Branch Technology developing 3D printed 50-meter lunar towers for NASA

Branch Technology, a Chattanooga-based construction 3D printing company, is advancing a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project to evaluate the feasibility of 3D printing a 50-meter-tall tower on the moon. The project, which began with a Phase I feasibility study, has now entered Phase II, focusing on material science, extrusion testing in vacuum conditions, and structural demonstrations. At the core of the effort is Branch's C-Fab robotic extrusion system, which builds open-cell lattice frameworks rather than solid walls, reducing material usage by up to 95% compared to conventional construction AM. The company is working with architecture firm Foster + Partners, a collaborator from NASA's earlier 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, to develop the tower concept for enhanced solar power collection and communications on the lunar surface.

This project sits.

This project updates the aerospace qualification grind pattern in an unusual direction: instead of qualifying a metal part for a jet engine, Branch is adapting a terrestrial construction AM process for extreme off-world conditions. The 95% material reduction claim is the critical differentiator here, as launch mass remains the dominant cost per kilogram to the moon remains the dominant economic constraint for any lunar infrastructure project. The project sits at the intersection of construction AM and space AM, two segments that rarely overlap but share the same company. On Earth, Branch's C-Fab process is already commercialized for BranchClad architectural panels, giving the company a revenue base that most space-AM startups lack. The Phase II work on vacuum operability and lunar-environment material science is the kind of incremental, qualification-heavy progress that separates serious NASA SBIR projects from speculative concept art.

The practical next step is straightforward: Branch must demonstrate that its C-Fab system can extrude a lunar-relevant feedstock — likely a regolith-based composite — under vacuum and thermal cycling that simulates the lunar surface. The company already has a terrestrial commercial product line, which reduces the risk of the space work being a pure science project with no path to revenue. For buyers and program managers at NASA and its contractors, the key question is whether the lattice approach can survive the thermal extremes and micrometeorite environment of the lunar surface without the mass penalty of solid shielding.