Aerospace

At Monolite UK, we fuel the future of space exploration. As a supplier to the European Space Agency, we manufacture and provide lunar and Martian regolith simulants that enable aerospace companies, agencies, and researchers to develop technologies for colonising new worlds.

In 2007, we sparked a revival in lunar habitation by proposing that ESA send a D-Shape 3D printer to the Moon to print settlements from lunar soil. ESA embraced the vision, issuing a call for concepts on 3D printed lunar habitats in 2009.

Monolite UK assembled a dream team including architects Foster + Partners, aerospace leaders Alta, and researchers at Scuola Superiore S. Anna to design a lunar outpost. Our consortium won the bid, with Monolite leading procurement of simulant and 3D printing.

During the project, Monolite’s Enrico Dini discovered a near-perfect lunar regolith analogue in an ancient Italian volcano. This serendipitous European find, which he named DNA-1, enabled creation of the first 3D printed lunar habitat prototype.

D-Shape donated a portion of the pioneering outpost to ESA’s ESTEC museum, where it inspires visitors about off-world living today. The Lunar Habitation project has been exhibited worldwide, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Museum of the Future in Dubai among others.

Monolite continues driving regolith utilisation, from bricks to polymers to microwaving, to turn extraterrestrial soil into shelters beyond Earth.

We provide the literal foundation for humanity’s reach into the cosmos. Our simulants empower space organisations worldwide to develop the technologies that will build our Moon and Mars colonies. Let’s discuss how Monolite can fuel your mission to space. The sky is not the limit when we look to the soil under our feet.