NASA has sunk $20 billion into figuring out how people can live on the Moon. Skyler Chan, a figure involved in shaping those plans, recently laid out a vision that goes well beyond the agency’s current Artemis program: building actual cities on the Moon and Mars using the dusty gray soil underfoot — lunar regolith.
Why lunar dirt matters
Hauling concrete blocks from Earth would be impossibly expensive. Chan pointed to regolith as the raw material for 3D-printed structures, roads, and launch pads. The same approach, he argued, could work on Mars, where the surface material is similar. Turning local soil into building stock means settlers wouldn’t have to import nearly everything from home.
What the $20 billion buys
NASA’s investment covers research into habitats, life-support systems, and the heavy landers needed to put gear on the surface. Chan’s talk of cities pushes the timetable far into the future — the agency’s current goal is a small, crewed outpost near the lunar south pole by the end of this decade. Permanent settlements, he said, would require automated construction machines that can mine and sinter regolith into durable panels.
Mars in the same blueprint
Chan didn’t limit the idea to the Moon. He described using the same regolith-based construction methods on Mars, where the fine, harsh dust has frustrated engineers for decades. If the technology can handle the Moon’s vacuum and temperature swings, the logic goes, it should stand a chance on the Red Planet. No one has yet tested a regolith printer at scale beyond a small demonstration.
The $20 billion figure is already spent or obligated, meaning the real cost of turning lunar dirt into city blocks has not been tallied. Chan offered no timeline. Neither has NASA.
