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If You Build It...

Final concept of a habitat on Mars from the Red Works 3D team. Photo: Red Works 3D
Final concept of a habitat on Mars from the Red Works 3D team. Photo: Red Works 3D

If we’re going to work and live on Mars, we need a place to live, right? There are all sorts of plans to bring habitats with us -- something like an inflatable habitat.

That’s great and all, but you need to get it there. And extra mass means extra fuel. What if we could build a habitat when we get there?

That’s the question NASA asked to some ambition teams of engineers. Design a 3d-printer so to speak that uses the resources already on mars -- like martian dust -- to build a habitat.

Keegan Kirkpatrick is the Team Lead at RedWorks 3D  and he’s onto something.

Brendan Byrne is WMFE's Assistant News Director, managing the day-to-day operations of the WMFE newsroom, editing daily news stories, and managing WMFE's internship program.

Byrne also hosts WMFE's weekly radio show and podcast "Are We There Yet?" which explores human space exploration.