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AeroFly, a Brookings-based aerospace company bred from �ձ�av��Ƶ research, has been selected by NASA to test and advance its innovative technology. If successful, it could help enable the first long-term presence of humans on the moon and may even allow for deep space exploration.

For humans to successfully reach Mars, we will need to produce our own oxygen in outer space. Thankfully, the moon's surface material — regolith — is full of oxygen-rich materials. In fact, a 2021 study concluded there is enough oxygen in regolith to hypothetically support billions of people living on the moon.

In 2023, researchers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) achieved a major breakthrough. They successfully extracted oxygen from regolith through high-powered lasers and carbothermal reactors. NASA still had a problem, however. It didn't have the technology to efficiently handle the material needed for extraction.

In late 2024, NASA announced its Space Technology Payload Challenge, part of the prestigious TechLeap Prize, which invited teams to submit applications for systems to advance technologies that could address a number of technology shortfalls, including their material handling issue. NASA is currently in the midst of its most ambitious program since the Apollo missions, which will culminate with humanity's first long term presence on the moon and eventually, human exploration to Mars. But to successfully complete its Artemis program, NASA will need help from private companies to overcome the technology shortfalls.

A record 200 teams entered the challenge, including AeroFly, an upstart, Brookings-based aerospace company full of �ձ�av��Ƶ alums, faculty members and students.

Agricultural start

AeroFly was incorporated as a South Dakota limited liability company in May 2021, but the company's story really begins in December 2019 after (then) �ձ�av��Ƶ assistant professor Marco Ciarcia and �ձ�av��Ƶ associate professor Todd Letcher received a research grant from NASA to develop drones capable of carrying humans in something resembling an "air taxi."

The work, which was primarily student-focused, sparked an interest in drones for Letcher and Ciarcia. Early on, they realized that heavy drones had applications in agriculture and could be used to spray herbicide, broadcast fertilizers/seeds and analyze crop fields. Drones were also an emerging industry with high growth potential. In 2021, Goldman Sachs forecasted the total drone market size could be worth upward of $100 billion in the not-so-distant future. With the prototype drones Letcher and Ciarcia had developed, they figured there was an opportunity to capture some of that market in the agriculture sector.

But to capture the market, Letcher and Ciarcia needed help on the business end. They invited Gordon Niva, a 1973 �ձ�av��Ƶ graduate and a member of �ձ�av��Ƶ's Entrepreneurial Advisory Board, on as AeroFly's CEO. With over 40 years of experience in the aerospace industry and closely connected to �ձ�av��Ƶ's Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering, Niva was the ideal person to help grow AeroFly's business profile.

"I saw a lot of potential in AeroFly right away," Niva said.

For the next few years, AeroFly grew by targeting research grants and designing mid-sized drones. Its first design was a utility rotorcraft with a crop-spaying payload. AeroFly's first aircraft, Alpha, was designed to deliver payloads of 20-plus pounds and could fly up to 28 miles.

"For me, that moment marked the ideal opportunity to pursue my lifelong aspiration of becoming an aircraft designer," Ciarcia, who is now an associate professor at Colorado State University, said. "Witnessing a drone evolve from a few simple napkin sketches to a fully functional, pilotable aircraft is an incredibly rewarding experience."

After receiving a $25,000 proof-of-concept grant from the Governor's Office of Economic Development, AeroFly moved into an office and assembly room at the Research Park at �ձ�av��Ƶ in late 2021.

"That's what AeroFly was for the first three years," Letcher said. "We were building large drones and thinking about what kind of missions drones like this could do, mostly in the ag sector."

In 2022, AeroFly's outlook began to shift. Letcher, who teaches engineering design methods and mechanical systems design, became more interested in "off-Earth" robotics and began entering student teams into NASA design contests as part of �ձ�av��Ƶ undergraduate- and graduate-level research projects.

The success was almost immediate and Niva saw immense potential from the NASA projects. The company also saw firsthand the engineering talent assembled on the design teams. Collectively, AeroFly decided to pivot. While the company would still work to design drones and payloads for the ag sector, it would now also be developing autonomous space technology — an extension of the work from the NASA projects.

Simple, but innovative

Augers have long been used by farmers to move grain from trucks into storage bins. This conveyor technology is highly efficient in transporting bulk materials upward, which is precisely why AeroFly's innovative space technology has taken inspiration from this simple agricultural tool.

In 2024, AeroFly was in the midst of a growing period. The emerging aerospace company had received a NASA Small Business Innovation Research contract the summer before, allowing a highly talented group of engineering students to become classified as AeroFly employees.

