August 2015
Competition – NASA 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge – 2015 World Maker Faire New York, NY
Third Prize
LavaHive is a modular 3D-printed Mars habitat using a novel construction technique called lava-casting. The habitat is made from the readily available surface material found on Mars called regolith and uses the abundant energy resource of the sun to power the construction of the building elements used for the habitats. This process is called In Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) and can allow the next stage of human exploration once construction is virtually freed from the constraints imposed by the current approach where all necessary materials are launched from earth. LavaHive is a multifunctional facility comprised of a main habitation unit, airlock module, maintenance workshop, docking port, laboratory and greenhouse.
Consortium partners European Space Agency (ESA) / European Astronaut Centre (EAC), Cologne – Germany / LIQUIFER Systems Group – Austria
LIQUIFER team Barbara Imhof, Waltraut Hoheneder, René Waclavicek
Image credit: LIQUIFER Systems Group