Automated Design and Additive Construction of Regolith-Shielded Lunar Habitats (2024-10)¶

Establishing sustained human settlements on the lunar surface poses unprecedented challenges and necessitates a sustainable approach to space exploration that minimises dependence on Earth’s resources. This requires automation and seamless integration of design and construction processes to provide habitats that meet mission-specific requirements. Design criteria include maximising in-situ resource utilisation while considering human factors such as the crew's psychological and physical well-being. This research investigates adaptive robotic 3D printing, space-driven site planning, and habitat design. The primary contributions include the development of a Class II-III habitat design workflow, which incorporates radiation shielding through regolith-based shells and a mission-oriented site definition. The workflow integrates mission objectives, duration, crew size, and activities with landing site conditions to define the settlement’s functional and spatial layout. An experimental investigation simulates automated robotic fabrication using lunar regolith for 3D printing structural elements, serving as a proof of concept for regolith-based radiation shielding. This reduces dependence on resources transferred from Earth, while the automation of environment-aware construction highlights the potential for digitally fabricated structures in extreme lunar environments. By leveraging computational design and robotics, this approach ensures the adaptability and resilience of lunar architectures, addressing the complex challenges of the lunar environment. The goal of reducing Earth-dependency through ISRUbased construction technologies, and increased human capability for permanent settlement on the Moon and Mars, introduces a new paradigm for enabling humanity’s extended presence in space.