CTQ Decomposition for Lunar Additive Manufacturing: Environmental Modifiers, Process Drift, and Verification Load Design

AbstractLunar additive manufacturing operates under environmental and operational conditions that fundamentally alter material behavior, process stability, and verification feasibility. Extreme thermal cycling, vacuum exposure, radiation, and abrasive regolith introduce degradation mechanisms that challenge terrestrial quality assumptions and amplify the impact of small deviations. This paper introduces a structured approach to Critical-to-Quality (CTQ) decomposition for lunar additive manufacturing systems, integrating environmental modifiers, process drift dynamics, and verification load design. The framework defines how CTQs propagate across interdependent subsystems, how environmental factors reshape severity and probability assessments, and how verification burden must be redistributed in autonomous and time-delayed operations. The approach emphasizes traceability, predictive quality control, and governance-aware verification logic to support extended autonomous manufacturing on the lunar surface. This work functions as a supporting technical module within the Unified Lunar Quality Framework (ULQF), providing formal structure for CTQ allocation, environmental interpretation, and verification design in extreme operational environments. Publication and version of recordThis work is published as an open-access technical manuscript. The authoritative version of record is the repository release identified by its DOI. All citations should reference the repository DOI and version number. Change log (v1.1) Added validity-gated CTQ acceptance rule (time and exposure). Defined a budgetable verification-load metric and added an operational CTQ timing table. Corrected references and cleaned formatting.