The teams will have to build scaled-down models of their buildings.
NASA and Bradley University (USA) have selected five finalists for the 3D-Printed Habitat Centennial Challenge, which is dedicated to the development of astronaut habitats on Mars. A financial reward of one hundred thousand dollars is distributed among five teams, which will have to build experimental models of their projects. The models are scaled to one to three.
This is the third phase of the competition, therefore strict requirements were imposed on the participants. Habitats should have an area of three hundred square meters. The living quarters are designed for four people who could spend a year in them. The infrastructure and materials from which the houses are made were also taken into account.
The Arkansas team named their project Zopherus. Its main feature is the lander, which builds houses without human intervention. First, he sends miniature robots to extract resources. Then the module, using 3D printers installed inside, prints houses and laboratories, which are connected by passages and resemble a honeycomb. The creators claim that, if desired, such a settlement can be expanded if, for example, the number of inhabitants increases. The reward is $ 20,957.
Engineers from New York came in second. They approached the problem in a completely different way. In their opinion, the optimal shape of the house, which would leave the minimum amount of unused space, is the cylinder. It consists of two layers and has four floors. On the first floor there is a garage and the first laboratory, on the second - a second laboratory and kitchen, on the third - bedrooms, and on the fourth - a recreation room. The reward is $ 20,957.
The Kahn-Yates project stands out from the rest in that the authors envisioned a garden in it, which also covers a protective dome. The construction of the complex takes place in eight stages, and the materials for its manufacture, as in the first project, are mined from the surface of the Red Planet. The reward is $ 20,622.
The winners of the fourth place were inspired by northern architecture and created a structure that would balance between the amount of natural light and protection from radiation. The engineers assigned the rooms so that the place where astronauts should spend most of their time was best protected from radiation. The reward is $ 19,580.
Northwestern University's project turned out to be the weakest. He was let down by the domed shape of the building, which left a lot of empty, unoccupied space. The authors have divided the hemisphere into two parts. In one they located a laboratory, kitchen and sanitary rooms, in the second - bedrooms. The reward is $ 17,881.
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Alexey Evglevsky