Company - ICON
Product/Service - Olympus, Lunar Lantern
- Classification
- Surface Habitats & Structures
- Category
- Space Construction Company
Surface Habitats
- Status
- Development
- First launch
- 2026
- The nearly $60 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.
- 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.
- Instead of Lavacrete, ICON is experimenting with using lunar regolith, the mineral-rich dust and rock that covers the moon’s surface. The regolith can be melted with a laser and turned into a ceramic-like material that is hard, durable and radiation-absorbing, explained Ballard.
- Parts of the construction system have been tested in a vacuum, and will next be tested in simulated lunar gravity, before being sent to the moon in 2026 or 2027, he added. The CEO stressed there are no plans for a lunar base yet, but ICON’s tests will represent a significant step in that direction.
DARPA LunA-10 Program Study, 2023-2024
Sources
Most sources should be linked in the texts and headings as revealed by mouse-over, but here are they listed for visibility.
News, Research, Projects and Patents
| Title | Type | Date | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| A 3D-printing company is preparing to build on the lunar surface. But first, a moonshot at home | News | 2023-04-11 | |
| 3D Printing on the Moon: The Future of Lunar Construction | Podcast | 2023-02-01 | |
| NASA wants to build a lunar base by 2030. Could 3D printing with moon dust be the answer? | News | 2020-12-18 | |
| Bjarke Ingels Group Helps Pioneer Technology for 3D-Printed Buildings on the Moon | News | 2020-10-02 | |
| NASA Looks to Advance 3D Printing Construction Systems for the Moon and Mars | News | 2020-10-01 | > Today, NASA is working with ICON, a construction technologies company based in Austin, Texas, on early research and development of a space-based construction system that could support future exploration of the Moon and Mars. |
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