Programs and awards

A NASA-funded map of lunar infrastructure work

Cislune has won 14 NASA contracts and 7 NASA competition awards since 2021, spanning excavation, ISRU, regolith processing, site preparation, plume-surface interaction, simulation, autonomy, and recycling.

This review page uses Cislune’s internal Programs Sheet as the award reference. Final public counts, dollar totals, and contracting details should be confirmed before publication.

PERDEX tested excavation hardware for volatile-aware excavation — PERDEX is one example of the portfolio moving from NASA-funded concept to tested hardware.

Collaboration framing

Each award points to a practical collaboration area.

The award history helps NASA reviewers, agency teams, primes, commercial space companies, and research collaborators understand where Cislune already has relevant funded work, hardware evidence, and technical depth.

Start with need

Mission requirement, demonstration objective, integration gap, test need, field campaign, or operational risk.

Map to experience

Identify which Cislune technology area, NASA award, or facility capability is relevant.

Protect details

Public pages stay high-level; mechanisms, data, proposal details, and SBIR Rights material move under the right handling.

Award map

NASA SBIR/STTR portfolio

Year	Program	Phase	Contract	Public transition angle
2021	High Efficiency Sintering via Beneficiation	Phase I STTR	80NSSC21C0409	Regolith beneficiation and construction feedstock preparation. NASA SBIR/STTR program background
2022	Cislune Regolith Pathways and Landing Pads	Phase I STTR	80NSSC22PA986	Prepared surfaces, trafficability, pads, roads, and lunar civil infrastructure. NASA TechPort project page NASA 2022 STTR archive
2023	Deflector Cone and Vented Launch Pad	Phase I SBIR	80NSSC23PB391	Landing protection, plume-surface interaction, and ejecta mitigation. NASA 2023 SBIR archive
2023	CRUST	Phase I STTR	80NSSC23PB395	Surface systems and regolith mechanics context for infrastructure work. NASA 2023 STTR archive
2023	Refuse to Get Stuck Rovers	Phase I STTR	80NSSC23PB393	Rover traction, mobility risk reduction, and trafficable worksite preparation. NASA 2023 STTR archive
2023	Minimizing Volatile Sublimation During Excavation	Phase I SBIR	80NSSC23PB394	Volatile preservation during icy-regolith excavation and ISRU collection. NASA 2023 SBIR archive
2024	CISORT	Phase I SBIR	80NSSC24PB289	Sorting and beneficiation for useful lunar feedstocks. NASA 2024 SBIR archive
2024	FLUFSCAN	Phase I SBIR	80NSSC24PB290	Plume-surface sensing, landing-site preparation, and protective infrastructure. NASA 2024 SBIR archive
2024	PERDEX	Phase II SBIR	80NSSC24CA112	Tested volatile-aware excavation hardware and ISRU integration paths. Official SBIR award page
2024	TRUST	Phase I STTR	80NSSC24PB222	Trusted autonomy, operator understanding, mission rehearsal, OpenMCT context, and SimMoon scenario simulation. NASA 2024 STTR archive SBIR portfolio context SimMoon page
2024	SHEARPREP	Phase I STTR	80NSSC24PB223	Geotechnical sensing and surface preparation for lunar worksites. NASA 2024 STTR archive
2025	GRASP Compacting Wheels	Phase II STTR	80NSSC25CA024	Compacting wheels, trafficable surfaces, and site-preparation demonstrations. NASA STTR Phase II selection archive
2025	TREAD	Phase I SBIR	80NSSC25C0166	Wheel-terrain interaction and granular-material mobility performance. NASA 2025 SBIR archive
2025	CISORT	Phase II SBIR	80NSSC26C0018	Sorting subsystem maturation for ISRU, construction, and processing pilots. NASA SBIR Phase II selection archive
2025	CITA/TRUST Phase II	Phase II STTR	Contracting in progress	Awarded work for trusted autonomy, mission rehearsal, digital twins, hardware-in-the-loop context, and operator decision support. Public listing pending contracting/public release. SimMoon on Apple App Store

Background links point to NASA SBIR/STTR selection archives or NASA TechPort where available. Some newer or contracting-in-progress awards may not yet have a useful public listing.

