10-28-2025
Sam Ximenes, a San Antonio native and one of only a few people in the world to earn the title of Space Architect, is building the future of lunar construction while inspiring the next generation of space explorers. After a winding creative career that included designing urban street furniture in Germany and launching a failed startup, Sam became one of the first three students in the space architecture program at the University of Houston. He went on to design concepts for lunar bases, work as a NASA contractor on the International Space Station’s Japanese and European lab modules, and serve on the design team for Spaceport America—the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport. In 2007, he founded Exploration Architecture Corporation (XArc), an interplanetary architecture firm focused on technologies for habitation on Earth, the Moon, and Mars.
Realizing that San Antonio wasn’t developing enough local talent for the emerging space industry, Sam launched the WEX Foundation in 2013—a nonprofit that introduces students to space exploration through project-based learning. Its three-year LCATS program uses Texas caves as analog environments for lunar cave exploration, and has already reached 10,000 young people. In 2020, Sam founded Astroport Space Technologies, a subsidiary of XArc based at Port San Antonio, to develop “space bricks” made from moon dirt (regolith) using large 3D printers for landing pads, roads, and other lunar construction. Astroport has won multiple NASA grants as part of the $93 billion Artemis program and will test its technology on a rover scheduled to fly to the moon in 2027 or 2028. “The Port is the place to be for high tech growth,” Sam said. “We want to be part of that vision.”