Team

DLR – German Aerospace Centre

Institute of Materials Physics in Space

Institute of Solar Research

Location: Cologne, Germany    

Website:  www.dlr.de

Participant profile: DLR is the National Aeronautics and Space Research Centre of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its extensive research and development work in aeronautics, space, energy, transport and security is integrated into national and international cooperative ventures. In addition to its own research, as Germany’s Space Agency, DLR has been given responsibility by the federal government for the planning and implementation of the German Space Programme. The Institute of Material Physics in Space and the Institute of Solar Research are both located at the Cologne campus of DLR.

Contribution:  DLR will provide its expertise in granular matter and sintering to produce and characterise sample regolith. Essential data on the properties of the materials are important for all partners of the consortium and will be critical to the development of structural components produced in a vacuum using the solar oven. Additionally, along with Space Applications Services, DLR will develop the automated solar 3D printing. The existing solar furnace at the DLR site in Cologne represents a unique facility which simultaneously permits the manufacturing of new building elements as well as offering a laboratory setting where testing of materials can be conducted. Existing hardware of the solar furnace must be adapted for the RegoLight project – to support a lunar regolith feeder and a 3-axis translation stage creating a complete solar oven regolith 3D printer.


Space Applications Services (SAS), Belgium

Systems and Ground Segment

Future Projects Team

Location: Zaventem, Belgium   

Website:  www.spaceapplications.com

Participant profile:  Space Application Services (SAS) is an independent Belgium company founded in 1987, with a head office in Zaventum Belgium, an office in the Netherlands, staff at the European Astronaut Training Centre and a subsidiary in Houston, USA. Its aim is to research and develop innovative systems, solutions and products and provides technology development, operation and training services to the aerospace and security markets and related industries.

Space Applications Services is a technology developer, system integrator and provider of technology enabled services typically for demanding and hostile environments and where safety of life is important. The company provides system engineering services for the development of technology and robotics for use in space, and in other Earth applications including medical ones.

The Robotics Team and the Future Projects Team in Zaventem, collaborate in advanced end-to-end robot control systems and technology such as robotic mechanisms, control centres, wearable devices, force feedback exoskeletons and human machine interaction solutions.

Contribution:  Space Applications Services has a major role in RegoLight with hardware and mechatronics development. This includes the development of robotic components to allow for automatic dispatching of regolith, and to accurately position the sun sintering head. These contributions will integrate with DLR’s sintering technologies.


LIQUIFER Systems Group (LSG), Austria

Location: Vienna, Austria    

Website:  www.liquifer.com

Participant profile: LIQUIFER Systems Group (LSG) is a multidisciplinary task force comprised of a wide range of experts from the fields of systems architecture and engineering, robotics, human factors and science. LSG’s project expertise focuses on space exploration prototypes, analogue simulation structures and scenarios and on Human Factors and Habitability. The composition of the company provides a unique environment for innovative research and product development.

Contribution:  LSG works alongside BGS and CO in the creation of new mission scenarios and applications for the new RegoLight hardware and sintering processes developed in the early stages of the project. LSG also leads the Outreach and Dissemination activities connected to publications and project communication, website portal and activities around the DLR Space Day.


Compagnie Maritime D’Expertises (COMEX), France

Space and Innovations Division

 Location: Marseille, France    

Website:  www.comex.fr

Participant profile: COMEX specializes in engineering solutions for extreme environments and deep diving operations. The company was created in November 1961 by H.G. DELAUZE and became a pioneer in deep-diving operations. Its main business activities include: Hyperbaric and hypobaric testing facilities and engineering for ocean and aerospace applications, oceanographic research (research vessels, submarines and subsea robots) and neutral buoyancy testing for equipment validation and EVA simulation. The company is involved in several studies (EC and ESA) on novel habitation concepts, life-support-systems and analogue simulations for lunar and planetary missions.

Contribution:  COMEX will participate in the RegoLight project by providing its expertise in habitat and infrastructure development for extreme environments. COMEX together with LSG and BGS, will study the applications of the sintered elements for future surface infrastructures and terrestrial applications for extreme environments.


Bollinger Grohmann Schneider ZT (BGS), Austria

Location: Vienna, Austria    

Website:  www.bollinger-grohmann-schneider.at

Participant profile:  Structural engineers are essential collaborators for building design. Over the last 11 years, Bollinger, Schneider ZT GmbH (BGS) took part in the development of building design and has become well-known for liberating structure and, with it, form. The Vienna based office is specialized in parametric design, development of spatial geometries, combining these fields with structural engineering expertise and the usage and development of Finite Element Programs. They approach each project as a unique sets of challenges: adaptability and flexible working methods have contributed to their successful collaborations with project partners of widely varying design repertoires.

As part of Bollinger + Grohmann Ingenieure (founded 1983, currently over 150 employees in Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Paris, Oslo and Melbourne) their range of services include structural and façade design, geometry development, construction physics as well as the transfer to material and fabrication technologies. The field of work spans between the structural design of housing, office, commercial, exhibition and event facilities as well as classic civil engineering structures such as bridges, roofs and towers.

Contribution:  BGS provides the preliminary research for the building standards and codes with the objective of construction and analysis of lunar habitats and infrastructure. Included is the development of a suitable load bearing system for a building on the Moon and the framework in which to provide a structural analysis.

Members of the advisory board include Haym Benaroya and Phil Metzger.