A nascent off-Earth construction system just got a big funding boost. NASA has awarded the Texas-based company ICON $57.2 million (£47 million) for its Project Olympus, which is working to develop technology that will allow humanity to build outposts on the Moon and Mars using locally available dirt and rock. “To change the space exploration paradigm from ‘there and back again’ to ‘there to stay’, we’re going to need robust, resilient and broadly capable systems that can use the local resources of the Moon and other planetary bodies,” ICON co-founder and CEO Jason Ballard said. “We’re pleased that our research and engineering has demonstrated that such systems are indeed possible, and we look forward to now making that possibility a reality,” he added.
ICON is a pioneer in the use of advanced construction technologies here on Earth. For example, the company built the first-ever fully permitted 3D-printed home in the US in 2018 and has since delivered entire communities of such houses in the US and in Mexico. The company launched Project Olympus in 2020, reasoning that it could help build critical infrastructure like landing pads, roads and habitats on the Moon and Mars. ICON has already produced a prototype of sorts – asimulated 3D-printed Red Planet habitat called Mars Dune Alpha that NASA will use to train astronauts for long-duration missions.