Robert P. Mueller, a Senior Technologist and Principal Investigator at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, has made substantial contributions to the concept of solar system bootstrapping, particularly in the areas of lunar and Martian construction technologies and in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). His work is central to developing the tools
Robert P. Mueller, a Senior Technologist and Principal Investigator at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, has made substantial contributions to the concept of solar system bootstrapping, particularly in the areas of lunar and Martian construction technologies and in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). His work is central to developing the tools and methods needed for building infrastructure on other celestial bodies using local resources, which is a key component of establishing a sustainable presence in space.
Some of Rob Mueller's notable contributions include:
Rob Mueller has published extensively in peer reviewed professional organizations, conferences and journals.
The Swamp Works is a lean-development, rapid innovation environment at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. It was founded in 2012, when four laboratories in the Surface Systems Office were merged into an enlarged facility with a modified philosophy for rapid technology development. The team developed the Swamp Works operating philosophy from Kelly Johnson's Skunk Works, including the "14 Rules of Management", from the NASA development shops of Wernher von Braun, and from the innovation culture of Silicon Valley. The team prototypes space technologies rapidly to learn early in the process how to write better requirements, enabling them to build better products, rapidly, and at reduced cost. It was named the Swamp Works for similarity with the Skunk Works and the Phantom Works, but branded by the widespread marshes (swamps) on the Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island property of the Kennedy Space Center. The Swamp Works was co-founded by NASA engineers and scientists Jack Fox, Rob Mueller, Philip Metzger and Carlos Calle. The logo, a robotic alligator, was designed by Rosie Mueller, a professional artist and designer who is the spouse of Rob Mueller.
Swamp Works recently celebrated its 10th anniversary of innovation and technology development. Several technology demonstration payloads are planned to go to the Moon on NASA Commercial Lunar Payloads (CLPS) landers in the next few years.
In 2005, Robert P. Mueller and Dr. Philip T. Metzger co-founded the Granular Mechanics & Regolith Operations (GMRO) Laboratory at NASA Kennedy Space Center.
The Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations Laboratory (GMRO) studies the mechanics of materials in a launch pad environment, especially the mechanics of soil at Lunar and Martian spaceports; how to excavate the soil to prepare berms, landing pads, and roads; how to model the blowing of soil or other materials in a rocket exhaust plume to predict the blast effects. It also develops technologies for handling Lunar and Martian regolith, including excavator technologies, pneumatic transport of soil, and magnetic handling of soil. It studies the basic physics and geology of Lunar and Martian soil in order to support soil-handling technologies, including the particle sizing, particle shapes, bulk mechanical properties of the soil, soil compaction, field sampling technologies, and laboratory testing protocols. Another focus of the GMRO is advanced manufacturing methods using regolith for 3D Additive Construction technology development, sintering regolith materials and digital manufacturing of voxel elements. The GMRO lab develops robotic technologies to support surface systems and operations on planetary bodies, moons, asteroids and comets. Robotic construction and site preparation technologies are actively being pursued in support of future NASA missions.
Since 2010, NASA’s Lunabotics competition has provided university students from around the USA an opportunity to engage with the NASA Systems Engineering process to design and build a robotic lunar excavator capable of mining regolith and icy regolith simulants or perform construction tasks with regolith. Rob Mueller, Gloria Murphy and Susan Sawyer, at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (NASA KSC), co-founded the Lunabotics competition as a spin off for universities from the NASA Regolith Excavation Centennial Challenge which was won in 2009. Over 50 universities attend each year and over 6,000 students have participated. Rob Mueller is the co-founder and Head Judge of this competition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA%27s_Lunabotics_Competition
"Palooza" is an informal term used to describe a large, energetic, and vibrant event or celebration. It suggests a festival-like atmosphere with a lot of excitement, activities, and entertainment, often with multiple elements or themes involved.
ROBOPALOOZA is a fun, festival-like annual gathering with space robotics as the central theme, combined with a lively atmosphere of live rock & roll.
It features the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Telepresence Robot Competition and Robotic Demonstrations from leading companies and universities in the Space Exploration domain.
Showcasing the "Helelani" robotic rover from Hawai'i, which has starred in a TV episode of Hawai'i Five O https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXXQ1dKAt98 provided by the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) in Hilo, Hawai'i.
https://pacificspacecenter.com/
Helelani (or “Heavenly Travels”) is a 700-pound planetary rover equipped with a suite of instruments and imaging systems that can be controlled remotely. The rover’s open payload design offers a mobile testing platform for planetary surface systems. Space agencies anywhere in the world can pilot Helelani tele-robotically through the rugged terrain of planetary analog test sites. robot technology.
Rob Mueller is the founder and Head Judge of this competition.
The 2nd annual ROBOPALOOZA.space festival will take place in Perth, Western Australia on October 5-7, 2025 at the Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct (AARP), which is a world-leading collaborative innovation hub and Australia’s largest test and development site supporting the advancement of automation, robotics, remote operations and zero emissions technologies globally.
