Watch 3D Printer-Bots Build the Moon Colony of 2050 …

According to the European Space Agency's newest video, humanity lunar future includes roving Roomba-esque 3D-printers and domed homes made of packed moon dust that will house four people in the ever-twilight of the Moon's South Pole.

As awesome as this looks, this video is admittedly government-sponsored science-fiction; it was produced by the British architectural firm Foster + Partners and based on the science they thought might be feasible for a 2050 mission. "In reality any lunar base remains firmly on the drawing board," the ESA said in a buzz-killing statement accompanying the video.

Still, the ideas here really could say something important about future missions. "Each small step forward in research makes future lunar colonization a little more feasible," the ESA says. As the video states, a few of the biggest issues in lunar colonizationthe radical temperature swings, radiation, the endless barrage of meteoritescould be dealt with cheaply and easily by insulating colonists with a scaffolding of moon dust and a 3d latticework skeleton extracted from the soil.

However, what's true for Mars colonization is true for the moon, too: Building living quarters isn't the biggest hurdle for living off-world. Rather, the largest obstacles involve the more mundane matter of infrastructurereplacement parts resupply, food production, and the biological hazards of long-term low-gravity life.

But let's be realthose issues don't make very snazzy YouTube video. Impatient viewers, skip ahead to about 1:50 in the video above to see the future moon colony come together.

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Watch 3D Printer-Bots Build the Moon Colony of 2050 ...