Engineers from the University of Arizona are working on a NASA funded project to develop a swarm of autonomous low-cost robots that could be sent to the moon to mine resources to build a lunar city.

Jekan Thanga, an associate professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering and Moe Momayez, and interim head of the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering, received a USD 500,000 (GBP 363,000) grant from NASA to advance space-mining methods.

The grant was given to the researchers through NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project Space Technology Artemis Research Initiative.

In a statement made by the University of Arizona yesterday (8th September) Momayezs said: “It’s really exciting to be at the forefront of a new field.”

He added: “I remember watching TV shows as a kid, like ‘Space: 1999,’ which is all about bases on the moon. Here we are in 2021, and we’re talking about colonizing the moon.”

Scientists believe that mining on the moon could result in the extraction of precious metals used in smartphones and medical equipment along with helium-3 – a stable helium isotope that could fuel nuclear power plants, but is extremely rare on Earth.

One of the biggest challenges facing the project designing the robot so it is capable of mining through the hard lunar rock with limited resources, and the numerous challenges that come with operating on the surface of the moon.

Momayezs said: “Here on Earth, we have an unlimited amount of energy to throw at breaking rocks,” he said. “On the moon, you have to be a lot more conservative.”

He explained: “To break rocks, we use a lot of water, and that’s something we won’t have on the moon. So, we need new processes, new techniques. The most efficient way to break rocks on Earth is through blasting, and nobody has ever set off a blast on the moon.”

To meet the challenge Thanga is adapting a learning architecture technique he developed called the Human and Explainable Autonomous Robotic System, or HEART for the project.

He says that the system will be able to train swarms of robots, like the one seen in the images, to cooperate on the moon’s surface and carry out mining operations with minimal human input.

They hope to build a whole swam of these robots and train them on earth in preparation for their mission to the moon.

Thanga said: “In a sense, we’re like farmers. We’re breeding talent out of these creatures, or a whole family of creatures, to do certain tasks.”

He added: “By going through this process, we help perfect these artificial creatures whose job it is to do the mining tasks.”

Humans will still have a role to play but he says: “The idea is to have the robots build, set things up and do all the dirty, boring, dangerous stuff, so the astronauts can do the more interesting stuff.”

Thanga’s ASTEROIDS Laboratory runs a NASA-funded Undergraduate Research and Education Program where students present their own research about space exploration.

Momayez and Thanga intend to add a module to the programme focusing solely on space mining as they argue that it is becoming an increasingly discussed topic by space agencies looking to carry out long term lunar missions.

Momayez said: “With the establishment of the new School of Mining and Mineral Resources, we hope to get more students from all over the world involved in mining.”

Thanga and Momayez say that there is still a huge amount of research and engineering that needs to go into the project before it’s completed.