This Is What Your 3D-Printed Moon Home Will Look Like
Image: Foster + Partners

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This Is What Your 3D-Printed Moon Home Will Look Like

Well, we can imagine.

Video: Foster + Partners

This is what your future Moon home will look like. Maybe.

The European Space Agency (ESA) just released this video of UK architect company Foster + Partners' concept for a 3D-printed lunar base. After a dramatic rocket launch, let the soothing voiceover take you on a tour of your four-person protective dome, as if it's as simple as moving next door.

The architects started working with ESA on the 3D-printed lunar habitat idea last year, and the video goes into more detail about how it would work. Roving 3D printers collect regolith (moon dust) and build it up layer by layer on an inflated dome over around three Earth months. The idea is to shield against radiation, meteorites, and extremes fluctuations in temperature—the kind of things our atmosphere usually takes care of. Other features include an air lock and skylights.

It's a pretty cool imagining of how we could colonize on our natural satellite, but ESA is quick to point out that, for now at least, it is hypothetical. "In reality any lunar base remains firmly on the drawing board, but each small step forward in research makes future lunar colonisation a little more feasible," the agency wrote.

Still, it's one to keep in mind for when we eventually get off this planet.