Objectives of the service
Lunar-TARS is a modular robotic arm developed by Lodestar Space Ltd. to accelerate the growth of the lunar economy. Designed for integration into lunar missions, it provides a cost-effective and reconfigurable platform for autonomous operations, including high-value resource prospecting with a dedicated sensing suite, regolith collection, and infrastructure assembly.
Current lunar missions face high operational costs and limited flexibility, with most robotic arms custom-built for single missions. This creates long development cycles and poor reliability. Lunar-TARS closes this gap with a mass-producible, modular architecture that reduces development cycles while expanding mission capabilities. Its multimodal sensor suite enables environment awareness and supports autonomous decision-making during task execution.
This activity evaluated the commercial viability of Lunar-TARS as a product for lunar applications and identified near-term terrestrial markets to generate early revenue. Its design makes it particularly suitable for nuclear decommissioning, where autonomous handling and operation in hazardous environments offer clear operational advantages.
We developed a specialised end-effector for lunar regolith collection and validated its performance under dust conditions. The project concluded with a successful demonstration of the integrated TARS (LEO configuration) and end-effector collecting regolith simulant. The results validated Lunar-TARS’ suitable for supporting future regolith processing operations and validated both the dust-resistant design and mechanical performance of the prototype.
Users and their needs
On the Moon, operators will require adaptable systems for building and maintaining essential infrastructure. Lunar-TARS can support infrastructure assembly and support high-value resource prospecting. As a modular, mass-producible product, it can integrate seamlessly into a variety of mission architectures, avoiding the high costs and inflexibility of custom-built robotic arms.
On Earth, Lunar-TARS’ rugged, autonomous design makes it ideal for hazardous environments. In nuclear decommissioning, it can operate in high-radiation zones to dismantle equipment and handle hazardous materials, reducing human exposure to operational risks.
The Earth-use application provides near-term commercial opportunities while the lunar economy develops.
Service/ system concept
For the Lunar market, 2 core business cases have been identified.
The first is infrastructure assembly. Lodestar will supply Lunar-TARS as a modular, mass-producible robotic arm that infrastructure operators can integrate into their missions. This approach reduces the need for costly, one-off arm designs and shortens development timelines. This market offers the lowest barriers to entry and the strongest lunar commercial potential for Lodestar.
The second is high-value resource prospecting. Lunar-TARS can be equipped with a dedicated sensing suite to measure local concentration of Helium-3, water, and other high-value resources. Mounted on a customer rover, the arm performs precise site surveys to map resource density and distribution in the regolith. These measurements validate the viability of a site before mining assets are deployed, reducing risk and improving mission planning.
On Earth, Lunar-TARS addresses the nuclear decommissioning market, where environments are hazardous and high in radiation. The system enables remote inspection, handling, and dismantling operations in areas unsafe for human operators. The product is offered with operator training and integration support to ensure safe and reliable deployment. By enabling remote operations in high-risk zones, Lunar-TARS reduces operational risk, improves efficiency, and supports compliance with nuclear safety regulations
Space Added Value
Lunar-TARS delivers capabilities that can only be achieved through space-grade technology, environments, and datasets, giving it a unique competitive edge. Built to withstand vacuum, extreme temperature cycles, dust, and high radiation, it performs construction and servicing tasks on the Moon that terrestrial robots cannot match without major adaptation. Designed for seamless integration with lunar rovers and Moonlight services, it enables infrastructure assembly and autonomous surface operations.
Its sensing systems, optimised for low-light, high-contrast terrain and dust-rich conditions, provide understanding of its environment, while an autonomous decision layer allows infrastructure deployment with minimal crew oversight. Pre-mission planning draws on environmental datasets, and orbital resource surveys, ensuring operations are targeted, efficient, and reliable.
By automating critical tasks and reducing the need for crew-intensive EVA work, Lunar-TARS cuts mission risk and cost while accelerating the establishment of permanent lunar infrastructure. This lays the foundation for a thriving off-Earth economy, opening pathways to services such as lunar refuelling, manufacturing, and resource production.
Current Status
For the lunar market, Lodestar actively engaged with space agencies, research centres, and commercial operators to pinpoint the most critical gaps holding back lunar infrastructure. This work helped us uncover new business opportunities and prioritise the missions Lunar-TARS is best positioned to deliver. On Earth, our focus has been on the nuclear and offshore sectors, where we determined that the nuclear sector is the most suited for near-term applications.
We developed a TRL4 end-effector for regolith collection and successfully demonstrated it integrated with TARS. This demonstration validated the system’s ability to operate in a dusty environment and confirmed the mechanical design’s effectiveness for collecting regolith simulant.
Prime Contractor(s)