"We are very gratified to be selected from a field of 1,500 applicants to receive this support from NASA," Niva said in 2024."This funding enables us to push the boundaries of space technology, contributing to the future of off-Earth resource utilization and space exploration. Our innovative, and frankly counterintuitive, modular conveying system represents a significant step forward in creating efficient, adaptable infrastructure for processing materials on the moon and other extraterrestrial bodies."

Liam Murray, Carter Waggoner, Allea Klauenberg and Dylan Stephens all had participated in the various NASA projects during their time at �ձ�av��Ƶ and Letcher recruited them to join the AeroFly team as part as part a collaborative research partnership with �ձ�av��Ƶ. All would be able to pursue graduate degrees while also working on aerospace projects.

For all the students, the opportunity AeroFly presented was ideal.

"What better opportunity?" Waggoner said. "There are not many aerospace companies in the Midwest. They are all coastal. The idea of being able to stay in Brookings is just really cool and then to also be able to do the aerospace stuff that I'm interested in."

"My journey with lunar infrastructure started with NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, where I spent three years developing excavation and material transport systems for the Moon," Klauenberg said. "That experience shaped my approach to off-Earth resource utilization and directly influenced our work at AeroFly."

NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge was a multi-year competition focused on developing technologies to excavate and transport icy regolith on the Moon. �ձ�av��Ƶ’s student team, Space Trajectory, competed in the challenge and ultimately placed in the top six nationally. The experience not only validated their technical approach to moon resource utilization but also directly inspired AeroFly’s first NASA Phase I Small Business Innovation Research contract.

The expanded AeroFly team finished developing its prototype auger-inspired space technology in 2024. Coined "Rego-LIFT," this modular conveyor was specifically designed to collect and transport regolith on the moon. The team members tested and analyzed the technology in a number of controlled environments and scaled their technology to meet NASA's needs.

In the midst of their space technology development, AeroFly continued to expand its drone operations. Alpha Quad, a lightweight quadrotor, is currently on the market, and AeroFly is in the process of developing four additional aircraft, including "Gamma," an unmanned electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft made for human transportation.

"Our line of aircraft can help with crop spraying, fire extinguishing purposes, package delivery, environmental sensing, land surveys, cattle tracking, as well as, ultimately, human transportation and rescue," Niva said.

In early 2025, AeroFly concluded its NASA contract and received a Technology Readiness Level 4 grade — a critical validation measure that means the technology was successful in a laboratory environment. The question now was, will Rego-LIFT work in outer space?

TechLeap award

It was late June when the email came through to Niva. NASA had just announced the winners of its Space Technology Payload Challenge and AeroFly was among the 10 universities, teams and businesses selected. The award, which came with a $500,000 prize, gives team members the opportunity to test their technology in microgravity aboard a parabolic flight sometime in 2026.

"This flight test is more than a checkbox, it's a giant leap for our company," Waggoner, a 2025 �ձ�av��Ƶ mechanical engineering graduate, said. "The data we bring back will shape how the next iteration of Rego-LIFT will look."

The AeroFly team, which includes Niva, Letcher, Ciarcia, Stephens, Murray, Waggoner, Klauenberg, Alex Shaar, Braxton McGrath, Devin van Ballegooyen and Nicholas Sieler, will begin integrating its technology to become flight ready this fall. AeroFly will have six to nine months to demonstrate their technology works under micro-gravity. This is an extremely abbreviated timeframe compared to traditional space technology development, which often can stretch for years rather than months.

"Our team has spent countless late nights turning sketches into steel," Stephens, a graduate teaching assistant in the Lohr College of Engineering, said. "Now, NASA is giving us the ultimate proving ground. I can't wait to watch our hardware perform the way we always imagined."

This summer, AeroFly also secured yet another NASA Phase I Small Business Innovation Research contract to advance its auger-based lunar ice extraction system. The six-month project will focus on thermal test bench development to prove the system can sublimate ice from regolith and deliver water vapor for capture.

“We’re thrilled to continue building on the work we started during the Break the Ice Lunar Challenge,” Klauenberg, AeroFly’s lead on the extraction effort, said.

For AeroFly, the award validates its approach to lunar-material resource utilization and highlights the role the emerging Midwest aerospace company has in advancing space exploration. The work lays the groundwork for future Phase II testing and ultimately supports NASA’s goals of sustained lunar presence.

Now, NASA has completed its first two Artemis missions and is readying for 2026, when humans will return to the lunar surface for the first time in over 50 years. For AeroFly, the next major step will be building a full-scale, 30-foot model of Rego-LIFT, culminating with a 15-day test overseen by NASA. The model, which will be built on campus, is expected to be completed in summer 2026.