The Artemis Arena at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center offers a premier testbed for external customers seeking to validate systems in a simulated lunar mare environment. The arena is filled with Black Point-1 (BP-1) crushed basalt, a high-fidelity lunar regolith simulant representative of the Moon’s basaltic maria. Enclosed within internal dimensions of approximately 6.8 meters in length by 5.0 meters in width, the arena provides a substantial 45 cm depth of BP-1, with the option to include larger rocks and gravel (~2 cm diameter) to emulate natural heterogeneity.

Designed for rigorous testing, the arena features a dedicated Obstacle Zone, where teams can evaluate technologies for obstacle detection, terrain mapping, and autonomous navigation across a complex “slalom” route. The zone includes randomly placed boulder obstacles—each roughly 30 to 40 cm in diameter with variable height—and crater features of varying shape, no deeper or wider than 40 to 50 cm. A central structural column within the arena serves as a fixed infrastructure obstacle, further enhancing realism by simulating a persistent hazard that must be avoided.

This facility provides an ideal, controlled setting for robotics, mobility, excavation, and autonomy testing under Moon-like terrain conditions, and is open for use by industry, academia, and government teams preparing for lunar missions.

• The Artemis Arena at KSC is filled with Black Point-1 (BP-1) crushed basalt rock lunar regolith simulant.
• The arena area measures ~6.8 m long and ~5.0 m wide (these are internal measurements between the ducts located on the inside of the arena, see Photo 2: Artemis Arena Internal View).
• The Artemis Arena contains ~45 cm depth of BP-1.
• Larger rocks may also be mixed in with the BP-1/gravel in a random manner (gravel is ~2cm in diameter).
• Obstacle Zone – The obstacle field can be constructed in such a way as to require obstacle detection, mapping, and navigation planning to determine a “slalom” route to reach the excavation zone.
• Boulder Obstacles – The zone includes randomly placed boulder obstacles—each roughly 30 to 40 cm in diameter with variable height— Each obstacle may have a diameter of approximately 30 cm to 40 cm and will have random heights. There may be boulders in the excavation zone, these will not exceed the dimensions of any in the obstacle zone.
• Crater Obstacles – Features craters of varying shape, no deeper or wider than 40 to 50 cm.
• Infrastructure Obstacle – the arena has a central support structure column which is an obstacle and must be avoided.
• The Artemis Arena includes ducting that goes around the perimeter, as shown in Photo 2: Artemis Arena Internal View, this duct is 17cm in diameter.