Astroport and Vermeer want to bring heavy construction equipment to the Moon

Astroport Space Technologies and Vermeer Corporation have announced a collaboration to adapt industrial surface mining equipment for autonomous lunar construction, a partnership that both companies frame as delivering the heavy machinery, or “Lunar Iron,” needed to build a permanent human presence on the Moon.

The announcement, made at the 20th International Conference on Engineering, Science, Construction and Operations in Challenging Environments (ASCE Earth & Space 2026) in College Station, Texas, centres on what the companies call “lunarisation” of Vermeer’s surface mining machinery. The work will use Astroport’s Universal Tool Implement Payload Adapter, or UTIPA, a modular system of interchangeable tools designed for robotic construction in the Moon’s extreme environment. Beginning with a surface miner application, the teams will re-engineer heavy equipment that traditionally relies on mass and weight to function, adapting it instead for the Moon’s low gravity, extreme temperature swings, and abrasive regolith.

What “Lunar ...