WASHINGTON – The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is beginning a seven-month study of the infrastructure and enabling technology needed to develop a moon-based economy within the next decade.
With the lunar architecture study, dubbed LunA-10, DARPA aims to provide an analytical framework for “rapid scientific and commercial activity on and around the Moon” between 2025 and 2035, the agency said in an Aug. 15 statement.
“A major paradigm shift for the lunar economy is coming over the next decade,” Michael Nayak, program manager in DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office, said in the statement. “In order to get to an inflection point faster, LunA-10 aims solely to find solutions that can enable multi-mission lunar systems.”
These “multi-mission systems” could include dual-use military and commercial technology, such as a wireless power plant that offers communications and navigation capabilities, Nayak said. He compared the agency’s potential role in boosting the lunar economy to its contribution to the birth of the internet.
“Just as DARPA’s basic ARPANET node has evolved into the vast web of the Internet, LunA-10 is searching for these connecting nodes to support a thriving commercial economy on the moon,” said Nayak.
DARPA’s study comes at a time when the US and other countries and commercial companies are planning missions and envisioning a future economy on the moon. In recent years, DARPA and the Air Force Research Laboratory have launched a number of programs dealing with satellite acquisition and logistics in a lunar environment.
Meanwhile, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency announced in May that it is developing a lunar reference frame that will provide the mapping infrastructure to support a GPS-like capability for the moon.
DARPA efforts are focused on “merging” various infrastructure sectors with technological overlaps into hubs that could be built in the future as economic activity increases on and around the moon. These sectors include: transit and mobility; Energy; Communication; and other “revolutionary orbital or surface infrastructure concepts”.
While the agency does not plan to fund technology development, transportation to the moon, or integration into spacecraft, it will form industry teams composed of companies with expertise in lunar technology. These teams will help identify fundamental capabilities, develop an analytical framework, and address logistical and technical challenges for lunar operations.
DARPA expects the study to begin in November and continue through June 2024. The agency works with NASA, which is creating a blueprint for scientific exploration of the Moon and Mars. This work involves developing an architecture for a long-term human presence in the region.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s Space and Emerging Technology Reporter. She has been reporting on the US military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has covered some of the Department of Defense’s biggest procurement, budget and policy challenges.
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