File:1.13.1 RoboticsInstitute FinalReport JIP2025.pdf

Summary

This report from the 2025 Joint Interdisciplinary Project (JIP) outlines a conceptual design for an autonomous swarm robotic system to construct a protective lunar habitat inside a lava tube using in-situ selective laser melting (SLM) of regolith, minimizing Earth-shipped mass and thus reducing total mission costs given the prohibitive €1 million per kilogram transport expense. Two concepts were evaluated; prefabricated blocks using SLM and direct in-situ melting. Concept 2 was selected for its lower technical complexity and higher adaptability. The system employs robotic swarm construction techniques, using collectors that excavate regolith outside the tube and also serve as depositors to transport and place processed regolith at the build site, processors that sieve material remove oversized particles, flatteners that ensure uniform layer thickness, and melters that fuse it around an inflatable substructure incorporating an airlock, which serves as both construction scaffold and final pressurized habitable volume. Powered by solar panels with battery storage, operations occur only during the 14-day lunar daylight period to avoid infeasible battery masses that would be required for continuous nighttime work, completing the process in approximately 2 years. The final structure is a structurally sound, radiation-shielded dome-habitat that is able to protect occupants from the harsh lunar environment.