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PROJECT - NASA2 - Mars Dune Alpha
NEWS Dune Alpha isa 3D-printed habitat designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, that will aid in long-duration, exploration-class science missions.
Mars Dune Alpha’s analog missions – part of NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) program – ...
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Engineering

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AUG 6TH, 2021 - NASA, ICON, and BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group give form to the future of Mars habitation
The 3D-printed research habitat, Mars Dune Alpha, will aid in long-duration science missions to realize future civilization on Mars. Mars
Dune Alpha’s analog missions – part of NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) program – will provide valuable
insights for NASA’s space food system, as well as physical and behavioral health and performance outcomes for future space missions. The
1,700 square-foot structure, located at Johnson Space Center in Houston and 3D printed by ICON’s next-gen Vulcan construction system,
will be home to the crew of which NASA is now actively seeking. “Together with NASA and ICON, we are investigating what humanity’s
home on another planet will entail from the human experience,” says Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group.
“The data gained from this habitat research will directly inform NASA’s standards for long-duration exploration missions, and as such will
potentially lay the foundation for a new Martian vernacular. Mars Dune Alpha will take us one step closer to becoming a multiplanetary
species.”