NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program has awarded Wood (LON: WOOD) and Lunar Resources design lead on a potential pipeline on the moon.
The Aberdeen-headquartered Wood and American Lunar Resources are taking charge of a design study on the Lunar South Pole Oxygen Pipeline, a pipeline from the South Pole of the moon that would transport gaseous oxygen from an extraction site to a proposed future Lunar base.
The scope of work involves end-to-end system-level design for the mooted lunar pipeline.
According to the business development director for Wood, Stuart Turl, the job is one that everyone at the firm wants to be involved in.
Mr Turl told Energy Voice at Subsea Expo: “Not satisfied with pipeline design on Earth, we’ve gone slightly further afield. So, there’s real cutting-edge work that’s happening at the moment.
“I think it would be an interesting site visit, put it that way.”
© Supplied by WoodThe Aberdeen company has managed projects totalling more than 372,800 miles of pipelines, having worked in roles ranging from large-scale projects to in-depth consultancy work.
The firm recently confirmed that it is recruiting over 1,000 people across the globe for a range of different projects, despite forecasting a drop in earnings and revenues for its 2022 results, down from the previous two years.
Mark Netzel, vice president of onshore for Wood’s Projects business said at the time of the announcement: “To bring our pipeline expertise to the lunar surface is incredibly exciting for us, from both the potential impact this pipeline could have on lunar development and the technical challenges we must solve to implement a project this advanced.”
Wood is not the only firm in the region smoking interstellar moves. SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland announced in January that it had formed a launch operations partnership with German company Rocket Factory Augsburg.
This means the Spaceport in the north of Scotland will have the first launch of its One launch system, which is currently planned for the end of 2023 and will take place from the northernmost point in the UK.
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