Materials Technology Will Change Space Exploration and Settlements

Considering the advances in materials technology it is amusing to consider how space ships, stations, mobiles and planetary and moon buildings may change from the present general non-adaptive finished and ossified product. It is easy to imagine slowly building an extra igloo on Earth out of urine (not that anyone would of course), yet it is simpler and more practical to consider building Martian ice structures in shadowed craters from Martian ice or raising structures from metals that turn liquid and then harden in the desired shape. Space ships too could be made of such transformative materials that could go so far as to be burnable as fuel for ion engines over the course of a long journey.

http://www.finditwestvalley.com/index.php/science/3-d-pop-up-silicon-structures-transforming-planar-materials-into-3-d-microarchitectures-h45396.html

Mankind's efforts to colonize space create a greater platform to give glory unto God. Human beings venturing into the expanses of space may have more time to contemplate God's glory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1uumEkfj4A

I believe there may be actual concept of using 3-D printers of the future to produce edible potatoes for baking with a new kind of material. One wonders why a future Mars settlement cannot be built without human hands-on such that it would be ready for arriving travelers from Earth? The moon should be a good place to experiment and develop remote construction technology. Some kind of competitive prize could be offered by the Federal Reserve for building one at low-cost. The Fed may need something from space to help its balance sheet one day.

Innumerable approaches to pre-fabricating adaptive housing on Mars including deposition of building panels for double-walled Martian regolith insulated dwellings exist. The innovation of new ways to sprinkle exteriors with micro-tech solar cells or exploit Martian and lunar materials for solar cells covering for dwellings has barely started to be explored I would think.

http://taylor.research.yale.edu/

http://www.arpa-e.energy.gov/sites/default/files/documents/files/ateme-workshop-presentation_FINAL%201%2030%2013.pdf

http://www.nist.gov/tip/proj_briefs/upload/tip_project_brief_090033_10h003.pdf

http://energy.gov/eere/sunshot/project-profile-low-cost-metal-hydride-thermal-energy-storage-system