Engineering Drawing the Future: NASA harbors grand aspirations within its Artemis initiative: to ferry American astronauts back to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972, establishing a human outpost on the celestial body before this decade concludes.
Jekan Thanga, an esteemed figure within the aerospace and mechanical engineering domain at the University of Arizona, alongside his cadre of scholars, has birthed prototypes for lunar edifices constructed from sandbags, alongside a conceptual framework outlining a network of automatons adept at their construction. Embedded within these structures are sensory apparatuses aiding in their assembly, while simultaneously offering alerts to any shifts in environmental dynamics.
Tech Launch Arizona, the institution’s arm dedicated to commercialization endeavors, collaborated with Thanga to patent the distributed computational networks devised by the team, facilitating the interconnection between said structures and the robotic entities.
Sivaperuman Muniyasamy, a doctoral candidate in aerospace engineering, alongside Thanga, unveiled a scholarly paper expounding upon their technological advancements at the American Astronautical Society Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference.
“By disseminating our findings at this conference, we’re afforded invaluable insights from fellow luminaries in the field, propelling our work forward,” remarked Muniyasamy, the lead author of the publication.
Thanga postulates that astronauts will inaugurate Artemis’s lunar expeditions sometime between 2026 and 2027. Engaged within the LUNAR-BRIC consortium, his team collaborates with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech and MDA, a space robotics firm, in the pursuit of advancing technologies crucial for lunar landings under the Artemis program.
“The symbiotic partnership between an academic entity, a commercial entity, and a governmental agency is by no means fortuitous,” noted Thanga. “Given the formidable challenges ahead, collaboration stands as an imperative facet of our trajectory.”
The sandbag-based lunar structures merely mark the outset of Thanga’s aspirations and those of the LUNAR-BRIC consortium in fostering a spacefaring economy. Within a scant few years following the inaugural successful lunar landing, Thanga prognosticates NASA’s ventures shifting towards the establishment of enduring habitats and industrial facilities, including eco-conscious lunar and asteroid mining endeavors.
As denizens of the moon embark on the quest for optimal locales to erect permanent edifices, Thanga underscores the necessity for semi-permanent, secure shelters, expressing unwavering confidence in the efficacy of the inherently rudimentary sandbag structures.
Thanga’s fascination with the architectural ingenuity displayed in the work of Nader Khalili, catalyzed by a YouTube exposé, paved the path for his exploration into sandbag constructions tailored for lunar and extraterrestrial habitation—a concept Khalili initially introduced to NASA during the 1980s, later refining it into the SuperAdobe sandbag construction technique utilized in domiciles worldwide.
Drawing inspiration from the architectural marvels of insect societies, such as the towering citadels crafted by cathedral termites endemic to African and Australian deserts, Thanga envisions a parallel between the challenges faced by these creatures in extreme desert environments and those encountered in lunar landscapes.
“In the context of our off-world endeavors, the parallels between the environmental extremities confronting termites and lunar conditions are striking,” remarked Thanga. “Notably, this approach circumvents the reliance on water, a scarce commodity in the lunar domain.”
Thanga’s proclivity towards integrating principles of insect social architecture—wherein a collective of automatons collaboratively constructs and maintains intricate structures akin to termite mounds—into distributed robotic networks, represents a pivotal aspect of his research pursuits.
“Delving into this realm of knowledge steered me towards leveraging distributed systems for construction purposes,” elucidated Thanga.
Thanga’s team delved into the feasibility of utilizing sandbags laden with regolith, soil, and mineral fragments harvested from the lunar terrain as a substitute for conventional construction materials in lunar infrastructure. These structures encompass a myriad of functionalities, ranging from habitation units and storage facilities to control towers and landing platforms, augmenting the lunar landscape with resilience against turbulent lunar phenomena.
The expeditious and facile assembly of sandbag shelters by robotic ensembles mitigates the logistical burden of transporting vast quantities of construction materials to the lunar surface, while concurrently providing robust climate regulation and safeguarding against lunar seismic activity and other environmental hazards.
Incorporated within the sandbags are an array of sensors and electronic components, engendering an amalgam of functionalities encompassing spatial awareness for precise placement, environmental monitoring capabilities, and communication protocols for hazard mitigation. The lunar environment, characterized by temperature extremes spanning from -298 to 224 degrees Fahrenheit, relentless micrometeor bombardments at velocities averaging 60,000 mph, and pervasive threats posed by solar radiation and lunar regolith, necessitates a multifaceted approach to ensure the safety and efficacy of lunar exploration endeavors.
NASA’s allocation of $500,000 towards Thanga’s team for lunar surface projects, as part of the Space Technology Artemis Research program (M-STAR) under the aegis of the Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP), underscores the agency’s commitment to fostering innovation and diversity within the aerospace domain. Additional funding sourced from the MIRO program further bolsters the financial support extended to UArizona’s student-driven lunar initiatives, epitomizing a concerted effort to cultivate inclusivity and hands-on engagement within STEM disciplines.
“The overarching objective is to bolster the involvement of underrepresented demographics within the aerospace sector, whilst concurrently providing a platform for experiential learning through student-centric initiatives,” remarked Thanga, underscoring the holistic objectives underpinning the institution’s endeavors.