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Moonshot+

Moonshot+ is an extension of the Moonshot program [1] designed to involve a broader range of stakeholders, both within and beyond TU Delft, who are actively participating in activities relevant to space exploration. The first Moonshot+ Work Package (WP) is Lunar Architecture and Infrastructure (LA&I). Bringing together inter-faculties education and research [2], LA&I aims to enable the next generation of experts to realize critical infrastructure for sustainable space exploration. It involves graduation projects starting 2024-25 that are building upon previous knowledge developed in BSc-MSc courses offered 2019-22 separately at respective faculties with students meeting ad-hoc in a rather unstructured manner [3]. With the proposed inter-faculties education, students will have the opportunity to work together in a more structured manner, possibly, in the Collaborative Design Lab [4], which is a ‘cutting-edge facility that offers a collaborative environment for concurrent and integrated system design activities’.

As part of Moonshot, Moonshot+ links education and research playing a pivotal role in advancing space exploration by training the next generation of experts capable of designing, constructing, and maintaining the critical infrastructure required for sustainable space colonization. It directly contributes to the broader goals of expanding humanity's presence beyond Earth's orbit by developing an autarkic system for building and operating off-Earth infrastructure from locally obtained materials. Results of Moonshot+ will be disseminated worldwide and will create opportunities for new research- and education-related activities.

[1] Moonshot: https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2023/lr/tu-delft-aims-for-lunar-exploration-with-moonshot-program
[2] Rhizome 1.0 and 2.0: http://cpa.roboticbuilding.eu/index.php?title=Rhizome1 and http://cpa.roboticbuilding.eu/index.php?title=Rhizome2
[3] CS-wiki: http://cs.roboticbuilding.eu/index.php/2019Studios
[4] CDL: https://www.tudelft.nl/lr/cdl

Activities

1. Moon Station Competition
The first Moonshot+ project is the Moon Station competition that aims to promote international education cooperation and inspire the young generation to advance human future space exploration. Three Robotic Building MSc 2 groups have participated in the competition featuring Voronoi-based designs and robotic assembly of 3D printed components and all have received awards including one 3rd prize Moonzome.

2. Robotic Terrain Mapping
The second project is Robotic Terrain Mapping implemented in collaboration with U Palermo, Associazione Naturalistica I Nebrodi, and U Chieti-Pescara, followed up by the start of the interfaculty course Lunar Architecture and Infrastructure which aims to develop an autarkic design to construction and operation system for building and maintaining architecture and infrastructure.