Astroport Space Technologies and its parent organization Exploration Architecture Corporation (XArc) received a combined $1.3M in NASA SBIR/STTR awards for the development of extreme environment landing pad technologies. 

The SBIR/STTR Phase 1 and Phase 2 awards will focus on the development of lunar construction and operations technologies needed for lunar surface landing/launch pads (LLPs) in support of the NASA Artemis program.

NASA awarded Astroport a Phase 1 SBIR to advance the development of its unique Lunatron furnace nozzle for making bricks from molten lunar regolith (lunar soil). Bricks are used for the surface pavement in Astroport's LLP design. A Phase 1 STTR was awarded to Astroport for the development of novel regolith flow technology for mitigating problematic electro-static forces during the conveyance of processed regolith. This sieving and grain separation technology will isolate the regolith grains that are ideal for manufacturing lunar bricks.

 Additionally, NASA awarded Astroport's parent company, XArc, a Phase 1 STTR contract for the development of an autonomous pathfinder surveying robot (Surveyorbot) to determine the geotechnical characteristics of a potential landing site. The Surveyorbot will perform precursor surveying missions prior to deployment of surface construction operations, to characterize regolith handling difficulty at a selected site, such as load bearing capability, compaction, and penetration depth, as well as soil settlement due to imposed loads from heavy cargo landers. The total value of these awards is $450,000.

NASA also selected Astroport and its consortium team comprised of industry partners and academic research institutions, for a Phase 2 STTR award valued at $850,000 to refine the team's Phase 1 defined concept of operations (CONOPS) and system architecture for the LLP site preparation and construction process. A bulk regolith distribution system for hauling excavated regolith, processing at a sorting station, and sieving for feedstock production for the LLP brickmaking robots is further developed during the Phase 2 effort.

"These awards demonstrate our end-to-end systems approach to LLP construction, breadth of technologies and mission applications being developed within the XArc / Astroport company group for advancing state-of-art lunar surface infrastructure construction", said Sam Ximenes, Founder, CEO and Space Architect.

Click here to learn more about XArc's Moon Projects.