NASA's Moon Construction Project Olympus

BIG has partnered with SEArch+ (Space Exploration Architecture) and ICON, a developer of cutting-edge construction technologies, to imagine the place where humans will call home on an alien planet. The collaboration with NASA aims to develop a "space-based construction system that could support future exploration of the Moon." According to the project's website, "Project Olympus is a sustainable lunar habitat that will be the first human foray into extraterrestrial building with robust structures that provide better thermal, radiation, and micrometeorite protection than metal or inflatable habitats can offer."

Introduction

What is the Olympus Project, a construction project for the moon that NASA is funding? A private company has been given $57 million by the US Space Agency to develop technologies that will enable people to establish outposts on the Moon and Mars using the local soil and rocks. Undoubtedly, a new era of space exploration is beginning. 2022 is slated to be a year of space missions, new robots, spacecraft, rockets, and satellites that aim to continue the spirit of human exploration.

The company is developing technology that will allow people to colonize Mars and the moon with soil and rocks that are already on Earth. ICON has already produced a prototype that resembles a 3D-printed habitat from the Red Planet. An unmanned Orion capsule was launched aboard Artemis 1 on November 16 and placed in lunar orbit. Orion is scheduled to return to Earth via an ocean splashdown on December 11. "Moving this development along with our commercial partners will create the capabilities we need for future missions," a representative claimed.

In this regard, the Moon is currently positioned as the main objective for both a woman's first trip to the Moon and a man's return to the Moon. NASA launched the historic unmanned Artemis I mission last year to test a new rocket and spacecraft that could go to the Moon, orbit it, and return to Earth safely. One of the motivations behind this mission was Katherine Johnson, a NASA pioneer whose calculations of orbital trajectories had helped pave the way for the first human mission to the Moon.

While scientists and technicians manage expectations and nerves, collect information from the mission that was carried out in the latter part of last year, and prepare for Artemis II, which will launch in 2024 and be the first manned orbital mission to the Moon in more than 50 years, to "prepare the lunar ground" and project the human stay there, there are other crucial issues that must be addressed. This is because, unlike the six Apollo missions that were successful in landing there, NASA does not intend to return there for a brief stopover. Long-term stays and the establishment of a lunar research colony are both planned.

Another area of work for the business was projects based on extraterrestrial bodies. One of them involved the construction of a 158 square-meter "habitat" with a Mars-inspired design. It will be used by NASA on the Mars Dune Alpha mission, also known as Project Crew Health and Performance Analog (CHAPEA), which will launch in 2023. The contract between NASA and ICON has a 2028 expiration date. The 2020 launch of Project Olympus was justified by the possibility that its technology could assist in building the necessary facilities, such as habitats, travel routes, and landing pads, on the Moon and Mars.

Conclusion

Regolith, the official name for lunar dust, has always been a nuisance. This may be harmful to the astronauts' health, and it poses a risk to any equipment that becomes clogged with this "stardust." However, space agencies have been attempting to use it for some time now. To achieve this, they tested a device called Moonrise, which only weighs three kilograms and uses lasers to melt lunar materials into raw materials. Moonrise is an exciting and cutting-edge technology that might allow us to utilize lunar dust instead of letting it harm astronauts and their equipment.