A Brief History of the Future

- I also know in your bio, you're an architect for both on-world and off-world architecture.

So the on-world I get.

We're here.

Tell me more about the off-world work.

- 3D printing is a leading contender in in-space construction because the premise for 3D printing in space is that we would use local and indigenous materials on the surface of the planet rather than bringing anything with us from Earth.

That's a really high-impact concept because it is prohibitively expensive to launch heavy materials from Earth to space.

And it's not going to enable us to create the kinds of infrastructure, small cities, and settlements that we've seen in science-fiction images for decades in the past.

So NASA is really interested, and other aerospace companies are really interested in this idea of using the soil that is local to the Moon and Mars and sending up a single 3D-printing robot that can leverage that soil and those materials to 3D print, really, any kind of infrastructure or any kind of surface element that would be beneficial to the crew.

- The collaboration and innovation at work here is beautiful.

And it's inspiring to see how solving problems with creativity and concern for the here and now is the same work as building far-off futures as well.