NASA Awards ICON $57 Million Contract for Lunar Construction Technology

A Texas-based firm has been assigned the pivotal job of creating the means for NASA to construct important infrastructure on the Moon to additional its Artemis ambitions.

NASA awarded ICON a hefty $57.2 million contract to analysis and develop building applied sciences to construct constructions like touchdown pads, habitats, and roads on the lunar floor, the house company announced on Tuesday. The contract runs via 2028.

Through its Artemis program, NASA needs to ascertain a sustainable presence on the Moon and use our pure satellite tv for pc as an outpost to achieve additional locations, specifically Mars. “In order to explore other worlds, we need innovative new technologies adapted to those environments and our exploration needs,” Niki Werkheiser, director of know-how maturation in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, stated in a press release.

The contract builds on ICON’s Project Olympus, a conceptual space-based building system that will use assets obtainable on the Moon (and Mars), together with regolith (i.e. dusty floor materials) and rocks, to construct constructions. ICON is understood for its 3D constructing applied sciences on Earth, having constructed the primary U.S. 3D printed houses.

Through its partnership with NASA, ICON has already 3D-constructed a 1,700-square-foot Martian habitat analog often called Mars Dune Alpha. The thought is to make use of as little building materials as attainable such that NASA doesn’t should fly heavy payloads to the Moon or Mars. The house company will use Mars Dune Alpha to coach crews of astronauts throughout one-year stints beginning subsequent yr.

“We’re pleased that our research and engineering to-date has demonstrated that such systems are indeed possible, and we look forward to now making that possibility a reality,” Jason Ballard, ICON co-founder and CEO, stated in a statement. “The final deliverable of this contract will be humanity’s first construction on another world, and that is going to be a pretty special achievement.”

To develop the development applied sciences wanted for the Moon, ICON will work with lunar regolith samples introduced again throughout the Apollo missions. The firm may even take a look at its {hardware} and software program via a lunar gravity simulation flight. These exams on Earth will hopefully inform ICON’s 3D-constructing applied sciences for use on the Moon, designing different worldly constructions for lunar inhabitants.

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