In the movie "The Martian," Matt Damon and his fellow researchers live in what amounts to really sophisticated tents. It's the type of structure that would most likely have to be shipped from Earth to the red planet.
In actuality, it might be more likely that humans would build structures on Mars using specialized 3D printers and materials already available there. And an Austin startup is already developing the concept.
Icon Technology Inc., the Austin startup known for building the first 3D-printed home in Austin back in 2018, has landed a subcontract and has begun constructing a 1,700-square-foot structure where crews will stay for one-year stints to simulate what life on Mars might be like.
The structure, already under construction at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, includes four private rooms at one end, with work and medical stations on the other end, as well as food-growing space. It's called Mars Dune Alpha, and it's being built using Icon's latest Vulcan printing system in collaboration with architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group.
“This is the highest-fidelity simulated habitat ever constructed by humans,” Jason Ballard, co-founder and CEO of Icon, said in a statement. “Mars Dune Alpha is intended to serve a very specific purpose — to prepare humans to live on another planet. We wanted to develop the most faithful analog possible to aid in humanity's dream to expand into the stars. 3D printing the habitat has further illustrated to us that construction-scale 3D printing is an essential part of humanity's toolkit on Earth and to go to the Moon and Mars to stay."
Icon's role in the project is part of a subcontract through Jacobs as part of NASA's Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, or CHAPEA, a series of three one-year Mars surface mission simulations. NASA on Aug. 5 began recruiting efforts to assemble the first crew to live in the habitat. Applicants have until Sept. 17 to apply to start living in Mars Dune Alpha starting next fall.
This isn't Icon's first extraterrestrial project. About a year ago, the company secured a $14.5 million federal Small Business Innovation Research contract from the U.S. Air Force to develop a construction system for the surface of the moon. It also teamed students from 10 universities to turn their design for a reusable landing pad into a prototype that was constructed in Bastrop.
And it's just the latest in a string of big stories for Icon, which was co-founded in 2017 by Ballard, Alex Le Roux and Evan Loomis.
In May, the startup was featured on CBS Sunday Morning in a segment about the future of 3D-printed homes. It was also featured in an episode of the Apple TV+ series "Home," which focused on its project building homes in a low-income community in Mexico. Locally, it has printed structures at Mobile Loaves & Fishes' Community First Village.
On the government side, it has teamed with the Defense Innovation Unit and the U.S. Marine Corps to 3D print a structure used to hide military vehicles at Camp Pendleton in California.
