Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Culture

Wildly innovative ‘space igloo’ wins NASA’s 3D printed Martian habitat challenge

By

An igloo created with indigenous Martian ice was the winner of the 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, a competition sponsored jointly by NASA and America Makes. The finale for the first phase of the challenge was held this weekend in New York as part of the World Maker Faire.

Designed by Search Consortium and Clouds AO, the Mars Ice House is constructed to be technologically sound and also provide a pleasing environment in which to live. The structure is conceptualized as a series of vertical nested domes that are enclosed with ETFE membrane, a polymer that is highly resistant to corrosion. Water in the form of ice was chosen as the primary building material due to its predicted abundance on Mars and other potential extra-terrestrial outposts. Now that water has been discovered on Mars, these 3D printed ice houses take on greater significance and may play an important role in the first manned Mars mission.

Recommended Videos

The construction and 3D printing process was conceived with efficiency in mind. A lander will touch ground first, creating a crater that can be used without further excavation for igloo construction. Semi-autonomous robots and self-assembling devices will exit the lander and begin constructing the igloo before the astronaut team arrives. The 3D printing  process uses in-situ materials found on the planet’s surface, which allows the robots and the astronauts to travel without the need to bring heavy equipment and other materials along with them.

Inside the structure will be hollowed out “ice rooms” that provide a sensation of open space. Because they’re made from ice, light can pass through the semi-translucent walls, allowing astronauts to experience a natural diurnal cycle and enjoy a view of the Martian landscape. There also will be a hydroponic greenhouse for food and oxygen and an interstitial zone that functions as a front yard, allowing astronauts to stroll outside their living quarters with having to wear a bulky EVA suit.

Related: French firm offers NASA plan to build bubble homes on Mars

SEArch Consortium and Clouds AO received a $25,000 prize for their Mars Ice House winning idea, while second place finisher Gamma and third-place Lava Hive were awarded $15,000 and $10,000 respectively. These funds will be used towards the second phase of the competition, which challenges the groups to build a full-scale habitat.

This was originally a post on our brother site, Digital Trends.

Kelly Hodgkins
Kelly Hodgkins
Former Digital Trends Contributor
NYT Connections hints and answers for October 11, 2024
The logo for Connections.

From the people that bring you the crossword and Spelling Bee, Connections is the latest NYT Games sensation that has the internet abuzz. Although the game is still word-based, Connections is fundamentally different than many of the other games released by NYT Games and can be uniquely frustrating as a result. It tests your ability to group words together into coherent categories and presents a different challenge every time you play it. And, like Wordle and so many other NYT Games, you can share your results with friends and compare them as soon as you're done.

Connections is still in a sort of testing phase at the moment, but given the game's success to date, it seems clear that the game could have the kind of legs that make it a long-running success that people integrate into their everyday lives. Like Wordle, and unlike the crossword, it's a relatively quick game, which means that playing it doesn't have to eat up your entire day. That's part of the reason so many people have gotten devoted to it and why you may be seeing more Connections results in group chats and on your social media feeds than you were a few weeks ago.
How to play Connections
The premise of Connections is relatively straightforward. The game gives you 16 words that are totally unsorted, and your job is to sort those words into four categories of four. A group of words may be combined because they're all associated with another word or thing, like "car parts" for example, or because they have something else in common, like "ends with x." The categories can be almost anything, and the smart folks behind Connections work extra hard to make sure it's hard to file things away neatly into categories. There's plenty of ambiguity, which is why you get four wrong guesses before you lose the game.

Read more
Want to spook yourself? Check out some of the best horror movies ever made
From The Thing to Get Out, these are some of the most riveting horror movies ever made
The Shining

A great horror movie is often something distinct from most of the genre's offerings. Few genres have been more historically reliable at the box office, and that's in part because a pretty good horror movie is all audiences need to get their thrills.

The movies on this list, though, stand out above others from the genre. The very best horror movies leave you unsettled not just while you're watching them, but also for weeks afterward. They remind you of how horrifying the world around you can be, even as they also offer delights that can make them endlessly rewatchable. Without further ado, these are the best horror movies ever made:

Read more
Prime Big Deal Days Samsung The Frame Deals 2024: Still available
Samsung's The Frame on a wall surrounded by paintings and docarations

Update 10/11/24: If you were planning to buy Samsung's The Frame TV during Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days but you weren't able to, you're in luck because most of the discounts that were offered during the shopping event are still online. If the specific size that you want is still on sale, you better hurry with your purchase as we're not sure how much time is remaining before these prices return to normal.

Some Prime Day deals are still available after the close of Prime Big Deal Days, including some spectacular Prime Day TV deals. For this page, we've focused specifically on Samsung The Frame TV deals that you can still shop.

Read more