RALB Redesign (RALB-TASK)

NASA’s near-term vision for a sustained lunar presence revolves around the creation of a base at the South Pole of the Moon. A critical technology for developing this lunar base is power generation. Without power generation, future NASA visits to the lunar surface will be very short in duration and likely lack true scientific value. However, generating power is only the first step, delivering power where it is needed is a challenge of equal or greater importance. The task of the Robotically Assembled Light Bender (RALB) Announcement of Collaborative Opportunity (ACO) project was to demonstrate the ability to deploy an asset on the surface of the moon capable of redirecting sunlight to individual power consumers without direct sunlight, e.g. activities within a permanently shadowed region (PSR). Maxar partnered with Langley Research Center (LaRC) for the ACO and took the first step towards realizing the Light Bender vision for power distribution on the lunar surface through the redirection of sun light. The Maxar/LaRC partnership combined skills and experience related to In-Space Assembly (Maxar) and lunar structures and power systems (LaRC) to develop a method for assembling the tandem reflective mirrors (TRM) using Maxar’s robotic arm. During the ACO, the team refined previously designed mast and mirror subsystems to take maximum advantage of the MAXAR robotic arm creating an automatic robotic assembly (ARA) version of Light Bender. Past work at LaRC has demonstrated the ability to create an autonomously deployable mast that is mass and volume efficient. Over the last few years a mast design, with complete set of drawings, was created and a subset of components were fabricated for in house experiments.

​The Robotically Assembled Light Bender (RALB) Announcement of Collaborative Opportunity (ACO) was executed during FY2025.  The project was an overall success demonstrating the ability to design Light Bender for autonomous robotic assembly and that Light Bender was capable of reflecting light as intended on the lunar surface.  However, the team encountered several difficulties in the robotic assembly that were tied to design artifacts that, if improved, would create a Design and fabricate lighter weight mirror elements more robust overall system. For this task, the RALB Redesign, the team will further develop the RALB concept and improve upon lessons learned from the original RALB ACO. The team will design and fabricate lighter weight mirror elements, reassess the use of magnets as the method of connecting the mirror elements to the mast structure, modify the motor gears, and create and demonstrate fiducial guidance system that allows for final mirror placement navigation between mast and robotic interface. ​

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 5) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.