From lunar logistics to flight-proven hardware.

Performance period Aug 2025 – Aug 2027 with a $900K Phase II award, in partnership with Honeybee Robotics (a Blue Origin subsidiary) and South Dakota State University. The design targets >600 kg/hr throughput with low-shear, controlled handling of abrasive regolith, minimal moving parts in contact with material, and a modular, scalable architecture, validated in DEM simulation and proven in NASA's Break the Ice Lunar Challenge.

In the LEONA concept (Lunar Extraction Of Near-surface Aquifers), excavated icy regolith is fed to an auger that transports and heats the material, sublimating water ice; regolith plugs confine the vapor and direct it to a cold-trap capture system where it is condensed and recovered as liquid water. Phase I built a modular auger-sublimation testbench, characterized regolith plug formation and transport, and developed models predicting torque, pressure, and sublimation performance. Using local resources this way reduces the mass that must be launched from Earth. The program partners with Paragon Space Development Corporation on a critical interfacing subsystem; a Phase II would be valued at $1.275M.

The campaign evaluates system performance under lunar gravity, validates the physics-based model for material flow, torque, and power, and demonstrates repeatable material transport in low-G, advancing system maturity and raising TRL ahead of a full-scale demonstration. Performance period began July 2025.

AeroFly's multirotor work spans crop spraying, fertilizer and seed broadcasting, and field analysis, plus multi-purpose platforms for commercial and federal use. The same guidance, controls, and structures expertise now feeds the company's lunar programs.