Far-flung building sites usually present design challenges, but for their latest project, Los Angeles-based architects Anders Carlson and Neil Leach are working with conditions that include solar wind, radiation, and a literal lack of atmosphere. Along with fellow USC professors Behrokh Khoshnevis (Engineering) and Madhu Thangavelu (Astronautics), the duo recently won a highly competitive NASA research award to develop robotic construction technologies for inhospitable extraterrestrial environments, such as the Moon and Mars.
The team is researching the use of robots equipped with digital fabrication capabilities to build landing pads, roads, blast walls, and even shelters. Beginning with a 3D-printing technology developed by Khoshnevis that uses waterless concrete made from whatever materials are available in different conditions here on Earth, the foursome is investigating if the same process can be adapted to lunar or Martian environments.
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