The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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For long-term stays on Mars, astronauts would need facilities to live and work, to move around, to communicate with Earth, and to produce oxygen and water vital for survival. Taking all this infrastructure from Earth would be very expensive. Instead, ESA is thinking about how to 3D print some of it on site using Martian soil as an input material.
Previous ESA-funded research has shown that this would be possible. The next step is being undertaken by Austrian research group FOTEC, in a research activity that is aiming to better understand the effect of the Martian environment on construction materials and processes. The research team is also looking at recycling waste into new materials; this waste could come from equipment brought from Earth and not used anymore, for example plastic food packaging.
Advenit Makaya, advanced manufacturing engineer at ESA explains: "This activity is part of ESA's continuous effort to identify and develop technologies to use onsite resources to help build and maintain the required infrastructure and ensure the sustainability of future long-term exploration missions."
In particular, FOTEC is building upon a previous ESA activity focusing on building on Mars using Martian soil. Using the knowledge gained in years since the activity completed, they will introduce novel processing techniques to improve the performance of the building material.
Markus Hatzenbichler, Head of Engineering Technologies at FOTEC expands: "The investigation into waste recycling, including using waste as a binding agent, is an important part of this activity. Whilst the main goal is to support the preparation of future missions to Mars, in the shorter term the results may support our understanding of insulation and structural integrity in the field of civil engineering."