CisLunar Industries

Developing the Space Foundry, an in-space processing and refining capability for structural materials, such as metals.

Space ResourcesResources - Space Debris UtilizationMaterial Recycling

Created: 2018-11-01

Updated: 2025-01-09

Classification

Space Resources

Category

Resources - Space Debris Utilization

Fields

Material Recycling

Status

Development, Launched

First launch

2024

CisLunar Industries is a space technology startup hoping to build metal foundries in space. The key to the technology is the use of debris as an input resource, enabling in-space manufacturing and accelerating space industrialization.

As a first-time recipient of NASA’s SBIR grant, CisLunar wants to develop an in-space recycling system that transforms spent components and large structures into repurposed, useful products for on-orbit 3D printing, construction, and refueling. The final output will be a uniform metal rod or ingot as feedstock for use in multiple potential applications, like AM.

MSF (Modular Space Foundry)

CisLunar Industries is developing an alternative to launch: the patent-pending Micro Space Foundry (MSF) can turn orbital junk into raw materials.

• The MSF "is a small-scale system that's targeted to be less than 100 kilograms in mass, operate on less than a kilowatt of power, but modular so it can be scaled up to increase throughput at one location or to distribute that processing capability to different locations around cislunar space and different orbits around the Earth," he adds. Possible outputs include "wire for 3D printing, sheet metal, rods, tubes -- the basic intermediate products you would need to give to a manufacturer to make things out of."
• "We're aiming for a 2024 demonstration on the International Space Station on the Bishop Airlock with Axiom Space and Nanoracks partnering with us to make that happen.

As part of our NASA SBIR Phase-1 contract, we were able to rapidly prototype and demonstrate control of melt levitation and heating, and create our first rod casting machine in 6 months.

Along with other partners in the value chain, we demonstrated publicly through live demonstration in October 2021 the capability to manufacture a rod, which was then used to successfully generate thrust in an electric thruster as fuel.

As part of our NASA SBIR Phase-2 contract, we rigorously tested our Modular Space Foundry® prototype under microgravity conditions during our first parabolic flight test in November 2022.

With the results from this flight, our next iteration will take part in another parabolic flight in May 2023.

MCEPC (Modular Configurable Electric Power Converter)

Available for purchase, our modular configurable power converters for high-efficiency DC-to-AC and DC-to-DC applications pack a big punch in a small package.

CisLunar Industries and Partners Awarded $1.7M Contract by the U.S. Space Force
CisLunar Industries alongside partners Astroscale U.S., Colorado State University, and another yet to be named, have been awarded a $1.7M Direct-to-Phase II SBIR contract by SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Space Force (USSF).

This newly funded collaboration project directly addresses the Space Force’s desire to make space operations more resilient. The project will focus on a circular propulsion ecosystem based on the ability to recycle metal in space to enable enhanced satellite mobility. 

The consortium of Colorado-based organisations will work together to move the project from concept to execution, including developing the propellant rods and delivery systems, and generating market demand.

CisLunar Industries Secures Lunar Foothold with DARPA LunA-10 Win

December 5, 2023 – CisLunar Industries has been awarded a contract with DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) for the LunA-10 (The 10-Year Lunar Architecture) capability study to advance critical technology efforts in lunar infrastructure development. CisLunar Industries will facilitate the development of the METAL framework (Material Extraction, Treatment, Assembly & Logistics), in collaboration with 13 other visionary companies.

The LunA-10 program aims to study the rapid development of non-terrestrial technology concepts designed to move away from individual scientific efforts within isolated, self-sufficient systems and toward a series of shareable, scalable, resource-driven systems that can operate jointly, creating monetizable services for future lunar stakeholders.

CisLunar Industries Earns Space Heritage

On May 6, 2024, ThinkOrbital successfully operated an electron-beam welding system in space. CisLunar Industries developed the system that powered the operation, a 20kV power supply that boasts industry-leading size, weight, and power (SWaP).

CisLunar Industries was recently awarded a US patent for its modular configurable electronic power conversion system, which addresses key gaps in the current market for space electronics. With this completed mission, the company enters the ranks of commercial companies with space heritage.

Micro Space Foundry for On-Orbit Recycling and Metal Materials Production, 2021 SBIR Phase II

CisLunar Industries is developing an innovative engineering solution to enable the recycling of spent upper stages, satellites, and space debris, thereby transforming otherwise dangerous material into feedstock for on-orbit manufacturing. Our recycling technology will take scavenged space debris and reprocess it into standardized metal feedstock in the form of rod, wire filament, and other useful geometries. These will be used in a variety of applications, including a metal propellant and for on-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (OSAM).In the Phase I SBIR project we successfully demonstrated the feasibility of on-orbit recycling using an electromagnetic induction furnace in vacuum to produce useful materials from simulated cut debris. Our partner Nanoracks provided data for debris location, composition, and methods for capture and transformation of space debris into feedstock.

Lunar Space Foundry

METAL - Material Extraction, Treatment, Assembly & Logistics, LSIC Spring Meeting, 2024-04-25.

From the LunA-10 doc, a lunar foundry. Weighs 5 tons, produces 500t of metal a year, enough to build 55km of rail a year. You could fit 20 of these on a single Starship, which could make 1100km of rail a year, which could make enough rail to circle the Moon in just 10 years.

Status Comment / Notes

• CisLunar Industries successfully continuously cast a full aluminum sample rod today in microgravity, 2024.
• CisLunar Industries Plots PPU Production, 2024-10-21. Doesn’t see a commercial market for materials on the Moon “for several more years, getting towards the end of the decade.”