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ESDMD #0605: Lunar Regolith Excavation, Manipulation, and Transportation

Robust, scalable machines to dig, move and deliver lunar regolith for ISRU and for site preparation at landing zones, habitation zones and pathways (bin 6, rating 53 of 57). In-situ regolith handling so far is at "small <10 kg scale". NASA's IPEx excavator (TRL 5) is being designed to move 10 metric tons. It is named in the Moon Base Users Guide (near-term), under two challenges, "Manipulating regolith" and "ISRU systems" (Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #0605; Users Guide, p. 13).

Quotations below are from row ESDMD #0605 of the tech gaps spreadsheet unless marked otherwise. ADD Rev C's Appendix D prints the same table for this gap, and it matches the row field for field, IPEx sentence included (ADD Rev C, p. 232).

Description

"Robust and scalable technologies are needed to collect and deliver different types of regolith to support the variety of resources targeted for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) activities such as oxygen, water ice, metals, and feedstock. Developing systems to provide the forces required for digging, extraction, and relocation of material in lunar gravity is a challenging obstacle to closing this gap. Site preparation requires manipulation of regolith, rocks, and other surface obstacles. Novel implements are needed to provide these capabilities and to enable routine operations at landing zones, habitation zones, and pathways."

Impacts and benefits: "Without gap closure, the impact is an inability to acquire, manipulate, and deliver enough regolith to support lunar surface ISRU activities, surface site needs, and industry. Surface operations on unprepared lunar terrain will contend with dusty, unlit, and uneven conditions that may increase operational time and risk."

Current state of the art

"Regolith manipulation has been demonstrated in situ with scientific instruments and scoops at small <10 kg scale. Current ongoing efforts, including the development of the ISRU Pilot Excavator (IPEx) (TRL 5), are being designed with the goal of reliability and efficiency to excavate 10 metric tons of lunar regolith over 14 days."

IPEx in other sources. NASA's web pages describe the same excavator differently. They are newer than the spreadsheet (Dec 2025), but their own figures differ, so they are given side by side (open questions, item 4):

Source Name Capacity
Tech gaps spreadsheet, Dec 2025; the same in ADD Rev C, p. 232 "ISRU Pilot Excavator (IPEx) (TRL 5)" "10 metric tons of lunar regolith over 14 days"
Lunar Surface Technology, "Quick Facts" "Infrastructure Pilot Excavator (IPEx)" "a total of 10 metric tons of lunar regolith over the course of 100 meters and 11 days (200 times more than the state of art.)"
Lunar Surface Technology, "Excavation and Construction" "Infrastructure Pilot Excavator (IPEx)" "on the order of 20 metric tons of lunar regolith over a single mission"
Moon Base landing page, "Lunar Technology" (photo caption) "ISRU Pilot Excavator (IPEx) breadboard unit, also known as RASSOR" none given

Performance target

Moon: "Demand for regolith excavation, manipulation, and transportation will depend on the scale of ISRU operations and site preparation. The scale of regolith manipulation to also minimize lofted dust will depend on the scale of site preparation and surface infrastructure support."

Child gaps

  • 0605-01: Excavation of granular regolith for ISRU
  • 0605-02: Excavation of hard/icy regolith for ISRU
  • 0605-03: Robotic regolith manipulation and transportation for ISRU and site preparation

Traceability

  • Use cases and functions: UC-I-202 L -- All FN
  • Definition tasks: none listed

Use case UC-I-202 L also appears under #0505, in-situ construction (with FN-I-205 L).

Segments and sub-architectures

Priority

Priority bin 6, overall prioritization rating 53 of 57. The rating is "the gap's location in the prioritized list of gaps", so 1 is the highest priority, and bins group gaps of similar priority, bin 1 highest. Criticality, urgency, breadth and depth set the order; cost is not considered (ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199; method on the gaps index).

Moon Base relevance

The Users Guide names #0605 for two associated challenges (Users Guide, p. 13):

  • "Manipulating regolith": "Manipulating lunar regolith at scale for excavation, compaction, and site preparation requires in depth understanding of regolith properties and large scale excavation and construction." Also cited: tech gap #0505 and data gaps DN-008 L, DN-009 L, DN-010 L and DN-019 L.
  • "ISRU systems": "Using local lunar resources to enable exploration requires both detailed knowledge of resource availability and systems to extract and process those resources." Also cited: tech gaps #0601, #0603 and #0604, and data gaps DN-006 L and DN-007 L.

The guide ties its challenges to "near-term Moon Base development efforts": missions in phase one "offer opportunities to collect data and mature technologies to enable essential phase two and phase three capabilities" (p. 11). The spreadsheet lists only the Sustained Lunar Evolution segment for this gap. The sources do not relate ADD segments to Moon Base phases, so this is not a conflict. The Users Guide's Phase 1 robotics capability targets also include "Demonstration of lunar site preparation capabilities", without citing this gap (Users Guide, p. 8; see Phase 1 functional gaps). See Technology and knowledge challenges.

Same subject in the Ignition material (the pairing is the wiki's; the deck names no gap). The Moon Base Program's Ignition deck covers both of the guide's challenges above:

  • ISRU. A Phase 3 key mission: "Phase 1 & 2 experiment & demo"; "Phase 3 continue demo and begin implementation"; "Key commodities from regolith: Oxygen, water, rare Earth elements, hydrogen" (slide 35) (Ignition deck 2, slide 35).
  • Regolith manipulation and site preparation, by phase. Phase 1 LTVs include "Autonomous rover(s) capable of site surveying, site preparation demonstration, & logistics mobility". Phase 2 has LTV "Regolith manipulation demo(s)" and partners' "Landing & habitation site prep rover demo(s)"; Phase 3 has LTV "Regolith manipulation" and partners' "Landing & habitation site prep rovers" (Ignition deck 2, slide 57). Phase 2's "Site Preparation and Logistics Rovers" are "deployed to enable site preparation, regolith manipulation, and initial logistics capabilities", including rovers for "Excavation & compaction" (slide 25), and its render labels "Excavator Rovers" (slide 21) (Ignition deck 2, slides 21 and 25). Phase 3's goals include "Regolith manipulation & site preparation capable" (slide 28) (Ignition deck 2, slide 28).

The deck gives no tonnage to set beside IPEx's figures, and names no excavator project. It puts its site preparation and logistics rovers in Phase 2 on slide 25 and in Phase 1 on slide 56 (open question 83).

Sources

Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #0605 · ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199, 232 · Users Guide, pp. 8, 13 · Lunar Surface Technology · Moon Base landing page · Ignition deck 2, slides 21, 25, 28, 35, 56–57