S.A. space firm scores NASA money, ticket to moon

Port San Antonio-based XArc/Astroport received $1.3 million in NASA small-business innovation and tech transfer contracts on the heels of Starship rideshare announcement.

Astroport Space Technologies and its parent Exploration Architecture Corp., or XArc, landed several small-business innovation and technology transfer awards as part of the $93 billion Artemis program that aims to create a moon base and eventually send humans to Mars. The contracts are the latest wins for the space company that space architect Sam Ximenes founded to help develop safe landing spots for spacecraft on the moon and Mars. He envisions fleets of autonomous robots using molten lunar soil to construct roads, launch and landing pads, and shelters.

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4/16/2026

Corporation have teamed up to develop autonomous heavy construction machinery built specifically for the Moon. Announced at the ASCE Earth & Space 2026 conference, the partnership combines Vermeer’s decades of experience in high-torque industrial equipment with Astroport’s robotics and lunar regolith expertise. The goal is to create machines capable of performing essential groundwork like excavating, preparing landing zones and building protective structures, all while dealing with the Moon’s brutal conditions: extreme temperature swings, radiation, no atmosphere, and gravity just one-sixth of Earth’s.

The collaboration is part of a much bigger picture. With NASA’s Artemis programme targeting sustained lunar operations by 2030, reliable construction infrastructure is no longer a “nice to have” but a hard requirement. Autonomous systems are central to this, since human presence on the Moon will be limited early on and communication delays make real-time remote control tricky. Beyond government programmes, the project signals growing commercial interest in a cislunar economy, where private companies like Astroport and Vermeer are positioning themselves as foundational players in what could become an entirely new frontier for the construction industry.

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Building the Moon From the Ground Up with Autonomous Machines

Astroport Space Technologies and Vermeer Corporation have teamed up to develop autonomous heavy construction machinery built specifically for the Moon. Announced at the ASCE Earth & Space 2026 conference, the partnership combines Vermeer’s decades of experience in high-torque industrial equipment with Astroport’s robotics and lunar regolith expertise. The goal is to create machines capable of performing essential groundwork like excavating, preparing landing zones and building protective structures, all while dealing with the Moon’s brutal conditions: extreme temperature swings, radiation, no atmosphere, and gravity just one-sixth of Earth’s.

The collaboration is part of a much bigger picture. With NASA’s Artemis programme targeting sustained lunar operations by 2030, reliable construction infrastructure is no longer a “nice to have” but a hard requirement. Autonomous systems are central to this, since human presence on the Moon will be limited early on and communication delays make real-time remote control tricky. Beyond government programmes, the project signals growing commercial interest in a cislunar economy, where private companies like Astroport and Vermeer are positioning themselves as foundational players in what could become an entirely new frontier for the construction industry.

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