Description: The Phase 2 effort further refines our Phase 1 defined CONOPS and system architecture for a lunar launch/landing pad (LLP) construction operation based on a clear description of the envisioned fleet of fixed and mobile robotic systems and how it will evolve from the first landing, and lunar operations needed to prepare the equipment to survive the first lunar night after landing and extraction from the lander. It then establishes how the LLP facility construction would take place with specific attention to the general LLP construction site layout, site setup, pad pavement construction with in-situ produced bricks from molten regolith, and finally LLP protective berm construction. The CONOPS considers how the extensive and high-value robotic construction equipment suite could be redeployed after the LLP is complete. This includes providing local logistics support such as lander unloading and equipment delivery from its unloaded location to its destination on the Moon, supporting Lunar Base operations, constructing new infrastructure, and mining operations to extract resources for use on the Moon. Civil engineering processes and geotechnical assessments for bulk regolith manipulations and conveyance are further developed for LLP construction using an an end-to-end system architecture approach. Specific areas of innovation include: A bulk regolith distribution system for hauling excavated regolith, processing at a sorting station, and sieving for feedstock production for the LLP brickmaking robots Definition of multiple autonomous machines and enabling machine-to-machine collaboration Site layout with traverse distance and path optimization Physics-based terra-mechanics simulations of vehicles and tool implements A physics-engine for plume flow surface interactions Prototype universal tool-implement payload adapter for interchangeable functions of the robot mobility platform

Benefits: Research results will be highly relevant and applicable to multiple lunar surface construction projects: Lunar Landing Pads (LLP), roads, parking / industrial yards, foundations.

Outside of the primary space markets, applications for selected technologies developed under this project may exist in: Global land mine / buried ordnance clearance operations Terrestrial infrastructure (roads and bridges) repair and maintenance Erosion protection (hill slopes and river banks) Environmental remediation