What would you 3D print on the Moon?

The European Space Agency (ESA) ran a competition asking: What would you 3D print on the Moon to make it feel like a home? After receiving responses from all over the world, the space agency has picked two winning ideas. It is rather unsurprising that both ideas were linked to nature, and the absence of it on the Moon. As this is a conceptual exercise, these ideas tell us a lot about what we value on our planet today. Nevertheless, additive manufacturing technologies enable us to explore different creative avenues even if only conceptually for now.

Ideas related to nature

For the adult category, it’s Helen Schell from the UK who won. She proposed a ‘magic Moon garden’ printed from recycled coloured plastics. “Colour and living plants. This is an idea for a colourful carpet of interchangeable colour and design, which can be moved and the scale changed wherever you want to site it in your lunar habitat”, Helen said.

Helen’s 3D printed equivalents to plants would be aromatic, freshen the air and perform the work of an air recycling unit by changing carbon dioxide to oxygen.