3D-Printed Home 'Marsha' Wins NASA Competition for Astronaut Dwellings on Mars

This 3D-printed home could help astronauts live on Mars.

AI SpaceFactory designed the dwelling for a NASA competition to 3D print a space habitat. The New York-based agency placed first and won $500,000.

The habitat is called “Marsha.” It’s designed to be tall and thin to reduce the need for construction on unfamiliar terrain of places like the moon and Mars. To win, the habitat must withstand NASA’s pressure, smoke, and impact testing.

AI SpaceFactory also plans to adapt its winning design for use on Earth as an environmentally sustainable shelter alternative.

“We developed these technologies for space, but they have the potential to transform the way we build on Earth,” the company’s CEO and Founder David Malott explained. “By using natural, biodegradable materials grown from crops, we could eliminate the building industry’s massive waste of unrecyclable concrete and restore our planet.”

The team is calling their forthcoming Earth habitat “Tera” and will soon launch a crowdfunding campaign to bring their project to life on Earth.