ISRU / LOCAL MANUFACTURING
Local
Manufacturing
We plan to turn metals recovered from lunar regolith into vehicle components on the Moon. Coils of metal wire would feed a laser deposition 3D printer, building complex parts layer by layer.
Producing heavy hardware where it will be used would let us develop vehicles around the work they need to do, with less dependence on what can fit into an Earth launch.
Explore the regolith processing plantINSIDE THE LUNAR WORKSHOP
Print the next component
Inside the extended rover assembly and maintenance building, six compact wire-fed printers sit three across on a two-level rack against the back wall, producing CERBERUS wheels and excavation-drum support armatures. Wire-coil storage and inspection benches line the side walls, with an open working aisle leading directly into the rover assembly bay. The components use the same geometry and scale as the rover in the assembly bay.
Drag to rotate · pinch or scroll to zoom · two-finger drag to pan. The camera stays inside the workshop. The accelerated build cycle illustrates the concept; it does not represent production speed or qualified material performance.
See these components assembled into CERBERUS Find the extended rover workshop in the lunar baseROVER CONCEPT LAB
Your rover. From wire to worksite.
Choose a frame, wheels, excavation hardware and peripherals. Watch your design being printed and assembled, then drive it in a Martian test yard.
THE PROPOSED PROCESS
From metal coils to vehicle parts
Prepare the feedstock
Recovered metals would be refined and formed into wire coils with the composition and consistency required for printing.
Deposit with a laser
A laser creates a melt pool as wire is fed into it. The print head follows a toolpath, adding material in successive layers to form the component.
Finish the component
Machining would bring mating surfaces and critical dimensions to specification. Inspection would check the part before it enters service.
Assemble locally
Printed structures would join imported electronics and other components in the rover bay. Replacement parts could follow the same production route.
Technical background: NASA’s overview of directed energy deposition. Our lunar manufacturing system is a proposed application of this process.
VEHICLE DEVELOPMENT ON THE MOON
Build around the job
Make heavy parts locally
Chassis, structural frames and excavation hardware can account for much of a vehicle’s mass. Local production would replace that imported mass with material already on the Moon.
Iterate where the vehicle works
A team could test a rover in lunar terrain, revise its design and manufacture an updated component without waiting for the next shipment from Earth.
Develop larger vehicles
Locally made sections could be assembled into vehicles much larger than their shipped predecessors. Complex, custom geometry would support designs suited to excavation and construction.
Reduce the imported inventory
Each component produced locally would leave more cargo capacity for equipment the base still needs to import. Designs and spare parts could increasingly arrive as manufacturing files.
FUTURE SHIPMENTS
Toward importing only the electronics
As local production expands, shipments would focus on electronics and other compact components the base cannot yet manufacture. Our long-term goal is to send the electronics from Earth while producing the rest of the vehicle on the Moon.