Giant Leap: Moon Base Research Poised to Transform Building on Earth

In 1988, Isaac Asimov—the science fiction pioneer who coined the term “robotics”—predicted that manned Mars expeditions would be under way by 2014. While Asimov’s prediction may be a little premature, his dream of humans living somewhere other than Earth is gaining ground 57 years after humankind set foot on the Moon. Technological advances are converging with a push to create a permanent lunar base to serve as a stepping stone to Mars as well as support the exploitation of the Moon’s resources. Australian researchers are playing a role—the Lunar Architecture Research Group (LARG), led by the Adelaide University’s Dr Amit Srivastava, is investigating a range of areas, from space medicine to human-robot collaboration. Adelaide University doctoral candidate and LARG member Albert Rajkumar is researching how Extended Reality (XR) could enable remote construction in space—work that may have applications on Earth too. “The Artemis-era of NASA missions is under way, and we want to not just visit, but build something permanent and exist, even live and thrive, there,” Rajkumar says. “We started off with the question, how do humans and robots work together in order to build lunar infrastructure?” Australian robotics in the space game Australia is entering the new-era space race with its first lunar rover, dubbed Roo-ver, which is scheduled to land on the Moon in 2030 as part of NASA’s CT-4 mission. “This is a prototype for Australia’s capabilities in terms of robotics operations, and that’s where most of Australia’s contribution to the space program lies,” Rajkumar says. Space robotics is learning from a nascent construction robotics sector, as robots and automation move into activities from excavation, compaction and surveying to machine control and 3D printed construction led by companies including Caterpillar. ▲ Adelaide University’s Albert Rajkumar took learnings around XR to the Australian Rover Challenge, an international robotics competition where students design, build and operate semi-autonomous rovers for simulated lunar missions. Texas-based ICON has launched its Titan program—a robotic 3D-printing construction system that enables builders to fabricate concrete wall systems on site using automated technology, software and proprietary materials—offering robotic wall systems for around US$20 per square foot (AU$310 per square metre). That is a potential 40 per cent saving over conventional methods. In Australia, Melbourne-based Luyten has launched its next-generation tower crane 3D construction printer developed for multi-storey buildings, high-rise developments, large-scale infrastructure, and advanced construction automation. And Western Australia’s FBR has launched Hadrian X, an automated, mobile block-laying robot designed to autonomously build structural load-bearing walls for homes and buildings from a 3D CAD model, cutting construction time down to a single day. “The question is not whether robotics can be used in construction. It already can. The harder question is: What happens when we take construction robotics into an environment where the risks are much higher, access is much harder, and human labour cannot simply be sent to site?” Rajkumar says. Challenges of using robotics to build on the Moon Much of the near-term lunar activity is still exploration and logistics-driven, Rajkumar says. Building on the Moon changes the rules dramatically, he says. “A robot working on the Moon has to deal with abrasive lunar dust, extreme temperature swings, vacuum conditions, weird gravitational regimes, radiation, delayed communication, limited power, uneven terrain, and very limited opportunities for repair,” he says. Terrestrial machinery would need to be redesigned, hardened and tested specifically for that environment, and lunar construction is unlikely to be fully autonomous in the short term. ▲ Australia’s Roo-ver, a 20kg lunar rover, is scheduled to land on the Moon’s South Pole by 2030 to collect and analyse lunar soil. “We will probably need a layered approach, where robots do much of the physical work, but humans still supervise, interpret situations, make judgement calls, and intervene when something unexpected happens,” Rajkumar says. “The future of construction on the Moon will not only be about designing buildings. It will also be about designing construction systems: the blocks, the robots, the assembly sequence, the interfaces, the tolerances, and the decision-making process.” Extended reality and real-world robotics progress XR, an umbrella term to cover virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality, is already in use in the construction industry, especially for training, design review and safety simulations. Live construction support requires augmented and mixed reality, Rajkumar says, and the layering of digital information, such as spatial overlays, warnings and alignment information, over real-world visuals can help build in space as much as it can on Earth. “The question becomes: how do you give that human enough spatial understanding to make good decisions?” ▲ The next step is using more autonomous robots in partnership with humans. Rajkumar’s experiments, which will move towards fully autonomous robots rather than simulated autonomy, could also solve Earth-based construction problems. “The same ideas could apply to remote, hazardous, labour-constrained or difficult-to-access construction environments,” Rajkumar says. It is even possible that in the future regular construction could be mostly autonomous, with human supervision from anywhere in the world. “Space construction can become a useful test bed for safer and more flexible construction methods on Earth,” he says. Human and robot collaboration Rajkumar’s next research phase will take place at the CRATER facility at Adelaide University in October, where participants will supervise construction tasks remotely in a simulated lunar setting using XR. “The aim is to study how people detect alignment problems, decide when to intervene,and work with a robotic construction system when the construction situation is uncertain, remote, and physically constrained,” he says. The research will then move from small demonstrations to more advanced setups involving real robotic construction tasks. It is clear is that if NASA’s aim of a sustained human presence on the Moon from 2032 is to be realised, construction is critical. ▲ The European Space Agency is teaming with NASA to develop a permanent base on the Moon. “A long-term presence cannot rely only on landing pre-built modules forever, as we did during the Apollo lunar missions in the 1960s and 1970s,” Rajkumar says. “Eventually, we need to understand how to build, assemble, maintain, repair and adapt infrastructure using robotics, local materials and human supervision. “A permanent lunar base is moving from science fiction into serious planning, but it is still a staged, long-term challenge.” So, while there is much to be done, it seems Asimov’s belief that “humanity has the stars in its future” may indeed ring true.