“We are delighted to be officially part of the Luxembourg space community and look forward to building new relationships and continuing to strengthen the collaborations we have established with local space companies during our participation in the Start-up Support Programme (SSP) of the European Space Resource Innovation Centre (Esric).”

This Thursday morning at the launch of the European Space Resources Week at LuxExpo The Box, Astroport Europe’s new managing director Emilio de la Guardia was enthusiastic. The startup, which was among the first five companies selected by Esric as part of its unique three-month support programme for space startups, will make its Luxembourg subsidiary the headquarters for all European operations and investment activities for European projects, the press release said.

Astroport is developing in-situ lunar construction materials derived from regolith (lunar soil) and the geotechnical engineering processes needed to prepare the surface site for landing or launch platforms, which is one of the first infrastructure elements required for a permanent presence.

“By focusing on ‘regolith works’ for excavation and transport of bulk regolith, we see Luxembourg and its thriving space entrepreneurial ecosystem as the ideal place to develop new uses and products based on regolith from the accumulated stockpiles of raw materials during the excavation phases in our site preparation construction,” said Astroport’s founder, CEO and space architect Sam Ximenes.

The startup wants to prepare lunar surface infrastructure elements such as roads and landing pads in support of Nasa’s Artemis programme and commercial missions to mine and establish a permanent presence on the Moon.

This story was first published in French on Paperjam. It has been translated and edited for Delano.