Research/ ISRU & CONSTRUCTION
Lunar Innovation Park – Site Plan and Bulk Regolith Feature Design
Nathan J Gelino, Benjamin H Burdess, Mark W Hilburger, Robert P Mueller, Nipesh Pradhananga, Marta Miletic, Phillip B Abel, Laurent Sibille, Leslie S Gertsch, Jason M Schuler, Jonathan D Smith, Andrew J Nick, Joseph M Cloud
The Lunar Innovation Park (Park) is an infrastructure hub of co-located landers designed to stimulate space-resource-based economic activity through sustained robotic surface operations that enable the exchange of goods and services. The Park reduces risk for the Artemis Program by maturing transformative technologies in a risk tolerant environment. A human presence is not required. The Park is deployed via sequential Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) missions. A minimum viable kernel of services, including power distribution, communications, regolith manipulation, unpressurized shelter, limited logistics, and protective landing zones is established using mid to high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) systems. This paper details the Park’s site plan and design of regolith features built using small robotic excavators. Construction of protective regolith berms enables extreme proximity landings which accelerates lunar economic development by reducing necessary payload mass and logistics complexity. The paper concludes with discussion of uncertainties and related work that must be completed to further define the Park.