Space Pictures This Week: A Space Monkey, Printing a Moon Base

Printing a Moon Base
Illustration courtesy Foster and Partners/ESA
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced January 31 that it is looking into building a moon base (pictured in an artist's conception) using a technique called 3-D printing.
It probably won't be as easy as whipping out a printer, hooking it to a computer, and pressing "print," but using lunar soils as the basis for actual building blocks could be a possibility.
"Terrestrial 3-D printing technology has produced entire structures," said Laurent Pambaguian, head of the project for ESA, in a statement.
On Earth, 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, produces a three-dimensional object from a digital file. The computer takes cross-sectional slices of the structure to be printed and sends it to the 3-D printer. The printer bonds liquid or powder materials in the shape of each slice, gradually building up the structure. (Watch how future astronauts could print tools in space.)
The ESA and its industrial partners have already manufactured a 1.7 ton (1.5 tonne) honeycombed building block to demonstrate what future construction materials would look like.
—Jane J. Lee
Published February 4, 2013
Winter Wonder
Photograph by Wally Pacholka, TWAN
Like a beacon drawing the eye skyward, this picture of Yosemite's Half Dome taken January 19 showcases the stars that shine over this famed valley. The clear winter night evokes the crisp bite of a Sierra Nevada evening. (Read about a new generation of superclimbers pushing the limits in Yosemite, from National Geographic magazine.)
Published February 4, 2013
Space Monkey
Photograph from European Pressphoto Agency
Pictures released January 29 by Iran accompanied an announcement that the country had successfully sent a monkey into space. Reports from The New York Times and the Associated Press stated that the rocket went straight up to a height of about 72 miles (120 kilometers), just to the edge of space, and then came back down with its live payload.
People began questioning the veracity of Iran's claim when they noticed that photographs showing the monkey strapped into a protective chair (pictured) and at a postflight event seemed to show two different individuals.
Mohammad Ebrahimi, a senior Iranian space official, told the Associated Press on February 2 that the pictures were of two different monkeys, but that Iran had indeed successfully sent one of them to space.
Ebrahimi explained the discrepancy by saying that they had trained three to five monkeys to make the trip, but used the one that was best suited to the mission. He said that some of the pictures were archived shots of researchers preparing the monkeys for launch. (Related: "The Unsung Heroes of the Space Program.")
Published February 4, 2013
Solar Somersault
Image courtesy SDO/NASA
In an image released January 23, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) caught a solar prominence bursting from the surface of the sun. Sometimes known as solar filaments, extreme ultraviolet sensors on the SDO caught the evolution of the prominence over seven hours. (Learn about the secrets of the sun.)
Published February 4, 2013
Martian Tracks
Image courtesy U. Arizona/NASA
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped a color, high-resolution image of Curiosity's landing site in an image released January 30.
The two white spots on the right side of the photograph are where the sky crane's rockets blew away surface materials as it delivered the red planet's latest rover.
HiRISE also picked up Curiosity's track marks (darker double lines) leading away from the landing site, wandering over the Martian surface like a curious snail leaving a slime trail. (Learn how Curiosity sent home a self-portrait.)
Published February 4, 2013
Celestial Eye
Image courtesy NHSC/Caltech/ESA/NASA
This new image of the Andromeda galaxy, taken by the European Space Agency's observatory Herschel and released January 28, reveal the temperature variations in the rings of dust swirling around our galactic neighbor.
Using a powerful infrared sensor, Herschel reveals that the center of the Andromeda galaxy hosts dust at warmer temperatures (colored blue) than the outer reaches of its rings, where dust hovering a few degrees above absolute zero reside.
Published February 4, 2013
See More of Our Favorite Space Pictures
Image courtesy SDO/NASA
Published February 4, 2013

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16 comments

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Pryscilla Johan

AMAZIIIIIIING

billy horton

We should have all ready established a presence on the moon. As we continue to suck the earth dry of its resources the need for raw materials an new resources is all ready upon us, the moon would have been a good place to start looking for new an much needed resources, wasted time an wasted technology could prove disaterious for humanity .

Ajim Attar

beautifull eye catching

Ajim Attar

wonderfull

Ajim Attar

nice

brian Markham

toooo awesome !!

kayla spurlock

haven't they been talking about something like this for a long time? just because someone announces it makes it 'official'. but seriously if there was a base on the moon i don't care how i get there but i'm going!!(: very cool.