WHAT WE BUILD
In-Situ Manufacturing for Lunar Fission Reactor Infrastructure
Lunar Forge uses laser sintering of lunar regolith to manufacture the heaviest components of fission power systems directly on the Moon. Only the reactor core launches from Earth.
Infrastructure We Manufacture on the Lunar Surface
Every component below is manufactured from processed lunar regolith using adaptive laser sintering. Each one represents mass that never needs to launch from Earth - eliminating the single largest cost driver in lunar fission deployment.
- 80%+Reactor mass built in situ
- 200+ MPaSintered regolith strength
- $1M+/kgLanded cost to lunar surface
Reactor Housing and Containment
The anchor build. Sintered regolith at 200-345 MPa compressive strength provides micrometeorite protection, thermal mass, and structural anchoring for the reactor assembly. This is the heaviest single structure in any fission power system - and exactly what should never ride a rocket.
Radiation Shielding
Largest Mass Savings FSP-class 40kW reactors require meters-equivalent of shielding for nearby crewed operations. Sintered shielding delivers engineered geometry, zero dust migration, and load-bearing capability. Vertical shadow shields eliminate the need to bury the reactor, simplifying thermal rejection and maintenance access.
Foundations and Leveling Pads
Structural Reactors, radiator arrays, and power conversion units need stable, level, thermally predictable footing. Sintered pads eliminate settling and prevent dust coupling into radiator surfaces that degrades thermal performance.
Berms and Exclusion Zone Barriers
Safety Separation structures between reactor sites and habitats or landing zones. Sintered berms also protect against plume ejecta from nearby landings - a real operational concern as surface traffic increases.
Cable Trenching and Conduit
Power Distribution Power transmission from reactor to loads spans hundreds of meters to kilometers of standoff distance. Sintered channels protect cabling from thermal cycling, micrometeorite impact, and abrasive lunar dust.
Access Roads
Operations Surface-sintered crust at 1-2cm depth connecting reactor sites to habitats and landing zones. Dust suppression around radiators and moving equipment is an operational requirement, not a convenience.
Radiator Support Structures
Thermal Systems Mounting hardware and truss structures for heat rejection panels can be partially manufactured from sintered regolith, reducing the flown mass of the thermal management subsystem while the radiator panels themselves launch from Earth.
What Still Launches from Earth
The high-value, low-mass components that require terrestrial manufacturing. This is the division of labor that makes lunar fission economically viable.
- Uranium fuel core
- Reactor control systems
- Power conversion units
- Radiator panels
- Instrumentation
- Cabling
How We Build It
Our manufacturing process is designed to produce consistent, high-strength structures from heterogeneous lunar regolith - without depending on the reactor it is building.
Filter and Sieve
First Raw regolith is beneficiated before the laser touches it. Processing feedstock first is what delivers consistent melt behavior across regolith heterogeneity - and what separates reliable manufacturing from experimental sintering.
Adaptive Laser Sintering
Processed regolith is sintered into engineered structures with compressive strengths exceeding 200 MPa, reaching up to 345 MPa in vacuum. Real-time process adaptation accounts for variations in mineral composition and particle distribution.
Powered by Solar and Radioisotope
The Forge runs on solar and radioisotope power - independent of the fission reactor it is building. This eliminates the chicken-and-egg problem and allows the manufacturing system to deploy ahead of any fission hardware.
Reactor Housing First
The build sequence starts with the highest-value structure: the reactor housing. It is the single heaviest component, a bounded deliverable, and a direct de-risk for FSP prime contractor integration.
Why This Matters Now
The demand signal for lunar fission power is no longer theoretical. The January 2026 NASA/DOE MOU and the White House executive order for lunar fission deployment have activated three prime contractor teams scaling toward 40kW reactor deployment. The missing piece is not reactor design - it is the infrastructure to house, shield, and support reactors on the surface. That is what Lunar Forge builds.
Building the Infrastructure Layer for Lunar Power
If you are working on lunar fission, surface operations, or ISRU - we should talk.
Laser sintering is a manufacturing process that uses focused laser energy to fuse loose lunar soil (regolith) into solid, load-bearing structures. By heating regolith particles past their melting point and allowing them to bond as they cool, we produce construction-grade material directly on the lunar surface without transporting building materials from Earth.
Sintered lunar regolith achieves compressive strengths exceeding 200 MPa, with tests demonstrating up to 345 MPa in vacuum conditions. For comparison, standard structural concrete on Earth typically ranges from 20-40 MPa. This makes sintered regolith more than capable of serving as reactor housing, radiation shielding, and load-bearing foundations.
Fission power is the enabling technology for sustained lunar operations - and it has the worst mass economics of any surface system. Over 80% of total reactor system mass is structural: housing, shielding, foundations, and support infrastructure. That mass costs $1M+ per kilogram to land on the Moon. By manufacturing it in situ, we eliminate the single largest cost barrier to lunar fission deployment.
The uranium fuel core, reactor control systems, power conversion units (Stirling or Brayton cycle), radiator panels, instrumentation, and cabling. These are the high-value, low-mass components that require terrestrial manufacturing precision. The entire value proposition rests on this division: fly what must be flown, build everything else on the surface.
The Forge operates on solar and radioisotope power, completely independent of the fission reactor it is building. This eliminates the chicken-and-egg dependency and allows the manufacturing system to deploy and begin construction ahead of any fission hardware arriving on the surface.
The Fission Surface Power program is a joint NASA/DOE initiative to deploy 40kW fission reactors on the lunar surface. The January 2026 NASA/DOE MOU and a White House executive order formalized the commitment to lunar fission deployment. Three prime contractor teams are now scaling toward delivery: Lockheed Martin with BWXT and Creare, Westinghouse with Aerojet Rocketdyne and L3Harris, and IX with Intuitive Machines, X-Energy, Maxar, and Boeing.
Lunar Forge is a supplier to the primes, not a competitor. The three FSP teams are building the reactors. None of them can manufacture housing, shielding, or support infrastructure on the lunar surface. Lunar Forge provides the in-situ manufactured components that complete their systems - infrastructure-as-a-service integrated into their deployment architecture.
KRUSTY (Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology) was a 1kW ground demonstration that validated the core fission technology. FSP is the 40kW deployment-scale program taking that technology to the lunar surface. Lunar Forge designs its demonstration structures at KRUSTY-class scale so that the 2027 surface demo directly de-risks manufacturing at full FSP deployment scale.
Raw lunar regolith is highly heterogeneous - particle sizes, mineral compositions, and glass content vary significantly across even small areas. Filtering and sieving feedstock before sintering is what delivers consistent melt behavior and predictable structural properties. This beneficiation step is what separates reliable, repeatable manufacturing from experimental one-off sintering.
Lunar Forge is targeting a 2027 lunar surface demonstration to validate in-situ manufacturing of reactor-scale infrastructure in the actual lunar environment. This demonstration is designed to produce structures at a scale directly relevant to FSP prime contractor integration.
Launch the core.
We build the rest.
We build the rest.
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