- [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.
- Yes.
- [laughs]
- 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]
