Branch Technology Unveils Extraterrestrial Habitat Outfitting Prototype, Underscores Innovative Collaboration with NASA
Branch Technology, a revolutionary construction-technology company that 3D prints facades for commercial buildings, today demonstrated how its innovative approach to large-scale 3D printing for commercial construction could also be used to construct and outfit extraterrestrial habitats on the moon or a planet other than Earth. Together with NASA, Stanford University, and architectural firm Foster + Partners, Branch Technology hosted an open house at its manufacturing headquarters (1530 Riverside Drive, Suite B, Chattanooga) to unveil a prototype demonstration structure, the result of a collaboration among the four entities.
Branch Technology’s proprietary approach to 3D printing – called Cellular Fabrication, or C-Fab® – made the creation of the demo structure possible. Rather than using a traditional layered approach to 3D printing, C-Fab® is Freeform 3D printing. Robots extrude fiber-reinforced polymers that solidify in the air, resulting in the creation of a lightweight lattice structure called BranchMatrix™, which can take virtually any shape or form. In addition, Freeform printing allows volumetric objects to be printed with 95% less material than would be required to print the same objects in a solid from. Because of this material efficiency, Branch and NASA are exploring the application of C-Fab® as an automated 3D printing process in-situ on the moon where resource consumption must be minimized.