Space Copy Inc.

Space Copy builds rugged additive manufacturing systems for extreme environments, with the goal of turning lunar regolith into infrastructure. The company develops in-space manufacturing systems for turning lunar regolith into infrastructure, and is a NASA LunaRecycle Phase-2 awardee. Contributed to the proposal effort behind that award.

Mapped the interactions between a 7-DOF robotic arm and an industrial 3D printer, documenting the pick-and-place sequences and homing routines so the behavior was written down rather than implicit.

Designed a magnet-based end-effector assembly in SolidWorks and validated its grip strength, then communicated the design trade-offs to stakeholders so the decision was not made in isolation.

Built a physics-based model in Gazebo that simulated the tool pick-and-place cycles and validated workspace coverage, which is much cheaper to find out in simulation than on hardware.

On the materials side, ran CFD simulations in Ansys Fluent on melted regolith in microgravity to characterize melt-pool stability, surveyed lunar sites through LROC QuickMap imagery and ranked regions by solar exposure and extraction feasibility, and characterized thermal noise in Raman spectra of heated regolith to define the correction requirements for material detection.