Materials Research, Advanced Manufacturing, Structures, and Assembly

As NASA embarks on its mission for human exploration of the Moon as a step towards the human mission to Mars, taking full advantage of the potential offered by new and existing technologies will be critical to enabling sustainable Lunar and Mars presence. Manufacturing and construction approaches tailored to the Lunar environment will pave the way toward addressing challenges such as lowering the cost of exploration and enabling efficient, reliable operations in extreme environments. The Materials Research, Advanced Manufacturing, Structures, and Assembly focus area seeks innovative advanced materials processing and structural concepts that enable effective use of in-situ resources to establish planetary infrastructures that can support affordable and reliable Lunar surface operations. Integration of advanced tools to accelerate the implementation of the required technologies is critical to closing gaps in the systems architecture.Since this focus area covers a broad area of interest, specific topics and subtopics are chosen to enhance and/or fill gaps in the space and exploration technology development programs, as well as to complement other mission directorate materials, manufacturing, structures, and in-space assembly needs.