3D Printed Minerals as Astrobiology Analogs of Hydrothermal Vent Chimneys.

Hydrothermal vents, which are highly plausible habitable environments for life and of interest for some origin-of-life scenarios, may exist on icy moons such as Europa or Enceladus in addition to Earth. Some hydrothermal vent chimney structures are extremely porous and friable, making their reconstruction in the lab challenging ( brucite or saponite in alkaline hydrothermal settings). Here, we present the results from our efforts to reconstruct a simplified chimney structure directly out of mineral powder using binder jet additive manufacturing.