Texas-based ICON NASA’s key task is to develop the necessary infrastructure for the Moon in order to achieve its Artemis ambitions.
NASA awarded ICON $57.2 Million to research and develop technology to construct structures such as landing pads, habitats, roads, and roads on the moon surface. Announcement Tuesday. The contract is valid through 2028.
Through it Artemis programNASA plans to have a permanent presence at the Moon. It will also use Mars as a base to explore other planets. “In order to explore other worlds, we need innovative new technologies adapted to those environments and our exploration needs,” Niki Werkheiser, director of technology maturation in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement.
The contract builds on ICON’s Project Olympus, a conceptual space-based construction system that would use resources available on the Moon (and Mars), including regolith (i.e. To build structures, dusty surface material and rocks are used. ICON is well-known in the United States for its 3D building technologies. They have built the first U.S. 3D-printed homes.
ICON, in partnership with NASA has already 3D-built an analog 1,700-square foot Martian habitat known as Mars Dune Alpha. The idea is to use as little construction material as possible such that NASA doesn’t have to fly heavy payloads to the Moon or Mars. Mars Dune Alpha will be used by the space agency to train astronaut crews in one-year stints that will begin next year.
“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, said 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.”
ICON will utilize lunar regolith samples that were returned from the Apollo missions in order to develop the necessary technologies for building the Moon. Through a lunar gravity simulation flight, the company will also test its hardware. These tests on Earth will hopefully inform ICON’s 3D-building technologies to be used on the Moon, designing other worldly structures for lunar inhabitants.
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