BIG and ICON
Project Olympus concept render for lunar construction.
Advanced construction 3D printing company ICON has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to take part in its ten-year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) capability study.
ICON is among a group of 14 participants that have been selected by DARPA through a competitive solicitation process.
The LunA-10) study will convene this group of companies – whose products and services ‘collectively represent the foundational elements of a burgeoning lunar economy’ – to create a framework for interoperable commercial lunar architecture that will help to guide lunar research and investment over the next ten years. This framework will be developed over the next seven months.
"It is inspiring to see DARPA doing what it does best – moving fast on hard problems and catalysing commercial innovation for the good of the country and humanity," commented ICON co-founder and CEO Jason Ballard. "ICON is honoured to be selected as part of the LunA-10 study to accelerate economic vibrancy on the Moon."
"By participating in LunA-10, we can understand what inputs are going to be available, when, at what cost, and in what quantities. Similarly, those same providers will now understand what ICON capabilities they can rely on to enable their capabilities and services in the lunar economy," added Evan Jensen, ICON's Vice President of Strategic R&D.
Last year, ICON was awarded a 57.2 million USD contract through Phase III of NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program to research and develop space-based construction systems to support planned space exploration.