Portfolio evidence

The award map connects to hardware, software, and test assets

TREAD wheel-terrain interaction test setup for regolith mobility work — TREAD supports mobility and wheel-terrain interaction work.

LunaRecycle material and process evidence — LunaRecycle connects recycling demonstrations with practical resource-handling questions.

Break the Ice lunar excavation and ISRU challenge hardware context — Break the Ice challenge work adds prize-program credibility around lunar excavation and ISRU.

PERDEX excavation system view for volatile-aware ISRU work — PERDEX award lineage connects to excavation hardware.

PERDEX excavation hardware detail after successful build and testing — Tested excavation hardware.

TREAD granular-material test view for mobility performance — Mobility and granular-material testing.

GRASP prepared-surface hardware for trafficability studies — Prepared-surface and trafficability hardware.

SimMoon lunar operations rehearsal environment — SimMoon supports mission rehearsal and trusted autonomy.

CARVE sensing simulation view for surface operations — Simulation and sensing workflow.

LunaRecycle demonstration view for recycling and material processing — Recycling and materials-process evidence.

Break the Ice challenge operations view — Break the Ice challenge operations.

Break the Ice Lunar Challenge

Field evidence from the Mojave

Cislune’s current site has two public pages that should be connected into the new website rather than discarded: a Mojave Desert story and the live competition update page for the Cislune excavator.

Cislune Mojave story Excavator updates NASA winner announcement NASA results paper

The concise public version: Cislune completed its NASA Break the Ice Challenge Phase 2 Level 2 run in September 2023, operating for 15 days in Lucerne Valley, excavating and transporting more than 3,280 kg of icy-regolith simulant, completing 77 excavation-transit-delivery cycles, and driving about 87 km. The setup used CLSM as an icy-regolith analog and required real field logistics, maintenance, autonomy supervision, weighing, delivery, and iteration under harsh desert conditions.

Opportunity clusters

How reviewers and customers should read the portfolio

Ice and volatiles

PERDEX tested hardware and volatile sublimation work support excavation payloads, icy-regolith testing, and ISRU pilot integration.

Feedstock preparation

CISORT and beneficiation work support sorting, material handling, construction feedstocks, and downstream processing.

Worksite infrastructure

GRASP, SHEARPREP, traction, roads, pads, and landing-surface work support safer repeatable operations.

Excavation and analog testing

Nostromo, RE-RASSOR-style concepts, bucket drums, penetrometer work, and Lucerne Valley operations support realistic surface-system testing.

Construction materials

Geopolymer and CLSM production themes support conversations around regolith-derived pads, roads, berms, and construction analogs.

Landing protection

FLUFSCAN and launch/landing-pad concepts support PSI instrumentation, mitigation, and asset protection.

Autonomy and simulation

SimMoon, TRUST, and CITA support mission rehearsal, digital twins, trusted autonomy, and operator training.

Recycling and logistics

LunaRecycle, Break the Ice, and Cislune’s field assets support demos, transport, and practical resource-handling work.
NASA Break the Ice results background

PERDEX hardware test view for volatile-aware excavation — Ice and volatile-aware excavation hardware.

TREAD test article and wheel-terrain interaction setup — Granular-material mobility testing.

GRASP compacting wheel view for site-preparation work — Prepared-surface compacting-wheel work.

CARVE Gazebo simulation view for robotic surface operations — Simulation for surface operations.

Cislune thermal processing detail — Thermal processing for materials work.

LunaRecycle material-handling view — Material-handling and recycling evidence.

BrightDrop cargo-area view for prototype transport and field logistics — Prototype logistics and field support.

Break the Ice hardware view for lunar excavation work — Challenge hardware and excavation context.

Agency transition

Phase III is available when the requirement fits.

For NASA and other US agency teams, some Cislune award areas may support Phase III transition discussions when a real requirement maps to prior SBIR/STTR work.

Discuss program fit