Colorado School of Mines, Lunar Outpost work on NASA project

The Center for Space Resources at Colorado School of Mines and Lunar Outpost has been selected to carry out the Autonomous Site Preparation: Excavation, Compaction and Testing (ASPECT) project; part of NASA's larger Lunar Surface Technology Research (LuSTR) program that is preparing for the eventuality that Man will be living, working, and traveling frequently to and from the Moon.

As one of only three university-led projects selected by NASA to develop technologies for living and working on the Moon, the ultimate goal of the ASPECT project is the autonomous creation of a safe and efficient lunar landing site.

To achieve this, the lunar surface must be prepared through the relocation of rocks, moving of regolith, and leveling, grading, and compaction of the site to support the construction of a landing pad for a large lunar lander.

This is where Lunar Outpost's out-of-this-world autonomous rover expertise will come into play.

"LuSTR sets the stage for the future of frequent, large-scale lunar surface operations that will one day support NASA Artemis missions, while simultaneously developing technologies useful around the Solar System – the Moon, Mars, and even extreme environments here on Earth," said Lunar Outpost Chief Technology Office AJ Gemer. "As the leading spaceflight mobility provider, Lunar Outpost holds the expertise, capabilities, and relationships necessary to provide autonomous robotics for a wide range of extreme environment mobility needs, both on Earth and in space."

Priceless lunar sample

Lunar Outpost made headline news when it agreed to partake in NASA's request for a private space miner to "fly up and grab an up to 1.1-pound lunar sample and deliver it to the space agency by 2024," back in 2020.

While the deadline for such an incredible achievement is still ongoing, even if a mission to the Moon by a private entity is delayed for any reason, the significance such an event would entail would be history-making – and that's exactly what Lunar Outpost is hoping for.

"Because of the groundbreaking nature of this agreement, the resulting precedent that is set will serve as a bellwether for future operations by NASA and international space programs alike," Lunar Outpost penned in a statement announcing its contract with NASA.

You can read the story of NASA's initial contract agreement at Precedent setting moon sampling mission in the September 16, 2020, edition of Metal Tech News. Additionally, you can read about Lunar Outposts' $1 contract bid at The priceless precedent of a $1 Moon rock in the December 9, 2020, edition of Metal Tech News.

"As the cadence of lunar missions increases over the next decade, Lunar Outpost will leverage our leading planetary mobility platforms to provide lunar infrastructure operations, servicing, and maintenance as services to commercial and governmental operations," added Gemer.

Foundation for Artemis

Early autonomous lunar site preparation will not only minimize human planning and intervention on the Moon but also will maximize the safety of Artemis missions.

The ASPECT project aims to ensure this safety, and by demonstrating an application of its dual-use technologies that provide value both in space and on Earth, Lunar Outpost hopes to leverage its tech to guarantee rock-solid missions to the Moon.

While the Colorado School of Mines Center for Space Resources is leading the ASPECT project, with contributions from Michigan Technological University and Bechtel, Lunar Outpost is providing the project's Rover Mobility Element based on their spaceflight-ready line of MAPP (Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform) lunar rovers and HOUND terrestrial autonomous robots.

The Earth analog to the ASPECT rover, known as HOUND, is utilized in industrial applications for a variety of industries, including oil and gas, construction, and defense. Lunar's HOUND rover enables autonomous site inspection and preparation, providing value to a wide range of customers here on Earth while simultaneously supporting the development of key future spaceflight technologies.

For this project, Lunar will leverage its expertise in dust mitigation and thermal technologies from the development of its line of MAPP rovers to deliver a robust, cutting-edge Rover Mobility Element to support the ASPECT lunar excavation and construction tools.

To round out the project team, Michigan Tech will provide the compaction mechanism and invaluable modeling expertise to analyze and validate the properties of the landing pad and demonstration, while Betchel will provide a subscale vacuum test that will mimic the eventual function of ASPECT on the Moon.

As leader of the project, School of Mines will provide expertise in autonomous construction tasks, lunar geology and terrain, and lunar regolith manipulation. And as the university is home to the Space Resources Graduate Program, one of the first programs in the world focused on how to locate, access, use, and develop resources beyond Earth, the center is aptly suited to provide the know-how necessary to lay the foundation for any and all future Moon missions.

"Colorado School of Mines is excited to lead this exceptional ASPECT project team," said Professor of Practice in Mines' Space Resources Program and the principal investigator on the project, Christopher Dreyer. "ASPECT will lay the groundwork for the surface construction and mining on other worlds."

The ASPECT project will culminate in a terrestrial demonstration of the autonomous construction of a future lunar landing pad on the Mines' campus in Golden, Colorado.