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BY TRACY IDELL HAMILTON

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — In late March, more than two dozen students from schools across the San Antonio region and the robot rovers they built earlier this year descended underground into a cave system to map out its terrain and study its sediment. 

Their field work and findings deep inside Cave Without a Name a few miles from Boerne, Texas, will contribute to ongoing efforts by NASA to develop technologies and advance research for future lunar habitation. 

Scientists have long considered the moon’s lava tube caves as the most ideal lunar habitat for humans, as they would provide protection from high radiation levels as well as hazards like micro-meteorites. Luckily for researchers like the LCATS students, local cave environments offer a remarkably similar environment to lunar lava tubes (not including the lack of atmosphere, of course!)

The recent outing is part of the Lunar Caves Analog Test Sites (LCATS) program, developed by the space-focused educational nonprofit WEX Foundation and, for the current and upcoming school year, fully funded thanks to a $315,000 gift from the Port San Antonio-affiliated Kelly Heritage Foundation. 

As part of the cave trip and other experiences during the three-year enrichment program, students sharpen their skills — in critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork and technology development — while at the same time they are exposed to the growing array of exciting career opportunities related to space exploration.

“I love it because everyone here is really interested in stuff to do with space, physics, engineering,” Nirmel Kozak, a freshman at STEM Academy at Lee High School, told a local television reporter who joined in the cave outing. “All of these people really care about it, and they find it really interesting, so they all want to be here, which is really nice.”

KSAT reporter Devan Karp talks to LCATS students inside Cave Without A Name about their research.

As part of their experiences, LCATS students also interact on an ongoing basis with aerospace professionals with Astroport Space Technologies. The company was founded by renowned space architect Sam Ximenes to develop the infrastructure necessary for lunar habitation as well as space-based manufacturing in earth’s orbit. 

That includes pioneering efforts to turn moon dust, or regolith, into construction materials and build structures on the moon’s surface and in orbit by deploying arrays of robots, 3D printers and other technologies working in concert with one another. 

ABOVE: In the not-too-distant future, 3D printers, robots and other technologies on the surface of the moon can be deployed to mine the lunar surface and use existing minerals to build habitats, factories, landing pads and other infrastructure long before humans arrive. 

BELOW: Conceptual rendering of future human settlements inside the moon's lava tubes.

Photo/video credit: Astroport Space Technologies/XArc

Astroport and the WEX Foundation are based at Port San Antonio's Tech Port campus, and prototypes of their work, together with earlier LCATS cohorts, are on display in the AREA 21 technology showroom in the Boeing Center at Tech Port. 

Working with Astroport scientists, the LCATS students have been working all year on designing and building their robots, said Kathryn Bolish, program manager for the WEX Foundation’s space education programs. “They program [the rovers] themselves, and they go into the cave to complete mission objectives,” such as rock sample collection and interior cave mapping. 

“Before we send humans into caves on the moon, we have to send robots first,” Bolish explained. The LCATS students are simulating those robot exploration missions “so they can tell our astronauts, ‘This is what went right, and this is what went wrong.'” 

Astroport and LCATS are collaborating with NASA, whose Artemis program aims to return humans to the moon, establish a sustainable presence there, and use what they learn to eventually send astronauts to Mars. 

This work is important, said Samantha Estrella Torres, a student at Somerset Brooks Academy, not just for the future, “but for how we’re able to become the future, ourselves.” 

An aspiring astronaut herself, Torres hopes to attend the University of Houston’s aerospace program, which also has strong ties to NASA. 

She urges other students who have an interest in space to apply for LCATS. “You don’t have to be outgoing; you don’t have to be anything. You can just simply be yourself. That’s what I love about this program. You’re able to enjoy your interest in space with others who accept you for who you are.” 

The LCATS program is offered at no cost to selected students, and applications are now open for the 2025-26 school year. Students will need a nomination form from a STEM instructor and to write an essay on why they should be selected for the LCATS program.

Photo and video credits: Scott Stephen Ball.