NASA Hires Company to 3D Print American Base on the Moon

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The Moon Economy is booming even though mankind isn't physically back on the moon. An Austin-based 3D printing firm called ICON just landed a $57.2 million cash injection from NASA for its project to create 3D-printed lunar shelters.

ICON plans to have its Moon huts ready for NASA use by the year 2026 if the Artemis mission schedule stays the same. If the Moon is to become a human outpost, durable and lightweight lunar housing will be necessary, and ICON's CEO doesn't seem to be taking it lightly.

"We feel real weight and responsibility, we're giving humanity the ability to build on other worlds, and that's why we're doing this for ourselves," Ballard said.

The first construction on another world will be the final deliverable of the contract.

Cosmic Contractors

ICON is best known for its work building Earthly structures, but it has been wanting to build in space for a while. Project Olympus was first launched in 2020, and the company seems to have its eye on one day building a 3D-printed Mars colony.

ICON's goal is to build the lunar dwellings out of actual lunar materials, rather than bringing a bunch of Earthly junk to the moon.

Learning to build from the Moon's natural regolith ensures the long-term viability of humans on the Moon. If Moon miners needed to build a new road every time, it would be a problem.

Every time you want to build a new thing, you have to bring everything with you. "If you have a system that can build almost anything, and it uses local material, you are probably two or three orders of magnitude cheaper to build a permanent moon presence than you would be in any other way that we can think of."

ICON won a NASA contract to build the moon.