Several facilities in the U.S. and Texas already replicate the moon\u2019s surface and gravity in indoor environments that aerospace companies rely on to test rovers and other equipment before its mission-ready. What makes SwRI\u2019s proposed lunar yard unique, Freeman said, is its scale.<\/p>\n
The roughly 180-acre site, currently a SwRI-owned cornfield adjacent to its main campus, could be transformed to resemble the geography and footprint of NASA\u2019s planned moon base.<\/p>\n
The space would be large enough to lay out a full haul road roughly a mile long, letting companies run construction equipment and rovers through long-duration testing at full scale, Freeman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea is you bring in your construction equipment, you bring in your lunar rovers, and you put them through life cycle testing,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cOnce you\u2019ve verified that your equipment works as intended \u2026 then you send it off to one of the high-fidelity indoor yards, where they really test it in terms of the reduced gravity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Freeman said a NASA expert who works on lunar spacesuits noted that the suits\u2019 radios start to lose range at about the size of the proposed yard, meaning the site could double as a place to test where those communications begin to drop out.<\/p>\n
Understanding how lunar regolith \u2014 a mixture of rock, glass and dust that coats the moon\u2019s surface \u2014 impacts construction materials and equipment will also be critical, Freeman added.\u00a0Lunar regolith is a mixture of dust, rock and glass<\/p>\n
\u201cThe moon is not a benign location,\u201d he said. \u201cThe regolith [is] nasty stuff. It gets into the seals, it increases friction, it increases wear.\u201d<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s moon base plans include living quarters for the Artemis astronauts, power generation, roads and communications systems. The work would take place in phases, with early groundwork handled largely by uncrewed deliveries and machines, according<\/a> to NASA.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not going to see the big construction crews like you would on I-10,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cAnytime you\u2019re sending robots or unmanned vehicles to do this work, you\u2019ve got to be confident that they\u2019re durable enough and they operate properly.\u201d<\/p>\n SwRI owns the land and would serve as the prime contractor, operating the facility much like the environmental testing chambers<\/a> already on its campus. Astroport, founded in 2020, has been developing the lunar base design and would act as the project\u2019s architect.<\/p>\n \u201cOur lunar civil engineering work for NASA has established a clear engineering baseline for construction on the Moon,\u201d Sam Ximenes, the company\u2019s founder, said in a news release. \u201cThe NLRC will provide the infrastructure needed to rehearse these complex operations at scale, validating site preparation and infrastructure tools on Earth for safety and endurance before they are committed to a lunar manifest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A local pipeline to the moon<\/p>\n The WEX Foundation was founded to promote STEM education and create a local pipeline to jobs in the aerospace industry and other space-related fields, starting with K-12 education and curriculum development.<\/p>\n The organization focuses on promoting these fields to students from underrepresented backgrounds, with an emphasis on girls, Hispanic students and those from low-income school districts, according<\/a> to its website.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/b299-tour-03-27-2026-25.jpg\")
A room designed to test satellite compatibility with its launch vehicle at Southwest Research Institute\u2019s Space System Integration Facility. Credit: Ian McKinney \/ SwRI Creative Services<\/p>\n