This Eco-Friendly Cabin Was Designed for Life on Mars

The two-storey TERA pods evolved from an earlier model dubbed Marsha, which won first place in NASA’s 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, seeking housing designs that would “advance the construction technology needed to create sustainable housing solutions for Earth and beyond.”
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The company then created TERA via 3D printing using recycled materials, which will reduce landfill waste and by extension, the carbon footprint left by traditional homebuilding to result in true carbon-negative construction.
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In August of 2019, AI SpaceFactory launched an Indiegogo campaign in which interested folks can book a stay inside a TERA pod, located in a bucolic setting in the woods of upstate New York. Prices range from $175 to $500, but at this point, availability is quite limited.
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“Nestled in the woods of upstate New York with sweeping views of the Hudson River, TERA is a high-tech, luxe, green eco-home that’s unlike any other on this planet – available on a nightly basis for anyone wanting a glimpse into the future of sustainable life,” notes the Indiegogo page.

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“Every stay contributes to TERA’s sustainable and scientific mission: emphasizing the need for renewable technologies to save this planet, while researching what’s needed to enable life on a new one,” the company explains.

“TERA will be a futuristic terrestrial home for this planet – one that emphasizes the beauty of its natural environment,” notes AI SpaceFactory. “Unlike conventional buildings, it can be harvested from the Earth and returned to the Earth.”

“Astronauts often talk about experiencing a profound appreciation of Earth when they look back at our planet from space, but we shouldn’t have to leave our home in order to reach that realization,” the company explains. “TERA was designed with this in mind, aiming to foster a deep appreciation for Earth while promoting a sustainable way of living on this planet.”
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“On the ground floor, you’ll find TERA’s living area equipped with a bathroom and shower, a food preparation counter and a living room with a seating area that pours out to a beautiful 3D printed terrace,” the company says of what visitors can expect during their stays.

When the company launched its fundraising campaign by allowing people to book a stay inside its prototype pod, beginning in March 2020, the reaction was extraordinary. Pretty much all the available packages are sold out, with just some single-night weekday stays still available – and even those are said to be of “limited availability.”

“Each TERA will build on the last until we achieve highly autonomous structurally performing human-rated habitats,” the company explains. “Just like Marsha informed TERA, all the knowledge we gain from TERA will feed back into our extraterrestrial design and construction – ultimately enabling human life on Mars.”
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While the TERA concept is still in its infancy, there are already some big plans for the future. According to CNBC, the company has been contacted by “several interested parties, including music festivals,” about having similar structures built, although there are currently no projects in the works.

The ultimate goal will be for TERA units to be manufactured via 3D printers on AI SpaceFactory’s mobile robotic platform, “allowing us to face and adapt to the challenges of building harmoniously with the environment.”

Construction of these units, notes the company, “relies on completely autonomously performing robots” which is intended to “keep construction workers safe from dangerous jobs.”
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Using a plant-based, NASA-tested material that has three times the strength of concrete, the compostable material “can be recycled or resorbed back into the earth at the end of the structure’s life cycle,” with each unit undergoing extensive stress testing to ensure its durability.

The prototype pod, the company said, “was printed nearly autonomously in 2019 within a 30-hour construction window.”

“Our 3D print technology uses a recyclable biopolymer composite which outperformed concrete in NASA’s strength, durability and crush testing,” the company states.

A lab tested the “space-grade” building material and found it to be “two to three times stronger than concrete in compression” and is also “five times more durable than concrete in freeze-thaw conditions.” And when the structure has outlived its usefulness, the material is compostable and can be returned to the Earth, leaving no carbon footprint.

“We developed these technologies for space, but they have the potential to transform the way we build on Earth,” David Malott, CEO and founder of AI SpaceFactory, said in a statement. “By using natural, biodegradable materials grown from crops, we could eliminate the building industry’s massive waste of unrecyclable concrete and restore our planet.”
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