China to test construction of 3D-printed buildings on the moon

Image: TheLostProbe (Screenshot) & John Van Vilet (Virtual Textures), CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

China is to test the feasibility of constructing buildings on the moon using 3D printing.

The testing will come as part of the lunar mission of the Chang’e 8 robotic probe.

According to the state-owned China Daily, Wu Weiren, a scientist at the China National Space Administration, said, “Lunar soil will be our raw material and it will be printed into construction units.

“Professors at several domestic universities, such as Tongji University in Shanghai and Xi’an Jiaotong University in Shaanxi province, have already been studying the possible applications of 3D printing technology on the moon.”

China’s Chang’e 5 has already retried soil and rock samples from the moon’s near side. The Chang’e 6 mission, scheduled for 2025, is due to obtain samples from the far side of the moon.