ISRU for construction

Abstract

One of the major difficulties in the early settlement of the Moon was the actual process of construction of the structures. Various concepts were explored – from inflatables to self-deploying – in order to minimize the time astronauts would need to spend on the surface doing construction work. In addition to the usual hazards of construction, on the Moon there are the additional worries about radiation exposure. Automated concepts based on robotics were developed, but in those early years robotics was not yet mature enough to work autonomously. Robots were simple and were not primary actors in space. The use of local resources for the building materials, that is, in situ resource utilization (ISRU), was viewed as critical to long-term success on the Moon and Mars.¹ Today we are “living off the land” with an almost fully autonomous fleet of construction robots.