The Foster + Partners and Branch Technology team recently won first prize in the NASA 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge's Phase 2: Level 1 Compression Test Competition. The three-phase Challenge envisions a future where autonomous machines can help build extra-terrestrial shelters for human habitation. Phase 2 is divided into three levels, with each one focusing on a different structural challenge.

After winning second place in Phase 1 in 2015, Foster + Partners teamed up with Branch Technology to refine the original concept. 

Foster + Partners' Mars Habitat concept. Images © Foster + Partners.

In Phase 2 - Level 1, the seven competing teams had to use a combination of recycled mission materials and indigenous Martian regolith to 3D-print a truncated cone and a cylinder, which went through compression testing to assess their suitability as structural components. 

Foster + Partners and Branch Technology's Cone Print. Courtesy of Foster + Partners | Branch Technology.

Foster + Partners and Branch Technology's Cylinder Print. Courtesy of Foster + Partners | Branch Technology.

Foster + Partners achieved the highest score, while University of Alaska, Fairbanks won second place. The five other teams were Bubble Base from Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Pennsylvania State University of University Park; CTL Group Mars from Skokie, Illinois; ROBOCON of Singapore; and Moon X Construction from Seoul, South Korea.

In the coming weeks, the teams will work on their designs for the Phase 2 - Level 2 Beam Member Competition, in which a beam will be 3D-printed to test spanning structures. Learn more about the Challenge here.