Astroport achieves milestone in Brickbot development as part of its ongoing $1.4M NASA STTR portfolio

Between 2024 and 2025, Astroport Space Technologies advanced key regolith conveyance and feed system capabilities under its NASA STTR Phase II ”Brickbot” technology demonstration platform. The Brickbot effort addresses the reliable preparation and delivery of regolith feedstock at controlled grain sizes suitable for lunar brick formation. The technical scope of this milestone includes:

• Autonomous regolith acquisition and deposit
• Mechanical filtration and grain size optimization for lunar brick strength
• Regolith feed interface to a furnace-nozzle system for brick molding and placement
• Fabrication of a gantry system for robotic brick placement
• Definition of operational procedures and system interfaces

Ongoing Phase II Development

Phase II development continues toward full system integration and functional demonstration of the complete Brickbot platform. Current and planned activities include:

• Integration of the complete regolith acquisition and deposit system
• Finalization and testing of the mechanical filtration and feed subsystems
• Integration of the furnace-nozzle system with the Brickbot platform
• Development of supporting power, thermal management, and command-and-control subsystems
• Functional testing in a simulated lunar terrain environment

These activities are directed toward demonstrating a closed-loop regolith handling and brick production workflow suitable for scaling to future lunar surface operations.