UTSA kicks off new phase of work with Astroport on lunar construction for NASA

AUGUST 10, 2022 — For UTSA researchers Sazzad Bin-Shafique and Ibukun Awolusi, the Moon is the limit. The professors, faculty in the UTSA School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Construction Management, are supporting the development of lunar landing and launch pads as part of their work with Astroport Space Technology.

A division of space startup company Exploration Architecture, Astroport was recently awarded its second NASA Phase 1 Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract for construction work on the Moon.

Astroport, which is located at Port San Antonio, will work to develop geotechnical engineering processes as part of its joint efforts with UTSA.

“(This) offers remarkable opportunities for the use of lunar materials, construction processes and our efforts toward achieving space sustainability.”

These renderings depict a lunar launching pad during the early phases of a colony on the Moon. Renderings produced by Tangram 3DS

“Leveraging innovative technologies and systems such as those proposed in this study offers remarkable opportunities for the use of lunar materials, construction processes and our efforts toward achieving space sustainability,” Awolusi said.

The two entities previously collaborated on developing machinery and materials to build a reusable launching pad on the Moon. Last year, a team of UTSA researchers worked on designing an induction furnace nozzle for forming and placing lunar regolith bricks for landing pad construction. They identified the temperatures at which moon soil liquifies. This material will be used to build launch pad bricks on the Moon.

Bin-Shafique and Awolusi’s work will build on the previous research by developing transportation technologies for the bricklaying system of the lunar infrastructure construction.

“This research is a natural progression of the university’s regolith liquefaction investigations, in that the Phase 1 study will develop discreet-event modeling of the bulk regolith conveyance methods to help determine feed rates for Astroport’s Lunatron bricklayer system,” Bin-Shafique said.

UTSA graduate students will contribute to the lunar construction research that will define conveyance techniques and the sorting and filtering process to prepare and deliver excavated regolith to Astroport’s Lunatron bricklayer system.

“This project has the potential to promote UTSA’s research excellence in the sense that it will not only get UTSA students motivated about the opportunity to work with leading researchers and experts to support a unique project like this, but challenge them to be diligent with their research, acquire the experience and knowledge that will set them apart and make them role models to others,” Awolusi said.

Bin-Shafique’s expertise centers on waste and remediation geotechnics — the study and modification of soil and rocks. Awolusi’s research lies in the areas of innovation and technology in construction, sustainable infrastructure and construction materials.

The project will utilize space civil engineering expertise from Australia’s University of Adelaide Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources (ATCSR). Venturi Astrolab of Hawthorne, California, will provide consulting support for integration into the overall system architecture of their FLEX rover as a baseline robotic mobility platform operating a suite of excavation tools.

— Ari Castañeda