ISRU-Based Robotic Construction Technologies for Lunar and Martian Infrastructures

This study hopes to examine how to robotically pour regolith-based concrete on the Moon or Mars. The study team is adapting its current, Earth based technologies that can pour eight foot tall concrete walls robotically. Automated building technologies will revolutionize the way structures are built on Earth, in dense urban environments, in difficult-to-build and difficult-to-service sites, or in remote and hostile regions of the globe. The technologies under development by our group have the potential to simplify construction logistics, reduce the need for hard physical labor by assigning humans to a strictly supervisory role, eliminate issues relating to human safety and produce intricate, aesthetically refined designs and structures at significantly reduced construction cost. Space architecture in general and Lunar and Martian structures in particular will also provide a rich new aesthetic vocabulary for architects to employ in the design and creation of buildings that employ high technology and building information modeling that is vital for optimizing use of materials and energy that is critical to building economics. More »