Infrastructure Pilot Excavator Project

NASA Infrastructure Pilot Excavator (IPEx) project develops an autonomous lunar robot that digs, collects, and transports regolith with lightweight counter-rotating bucket drums. IPEx is designed to deliver large quantities of lunar soil for infrastructure construction and in-situ resource utilization, supporting sustained lunar surface operations and future Moon-to-Mars exploration.

Identity

Aliases: Infrastructure Pilot ExcavatorIPExISRU Pilot ExcavatorLunar Infrastructure Pilot Excavator
Domains: spaceflight
Name: Infrastructure Pilot Excavator Project
Status: active
Types: developmentinfrastructureoperationsresearch

Details

Description: NASA Infrastructure Pilot Excavator (IPEx) project develops an autonomous lunar robot that digs, collects, and transports regolith with lightweight counter-rotating bucket drums. IPEx is designed to deliver large quantities of lunar soil for infrastructure construction and in-situ resource utilization, supporting sustained lunar surface operations and future Moon-to-Mars exploration.
Leads
Parent Program
Participants: -

Assets & Meta

Creation Time: August 14, 2026 at 00:42:36 UTC
Updated Time: August 14, 2026 at 00:42:36 UTC

Other

Official Urls: https://www.nasa.gov/infrastructure-pilot-excavator/https://www.nasa.gov/lunar-surface-technology/https://www.nasa.gov/game-changing-development-projects/https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/kennedy/nasas-2026-lunabotics-winning-student-teams-engineering-lunar-future/