Rob Mueller is the founder and Head Judge of this competition.
Rob Mueller is a two time NIAC Fellow and Principal Investigator in this ferociously competitive NASA program.
The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program nurtures visionary ideas that could transform future NASA missions with the creation of breakthroughs — radically better or entirely new aerospace concepts — while engaging America’s innovators and entrepreneurs as partners in the journey.
Rob Mueller is the NASA KSC representative to the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS): a node of the NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) which facilitates NASA’s exploration of deep space by focusing its goals at the intersection of surface science and surface exploration of rocky, atmosphereless bodies. CLASS seeks to further understand the formation and evolution of the surfaces of these bodies so that future exploration missions, whether human or robotic, will be properly equipped to handle any challenges they face.
The CLASS team is composed of leading planetary scientists, geologists, geochemists, dynamicists, engineers, physicists and other researchers from across the world, and is headed by Prof. Daniel T. Britt at the University of Central Florida. The CLASS network incorporates domestic institutions across the USA and international partner institutions in different countries.
Rob Mueller is the NASA KSC Open Science "Champion" to inspire and educate the workforce with open science principles and methods. NASA is making a long-term commitment to building an open science community over the next decade. Open science is a collaborative culture enabled by technology that empowers the open sharing of data, information, and knowledge within the scientific community and the wider public to accelerate scientific research and understanding.
The principles of open science are to make publicly funded scientific research transparent, available, and reproducible. Advances in technology, including collaborative tools and cloud computing, help enable open science, but technology alone is insufficient. Open science requires a shift to a more transparent and collaborative scientific process, which will increase the pace and quality of scientific progress.
Rob Mueller is a former member of the Aerospace Division Executive Committee (ExComm) and was the Chairman of the ExComm and the ASCE Earth & Space Conference Chairman in 2016.
The Aerospace Regolith Operations, Mobility And Robotics (ROMR) Technical Committee (TC) aims to develop the role of the civil engineer in sensing and robotic technologies for application in construction; space operations; condition sensing assessment and monitoring; site exploration, improvement and resource extraction. Rob Mueller is a co-founder with Philip Metzger and continues as a TC member today.
The Outstanding Technical Contribution Award and the Outstanding Professional Service Award are the highest awards offered by the Aerospace Division. These are awarded based on nominations from division committees, and selection by the Executive Committee.
Outstanding Technical Contribution Award
Given to an individual who has contributed substantially to advancing the state of the art in aerospace engineering, sciences and technology, and space exploration and construction with application to civil engineering.
Outstanding Professional Service Award
Given to an individual who has contributed substantially by an objective and lasting achievement in improving the conditions under which civil engineers advance aerospace sciences and technology and space exploration and construction.
Rob Mueller was the recipient of both awards in 2016.
Scope: Promote the identification and development of advanced concepts, science, technology, and systems that will support, enhance and enable the identification, verification, recovery, processing, and use of space resources on the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere in space to support automated and crewed activities.
https://www.aiaa.org/get-involved/committees-groups/technical-committees#space-and-missiles-group
Rob Mueller is a IEEE Telepresence Steering Committee member.
IEEE Telepresence is an IEEE Future Directions initiative launched in 2021 with a focus on advance telepresence technology that would enable a user’s remote presence at a different physical location: a) feeling as if being there, and b) having a similar effect as if being there – in appearance to others and in effectual action, via telerobotics.
IEEE Telepresence is creating a community for projects, events and activities on telepresence technologies - covering topics such as teleoperations - operating/manipulation equipment as if present in cabin/control room; Moving heavy equipment, driving agricultural machines, perform tele-medicine.
Fields of Interest: Accelerate the missing technology components and encourage integrated telepresence systems. Create new interfaces for teleoperations. Create Community, Roadmap, Standard
https://telepresence.ieee.org/abouthttps://telepresence.ieee.org/about
Rob Mueller is the Co-Lead of the Exploration Analogues Working Group.
The “Moon Village & Exploration Analogues” Project provides a forum for identifying and coordinating activities related to terrestrial analogues for the Moon Village. It also addresses the associated topic of the use of the Moon as an analogue/testbed for future exploration of Mars and other destinations; it works with all of the various MV working groups discussed.
The Moon Village Association (MVA) was created in 2017 as a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Vienna, Austria. MVA acts as a permanent global informal forum for stakeholders like governments, industry, academia and the public interested in the development of the Moon Village. The MVA fosters cooperation among existing or planned public or private global moon exploration programs. It comprises more than 600 participants to MVA activities and 33 institutional members from more than 65 countries, representing a diverse array of technical, scientific, cultural and interdisciplinary fields.
MVA partners with other organizations to promote international discussions and formulation of plans to foster the implementation of the Moon Village and is creating international, national and regional networks to engage civil society around the world.
https://moonvillageassociation.org/
https://moonvillageassociation.org/working-groups/exploration-analogues/