Texas-based construction company ICON has partnered with NASA to deliver on what it considers to be the world's first 3D printed rocket pad as part of its plan to bring spacefaring infrastructure closer to home.
A student team from ICON recently unveiled a NASA-funded sustainable lunar pad. Credit: ICON
The project saw undergraduates from 10 colleges and universities from across the United States using proprietary technology to 3D print the pad using materials commonly found on the moon.
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The Lunar Plume Alleviation Device, or Lunar PAD, focuses on solving the problems caused when the force of an engine's powerful exhaust meets the dusty lunar surface.
The design features a series of petal-like channels that send exhaust upward and outward, minimising the amount of dust lofted during launch and landing.
The idea was first proposed by the team during a 12-week NASA Proposal Writing and Evaluation training course back in 2019.
The course came as part of the L'SPACE online academy and the students won funding from NASA to achieve their vision.
The student team laterpresented a paper on the Lunar PAD concept January 12 at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) 2021 SciTech Forum.
The final project was based on a concrete prototype ICON constructed back in October.
The team also recently conducted a test on the pad with a rocket motor at Camp Swift, just outside of Austin, Texas.
Michael McDaniel, ICON’s Head of Design described the pad as the first step in making off-world construction a reality.
The pad consists of two primary layers. The first is a "roof" from which the rocket takes off or lands and below it are a series of channels specifically designed to safely redirect the exhaust fumes.
A wall surrounds the structure, capturing any lunar dust particles that become mobilized during a launch or landing.
An image depicting a takeoff test using the lunar pad. Credit: ICON
John Dankanich, chief technologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center said the project represented a technological "pain point," adding the project enables a "safe and reusable landing pad required for sustainable lunar exploration."
“The team worked many hundreds of hours, engaged NASA subject matter experts, and went from concept formulation to a preliminary design. They then turned that design into reality with the subscale construction, all in a few short months," he added.
Dankanich described Mike Fiske, a Moon-to-Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technologies (MMPACT) project lead, as “one of his heroes, for not just mentoring the Lunar PAD team, but truly making them a part of the NASA team.”
Fiske coordinated with NASA subject matter experts and other government, industry, and academic partners in support of the project.
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Fisk said: "It has been a pleasure working with these students over the last year and helping to advance the state of the art in planetary launch and landing pads.
“The results from this project contribute strongly to our future knowledge of lunar launch and landing pads and get us one step closer to lunar infrastructure.”
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