Austin-based technology company ICON has received funding from NASA to develop lunar and space building systems to support lunar settlement on the Moon and Mars.
ICON has been awarded a nearly $60 million contract under NASA’s Phase 3 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
The new funding builds on previous funding from NASA and the Department of Defense for Project Olympus, which was designed by ICON.
In collaboration with SEArch+ (Space Exploration Engineering), to research and develop space building systems on the Moon and beyond.
Funding goals
With this new funding, the company aims to construct “humankind’s first-ever construction on another planetary ‘body’.”
Intended to be a multi-purpose construction system, the company’s new Olympus system
to the use of primarily lunar and Martian local resources as building materials as specific building materials –
It also aims to “create a sustainable presence on the moon.”
To change the paradigm of space exploration from “there and back again” to “there to stay,”
We will need robust, flexible, and large-scale systems that can use the local resources of the Moon and other planetary bodies.
The research and engineering conducted to date has shown that such systems are indeed possible,
and we are now looking forward to making this possibility a reality.
The end product of this decade will be humanity’s first construction on another world, and that will be a very special achievement.
Program support
In support of NASA’s Artemis program, ICON aims to use its advanced hardware and software in space via a simulated lunar gravity flight.
As part of this, the company plans to work with lunar regolith samples brought back from the Apollo missions
as well as various regolith simulators to identify and understand their mechanical behavior in simulating lunar gravity.
The company will also use these findings in findings that could benefit “future lunar construction approaches to the broader space community.”
Including critical infrastructure such as landing pads, blast shields and roads.”
This technology will be able to help create the critical infrastructure necessary to create a sustainable lunar economy –
ultimately leading to the long-term settlement of the moon.
In order to explore other worlds,
we need innovative new technologies that adapt to those environments and exploration needs.
Driving this evolution forward with our business partners will create the capabilities we need for future missions.
NASA also stated that with the Artemis program, if successful,
“The Moon will be the first extraterrestrial site for sustainable surface exploration.”
ICON also believes that in order to create a sustainable presence on the Moon,
There is a need for a strong infrastructure that can help build on the moon and that
“provides better protection for heat, radiation and micrometeorites.”
ICON’s development plans are based on a “living off the land” approach.
With priority given to the use of in-situ/original materials on the moon.
From landing pads to habitats,
these collective efforts are driving the need to make humanity a space-faring civilization.
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