Moon-to-Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technology (MMPACT)

The Moon-to-Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technology (MMPACT) project is a NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) Game Changing Development (GCD) project led by MSFC with partners including ICON Technology of Austin TX, Dr. Holly Shulman of Blue Star Advanced Manufacturing (BSAM), and other companies and universities in lesser roles. MMPACT is managed at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) through the Science and Technology Office (STO). The MMPACT project focuses on the utilization of lunar in-situ materials for the on-demand construction of large-scale infrastructure elements like habitats, berms, landing pads, blast shields, walkways, foundations/floors, storage facilities, and roads. These structures will provide protection of crewmembers, hardware, and electronics while on the surface of an extraterrestrial body to enable on-location surface exploration. MMPACT chose to pursue the Laser Vitreous Material Transformation (VMX), developed by ICON, as the baselined construction material for development.  Risk mitigation materials include molten extrusion (ICON) and microwave sintering of regolith (BSAM). These 100% regolith-based material process technologies can be used to reduce launch mass, building time, material waste, and personnel exposure to hazardous environments. Utilizing in-situ resources for the construction of extraterrestrial infrastructure elements will increase the efficiency of space missions by reducing the quantity of materials transported from Earth to surface destinations. The goal of the MMPACT project is to develop, deliver, and demonstrate on-demand capabilities to protect crewmembers and create infrastructure on the lunar surface via construction of landing pads, habitats, shelters, roadways, berms, and blast shields using lunar regolith-based materials.  The project continues towards this end.

The LSII Formulation Planning Guidance for Lunar Surface Construction identified the following needs, which were addressed via MMPACT.  These are: 1) Material and construction requirements and standards.  MMPACT partnered with architecture and building/development firms, as well as other NASA Centers, with support coming from academia and industry.  2) Increased autonomy of operations.  MMPACT worked on co-development of autonomous and remote operation systems through partnerships with Department of Defense entities, as well as ICON, and with support coming from academia and industry.  The DoD entities are interested in autonomy because it reduces risk by having fewer humans present in active theaters. 3) Scale of construction activities. MMPACT leveraged current technology elements (ICON and MSFC) and matured regolith processing capabilities, having an early demonstration of subscale planar construction capabilities (3D printed landing pad in Bastrop, TX), and development of lunar jobsite mobility and materials deposition system prototypes.  The original target was a technology demonstration flight opportunity in the 2027 timeframe.  The goal of the future mission is to produce a demonstration article that is extensible to a landing pad, in preparation for a full-size demonstration in the 2031 timeframe. 4) Hardware operation and manufacturing under lunar environment conditions. Additive construction hardware, printing processes and microwave sintering were evaluated during the MMPACT project under lunar environmental conditions (to the extent allowable by test systems). 5) Long-duration operation of mechanisms and parts.  The MMPACT design was for robust dust mitigation and field reparability as able, utilize materials capable of operating in the lunar environment, and assess hardware for lifetime of operation in the lunar environment.These needs are in addition to the MMPACT objective of using as much in-situ lunar resources as possible as construction material, as well as leaning Mars-forward by utilizing the lunar surface as a testing ground for future Mars construction technologies.​

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