Lunar Assembly and Servicing by Autonomous Robotics (LASAR): A NASA Early Career Initiative (ECI) Project

NASA is presently pursuing laser beam welding as means to construct and join large structures in free space and on the Lunar and Martian surfaces. The Lunar Assembly and Service by Autonomous Robotics (LASAR) project -- a NASA Early Career Initiative project -- will demonstrate laser beam welding within thermal vacuum. Non-contact non-destructive evaluation techniques and repair via laser beam welding are also being investigated. This effort is also maturing supervised autonomy using flight-forward computers, advanced structural joint geometries, and ruggedized versions of the robotic and laser equipment. The datasets generated will inform computational models and machine learning tasks, enabling robust prediction of process parameters along with assembly and joint performance.