ICON to develop lunar surface construction system

ICON Technology Inc., an advanced construction technologies and large-scale 3D printing firm, received a contract awarded under Phase III of NASA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The $57.2 million contract builds upon previous NASA and Department of Defense funding for ICON's Project Olympus to research and develop space-based construction systems to support planned exploration of the moon and beyond. ICON's Olympus system is intended to be a multi-purpose construction system primarily using local lunar and Martian resources as building materials to further the efforts of NASA as well as commercial organizations to establish a sustained lunar presence.

"To change the space exploration paradigm from 'there and back again' to 'there to stay,' we're going to need robust, resilient, and broadly capable systems that can use the local resources of the moon and other planetary bodies. We're pleased that our research and engineering to-date has demonstrated that such systems are indeed possible, and we look forward to now making that possibility a reality," said Jason Ballard, ICON co-founder and CEO. "The final deliverable of this contract will be humanity's first construction on another world, and that is going to be a pretty special achievement."

Highlighting the commonalities between advanced construction on earth and in space, ICON will continue to pioneer methods and technologies to solve some of the most vexing construction challenges facing our species from affordable housing to living on other planets.

In support of NASA's Artemis program, ICON plans to bring its advanced hardware and software into space via a lunar gravity simulation flight. ICON also intends to work with lunar regolith samples brought back from Apollo missions and various regolith simulants to determine their mechanical behavior in simulated lunar gravity. These findings will yield results that inform future lunar construction approaches for the broader space community, including for critical infrastructure such as landing pads, blast shields, and roads. This technology will help to establish the critical infrastructure necessary for a sustainable lunar economy including, eventually, longer term lunar habitation.

For a sustained lunar presence, robust infrastructure will need to be built on the moon that provides better thermal, radiation, and micrometeorite protection.

In 2021, ICON was also awarded a subcontract through Jacobs supporting NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) as part of NASA's Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) and delivered the world's first and only simulated Mars surface 3D-printed habitat. Designed by architecture firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, Mars Dune Alpha is located at NASA's Johnson Space Center and will aid in long-duration science missions.