Lunar Forge Emerges from Stealth to Develop Lunar Construction Technology

Lunar Forge has emerged from stealth with plans to develop technology that converts lunar regolith into construction materials for infrastructure on the Moon, with an initial focus on building protective structures for lunar fission reactors.

The company's core technology uses laser sintering, a process that heats and fuses powdered material into solid structures without fully melting it.

By using locally sourced lunar materials instead of transporting construction supplies from Earth, Lunar Forge aims to significantly reduce the cost of building infrastructure on the lunar surface.

CEO Alex Bell said that transporting materials to the Moon currently costs approximately $1 million per kilogram, making in-situ manufacturing a potentially transformative capability.

Lunar Forge plans to conduct its first lunar demonstration mission in 2027 using a solar- and battery-powered system to process real lunar regolith. Subsequent missions would introduce radioisotope power systems for continuous operation and eventually deploy multiple autonomous sintering units working together as a coordinated manufacturing network.

Lunar Forge is currently raising a $7 million pre-seed round and estimates it will require an additional $160 million over the next three years to execute its development roadmap.

The company's advisors include Doug Kohl, who brings decades of experience from NASA's Artemis program; Roberto M. of AECOM, a geomechanics and nuclear construction specialist with more than 30 years of experience; and Rob Lillis the University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory.

Image Credits: Lunar Forge