NASA has awarded Austin-based technology company ICON a $57.2 million contract to fund the development of systems intended to build lunar surface infrastructure.
ICON will further develop its Olympus construction platform under phase three of NASA’s dual-use Small Business Innovation Research contract with the U.S. Air Force, the space agency said Tuesday.
Olympus is designed to utilize resources from the moon and Mars in construction projects.
The company won an SBIR award from the service branch in 2020 to explore a 3D printing approach for manufacturing livable structure concepts in support of future human exploration missions.
As part of the project, ICON created a 3D Martian habitat simulation for NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Analog mission the agency expects to commence sometime in 2023.
