Perhaps I am susceptible to link-baiting, but I kept the title in place above from this fun 3ders.org article: lunar base + giant NASA spider robot = I gotta read more! And I was not disappointed. NASA is starting to become everything I dreamed it might be when I played with LEGO space vehicles in my backyard as a child. AWESOME:
Last month, the European Space Agency (ESA) was teaming up with its industrial partner renowned architects Foster + Partners to test the feasibility of 3D printing using lunar soil and to build a lunar base.
It seems that NASA has also got a similar idea: using existing resources on the moon to build those structures. Space architects Tomas Rousek, Katarina Eriksson and Dr. Ondrej Doule have unveiled their vision for a lunar module which shows the potential of 3D printing technology from NASA.
Both bases would be located near the Shackleton crater, close to the Moon’s south pole, where sunlight (and thus solar energy) is nearly constant, and both use lunar dust as basic building material. But NASA’s idea is slightly different.
Due to the unique properties of the lunar soil and the absence of anatmosphere, NASA’s modules would be constructed from lunar soil by microwave sintering and contour crafting making use of NASA JPL robotics system. The tech is called SinterHab….
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!