A $2.25m competition has been introduced by NASA in collaboration with National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, known as America Makes.

The competition has been kicked-off to design and build a 3D printed habitat for deep space exploration. The aim of the competition is to advance the construction technology that is required to create sustainable housing solutions both on Earth and in space. The 3-D printed habitat would also include NASA's journey to Mars.

NASA said, "Shelter is among the most basic and crucial human needs. But packing enough materials and equipment to build a habitat on a distant planet would take up valuable cargo space that could be used for other life- sustaining provisions".

The competition is split into two phases. The first phase requires participants to develop architectural concepts that take advantage of 3D printing capabilities. It will run until 27 September. The top 30 submissions will be judged and a prize of $50,000 will be awarded to the winner.

The second phase is further split into two parts, each carrying awards of $1.1million. One focuses on the fabrication techniques needed to manufacture the habitations while the second challenges designers to fabricate full-scale habitats.

Sam Ortega, Centennial Challenges program manager, said that the future possibilities for 3D printing are inspiring and technology plays an extremely important role in deep space exploration.

According to him, the competition will definitely raise the bar for what scientists are currently capable of. They want to see what the maker community does with it.

The designs of the challenge could be used on Earth to construct affordable housing in remote locations with limited access to conventional building materials.