Sierra Space has won a significant contract from NASA to study the use of the company’s expandable space station technology on the moon.
The purpose of this contract will be to ultimately develop innovative solutions for lunar surface logistics and mobility supporting NASA’s moon to Mars Architecture.
The contract, under the NextSTEP-2 Appendix R for Lunar Logistics and Mobility Studies, positions Sierra Space at the forefront of verticals including logistical carriers; logistics transfer; staging, storage, and tracking; trash management; and integrated strategies. This includes everything from the potential use of Sierra Space’s inflatable LIFE habitat technology for tunnels around a moon base to tracking and storage of goods on the moon, as well as integration of the entire framework for habitation on the lunar surface.
Sierra Space has in-depth insight into NASA’s Lunar program through analysis and design work performed for lunar landers, lunar rovers, lunar habitats and ongoing work supporting providers of human landing systems, lunar terrain vehicles and lunar pressurized rovers. These are all key elements for designing an architecture for sustained habitation on the moon.
Notably in April, Sierra Space announced the completion of successful hypervelocity impact trials conducted at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, to optimize the structural integrity of Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat space station technology. This included use of NASA’s .50 caliber two-stage light gas gun to replicate micrometeoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) impacts to LIFE’s outer shield, to prepare the space station of use on-orbit.
We believe our expandable softgoods space station technology can thrive in low-Earth orbit for commercial uses and for deep space exploration with NASA,” said Dr. Tom Marshburn, Chief Astronaut and Vice President of Human Factors Engineering at Sierra Space. “Sierra Space is able to leverage existing technologies to deliver robust and scalable solutions that support both near-term and long-term mission objectives on the moon. We’ve developed a versatile technology with our expandable habitation products that we feel supports NASA’s moon to Mars goals.”