ASTROPORT SPACE TECHNOLOGIES, INC. — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: Z14

Description

Brickbot is intended as a risk reduction technology demonstrator of anbsp;robotic deployed induction furnace with an integrated brick molding nozzle, which will store lunar regolith, melt it, and deposit a brick while molten. Subsequent bricks when poured next to the initial brick will be melded together from residual heat. . This eliminates the need for grout or binders between the bricks.nbsp; This prevents exhaust gases from intruding underneath the bricks and displacing them. The molding nozzle has independently actuated sides which allow the bricks to be deposited next to a previous brick and by lifting the nozzle wall ofnbsp;the joining side, allow molten regolith to flow around and meld itself to the previous brick.nbsp; Each brick has a release draft angle with an undercut, it is this undercut which allows the interlocking of the bricks, which are shaped as a lobed rounded hexagonal.The proposed Induction Furnace-Nozzle 2.0 builds on results of our STTR 2021 Phase 1 Induction Furnace-Nozzle prototype 1.0, for development of a method of making in-situ lunar landing pad bricks.