AI SpaceFactory and the NASA Kennedy Space Center have unveiled the design of LINA, a 3D printed structure intended to become a lunar outpost. Designed to be constructed by autonomous robots on the Moon's south pole, the scheme is defined by Romanesque arches that can withstand high compressive loads with minimal material.

Video via AI SpaceFactory on YouTube

LINA’s structural concept will be 3D printed using an Earth-sourced polymer and lunar regolith. Unlike conventional 3D printing where layers are added parallel to the ground, LINA will be 3D printed at a 60-degree angle to allow construction of the vaulted roof. The arches will be topped with 2.7 meters (8.8 feet) of lunar regolith to provide protection from radiation, micrometeorites, lunar seismic activity, and extreme thermal swings.

The outpost’s location near the rim of the Shackleton crater on the lunar south pole offers near-continuous sunlight on the crater’s peaks, which the team will exploit for solar power. Meanwhile, shadows in the crater’s interior will allow for the harvesting of water ice.

When constructed, LINA’s primary function will be to support astronauts on lunar missions, while also serving as a test case for long-lasting structures that could support long-term habitation and further travel to more planets.

LINA is a continuation of AI SpaceFactory’s collaboration with NASA, stretching back to the NASA 3D Printed Habitat Challenge which AI SpaceFactory prevailed in. The firm’s proposal, MARSHA, was designed to be constructed on Mars using Martian soil; properties which have been adapted for LINA by substituting Martian soil for lunar regolith.

"Our Mars habitat prototype MARSHA proved that 3D printing with a polymer composite was a strong solution for habitation off-world," said AI SpaceFactory CEO David Malott. "Developing LINA and printing in an environment that is void of atmospheric pressures or weather systems advances that technology through a new context, with new and more precise variables."

News of the scheme comes weeks after ZGF Architects designed a new home for Space Shuttle Endeavour in Los Angeles. In May, meanwhile, the MIT Media Lab designed and tested modular tiles which can self-assemble in outer space, with the ultimate goal of creating habitats on the Moon, Mars, and in orbit.

In March, NASA awarded grants to three universities to develop lunar infrastructure, while space construction company Orbital Assembly unveiled plans for the world’s first space hotel. The theme of interplanetary architecture was also explored in our 2021 interviews with Bjarke Ingels Group’s Jakob Lange, who gave us an insight into the Mars Dune Alpha Habitat designed by BIG and NASA, as well as Jeffrey Montes, Senior Space Architect at Blue Origin and research fellow at Open Lunar Foundation, who has been instrumental in the development of the MARSHA concept.