Moon BRICCS — Daniel Massimino

Daniel Massimino

Research Projects • Other Projects • Photography • Email

Hello! I’m Daniel, a PhD student at MIT in Mechanical Engineering. I am currently working in the Fabrication Integrated Design Lab (FIDL). I am investigating using glass additive manufacturing as a building material in partnership with Evenline Inc.

I am broadly interested in the development of new construction materials. This interest stems from the combination of my BS in Civil Engineering from Columbia University, five years as a Boeing manufacturing engineer at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, and my current studies as a mechanical engineer.

Moon BRICCS

2024 • Class Project

I was part of the inaugural Space Architecture Studio at MIT, led by Professors Jeffrey Hoffman, Nicholas De Monchaux, Dava Newman, and Skylar Tibbits. Our team’s concept utilized molten regolith casting to produce individual masonry units. These units were combined to build large corbelled shell structures, inspired by Mycenaean tombs in Greece, for radiation shielding. Hence the name Moon BRICCS (Moon Blocks Using Regolith ISRU for Corbelled Construction of Sustainable Shielding). We built two demonstrations: an underwater assembly and a robotic assembly of the units shown in the videos to the right.

Render of lunar colony using corbelled structures. Rendering courtesy of Juan Salazar and Mikita Klimenta.

Another view of proposed lunar colony. Rendering courtesy of Juan Salazar and Mikita Klimenta.

Render of single habitation radiation protection. Inflatable space would be inside this structure. Rendering courtesy of Juan Salazar and Mikita Klimenta.

Cast glass model of invdividual masonry unit.

Contributions:
Background research, manufacturing process and structural concept development. Energy calculations, scale glass model casting.

Team:
Mikita Klimenka, Lanie McKinney, Palak Patel, Juan Salazar, Annika Thomas

Advisors:
Cody Paige, Jeffrey Hoffman, George Lordos, Nicholas De Monchaux, Dava Newman, Skylar Tibbits

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