was
half a million dollars challengers were
judged on multiple criteria including
the material they used the structures
durability and how airtight it was after
four days of building testing and
judging NASA announced the winner first
place goes to theme hey space Factory
so let's take a closer look at Marsha
for starters the construction material
is made out of a basalt composite
something no other competitors used and
the team says could be easily made on
Mars
that's because Mars has basalt speckled
all across its surface
thanks to volcanoes that erupted there
hundreds of millions to billions of
years ago and once you have a good
source of basalt it's mixed with some
plant-based polymers which when you're
on Mars
you'd have to grow after that all you
need is a robot to 3d print the house
other stuff like windows that can't be
printed on site and time this prototype
is only a third of the size that the
team envisions for Mars you had to
personally be about that's all and it
alone took 30 hours to complete from
start to finish the team had to step in
and help the machine a few times but in
the future they plan to make the entire
process fully autonomous because in the
real world there won't be many people on
Mars to help plus the team says this
basalt composite is an effective shield
against the high-energy radiation at
Mars surface and that is very important
because a person living on Mars
unprotected would receive about five
thousand times more radiation in their
lifetime than if they had lived on earth
that's more than enough to cause cancer
and would almost surely result in
premature death from radiation poisoning
now some experts argue that any
freestanding building on Mars is a bad
idea
specifically because of the high
radiation problem which is why some
concepts proposed for Martian habitats
are underground and look a lot like
nuclear fallout shelters here on earth
but Marcia's designer says that homes
above ground are essential to the
long-term success of life on Mars
because of the hostile environment
people associate bunkers with good ideas
but I think one thing Marcia does is ask
the question isn't psychological health
also mission-critical and he isn't the
only one worried about psychological
health
for years nASA has been testing how
humans withstand long periods of
isolation for example it requires
astronauts in space to complete regular
psychological tests that monitor their
mood
they also conduct experiments on the
ground like the high seas study short
for Hawaii space exploration analog and
simulation where a small crew lives in
Mars like homes for usually eight months
at a time and face many of the same
physical and psychological challenges of
living on Mars but compared to the high
seas living quarters Marsha looks
different for one it has multiple floors
each with a distinct purpose the first
contains a wet lab and space for Eevee a
prep one floor up the kitchen and dry
lab on the third floor a hydroponic
garden bathroom and sleeping quarters
and above that a gym and recreation
center not to mention there's multiple
windows throughout the home windows are
key it's our relationship to the
environment the landscape changes on a
daily basis and it really would help to
mitigate monotony which is known as a
major psychological threat Wow you're
probably saying that place is really
nice I'd stay there even if it were on
earth well buddy you're in luck ai space
Factory is taking their concept and
building it here what we've developed so
far printing at scale and basically
taking that application directly to you
know an hour north of New York where
people can go and experience this new
type of habitat
it's called Terra not only does it look
like Marcia it will be made out of
Marcia after the NASA competition a
eyespace factory broke their model down
and will reuse it to build Terra it
hopes to finish by fall 2019 and soon
after you might be able to book your
stay but Terra is more than just a
futuristic cabin in order to get to the
next step of building on
the Moon or Mars we need more practice
and and so this this is an opportunity
for us to refine our technology do more
prints increase our level of autonomy
solve some of the problems that we found
in in our NASA print and push it to the
next step
you