RegONE – A Modular Regolith Transportation System for Lunar Surface Operations

Humanity is on the brink of returning to the moon – with the intention to stay. This time with commercial actors alongside national space agencies, which makes it necessary to use locally available resources, such as lunar regolith (“moon dust”). It is 10 times finer than a grain of sand, extremely abrasive, electrostatically charged and floats for an exceptionally long time, making it difficult to handle.

Space Team Aachen – a team of students from RWTH Aachen University – offers a unique approach to this problem: the RegONE transport system. The students developed this transport system with the vision of reliably transporting regolith in a variety of lunar terrains and conditions. RegONE is vibration-based, modular and has no moving parts to minimise long-term wear and tear.

The goal of Space Team Aachen is to develop a TRL-6 prototype of regONE to prove its feasibility for operation on the Moon. This will require further research into interactions with the lunar soil and the design of a support structure that can be attached to the lunar surface.

Benefits:

• Optimises the entire lunar value chain: higher efficiency, higher safety, lower operating costs (e.g. insurance and planning costs)
• Enables the construction of a lunar outpost
• Facilitates further technological development with regard to In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) and the handling of hazardous materials