Enabling Research Areas

• ISRU Materials Development for Structures and Machinery
High-fidelity Simulant Characterization and Testing
     • Multi-scale Modeling for Materials Formation, Radiation Degradation
     • Planning and Requirements Building for Infrastructure
• Additive, Subtractive and Automated Construction
• Robotics and System Integration
Materials, Power, CNC for fully autonomous
     • Testing of Human/Robotic-Assisted Operations
• Artificial Intelligence & Data Science
• Sensors and Embedded Systems (for Precision Navigation and Timing)
• Synthetic Environments
• Planetary Analog Studies

A graphic of wheels.

Laboratories and Testing Facilities

• Advanced Multi-scale Infrastructure Materials Characterization
• Small-to-Large Scale Seismic/Vibrational Testing
• Mission Control Room for Teleoperations Testing
• Hypervelocity Chamber for Meteoritic Impact Testing
• Center for Radiation Engineering and Science for Space Exploration
• Aerospace Human Systems Laboratory (AHSL) (PoC [email protected])
• Human-Rated Short-Radius Centrifuge (Acquired from JSC) PoC [email protected]
• AeroSpace Technology Research and Operations (ASTRO) Lab
• Land, Air and Space Research Lab (LASR)
• Aggie Satellite Lab (to build space-ready instruments)
• Innovation Proving Ground Complex
     • Autonomous Operations in Challenging Environments
     • 1km-long, 2m-diameter Hypersonic Impact Tube
• Lunar Yard for Excavation, Construction and Mining
• Regolith Test Beds: High-Fidelity Simulants, Large-Scale Testing (proposed)
     • Regolith Dust Chambers for suited astronaut and rover testing (proposed)
     • X-Large “dirty” TVAC (notional)