The Earth’s Moon: an empty and pointless waste of rock, with nothing to do and no one to do it…until now. A consortium of European companies and organizations, including London-based architectural firm Foster + Partners, has just been commissioned by the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a method for constructing habitats on the moon. The consortium’s method of choice? 3D printing.
因为不可能在距离月球距离238,900英里（384,400公里）的距离之间发射建筑材料，所以财团计划创建专门的3D打印机，该打印机将使用月球的土壤本身作为印刷材料。根据福斯特 +合作伙伴的建筑师，正在设计一个可充气的，加压的圆顶，旨在容纳四个宇航员并防止“微度和太空辐射”。ESA’s website. A 3D printer, controlled via robot, will then construct an outer shell from lunar soil, called regolith. All of this will take place at one of the Moon’s poles, the regions with the most stable climate, in order to prevent uncontrollable temperature fluctuations that may affect the printing process.
The ESA has even already conducted a simulation here on Terra with the use of none other than Enrico Dini’s 6-meter-frame D-Shape printers. Basaltic rock from a volcano in Italy was used to simulate the regolith, which was then combined with magnesium oxide and fused together with a binding salt in the printing process. In the end, Dini and the consortium partners were able to print a 1.5 ton block in a vacuum chamber by inserting their extruder below the regolith and using the weight of the material itself to prevent the printed deposits from floating off due to the lack of gravity, demonstrating that the feat could very well be possible on the Moon.
就像技术开发用于太空探索的方式一样丰富的婴儿食品，，，，水过滤器，无绳工具和卫星，，，，among other things), we may see this method of construction used in more common building practices here on Earth, allowing for the creation of buildings from sustainable materials found in the environment.
Still, as we enter this incomprehensible age of space colonization, I think it’s important not to romanticize life on the Moon for non-astronauts. As depicted in Philip K. Dick’s帕尔默·埃尔德里奇（Palmer Eldritch）的三个污名，生活在一个殖民地a desolate orb is probably not for everyone:
诺姆·辛恩（Norm Schein）伸出手，诚挚地说道：“嗨，梅森（Mayerson）；我是我们小屋的官方问候者。欢迎 - 乌加 - 火星。”
“I’m Fran Schein,” his wife said, also shaking hands with Barney Mayerson. “We have a very orderly, stable hovel here; I don’t think you’ll find it too dreadful.” She added, half to herself, “Just dreadful enough.” She smiled, but Mayerson did not smile back; he looked grim, tired, and depressed, as most new colonists did on arrival to a life, which they knew was difficult and essentially meaningless. “Don’t expect us to sell you on the virtues of this,” she said. “That’s the UN’s job. We’re nothing more than victims like yourself. Except that we’ve been here a while.”
Sources: Foster + Partners,European Space Agency
