Space
The Beaver Moon is visible from the historic center on November 27, 2023 in San Salvador, El Salvador. (Photo by `HOTOGRAFIA/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – DARPA has selected 14 companies – from launch vehicles to robotic vehicle makers to firms planning to transport cargo in cislunar space – to conduct a study of the types of technologies needed to create a functioning lunar economy, the Pentagon's research agency for the distant future announced today.
The 10-year lunar architecture capability study (LunA-10) “aims to catalyze the construction of a future civilian lunar framework for peaceful use in the United States and internationally,” DARPA said in a statement. The study will promote the development of technologies and operational concepts that, when integrated, will form the basis for a sustainable and profitable economic ecosystem connecting the Earth and the Moon.
“LunA-10 has the potential to upend the way the civilian space community thinks about driving large-scale commercial activity on and around the Moon over the next decade,” said Michael “Orbit” Nayak, program manager in DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office . “LunA-10 participants include both large and small, domestic and international companies, each bringing a clear vision and a technically rigorous plan to quickly move toward our goal: a self-sustainable, monetizable, commercially operated Lunar infrastructure.” ”
The DARPA-acquired companies will “work together in a highly collaborative environment over the next seven months to develop new integrated systems-level solutions spanning multiple lunar services.” These include lunar energy; mining and commercial in-situ resource exploitation; communication, navigation and timekeeping; transit, mobility and logistics; and construction and robotics,” the agency said in its statement. These companies are: Blue Origin; CisLunar Industries; Crescent Space Services LLC; Fibertek, Inc.; Firefly Aerospace; GITAI; Helios; honey bee robotics; SYMBOL; Nokia of America; Northrop Grumman; Redwire Corporation; Sierra Space; and SpaceX.
For example, startup Firefly will contribute to LunA-10 with “a framework for on-orbit spacecraft hubs,” the company said in a press release. “Based on the capabilities of Firefly's Elytra vehicle, the framework will define how spacecraft can dock with each other in orbit and provide on-demand services such as refueling, delivery, transportation and de-orbit. The goal of the framework is to help reduce on-orbit mission response times from years to days with scalable spacecraft hubs that can host and service spacecraft throughout cislunar space.”
The effort is a result of the Biden administration's National Cislunar Science and Technology Strategy [PDF] published in November 2022 with the aim of developing a whole-of-government strategy to “promote scientific, exploration and economic development activities” in space around the Moon and on the lunar surface. The Department of Defense was a key player in developing the strategy, reflecting a number of the Space Force's priorities for the future – including space situational awareness in the lunar region and “dynamic space operations” that require rapid, efficient maneuvering in orbit.
DARPA's announcement makes clear that the effort does not include funding for the actual production and deployment of related technologies, nor does it “support human exploration or scientific experiments that have no commercial value.” Rather, it is about helping the economy help itself. And the winners seem to be completely okay with that.
“It’s inspiring to see DARPA doing what it does best – tackling difficult problems quickly and driving commercial innovation for the benefit of the country and humanity,” said Jason Ballard, co-founder and CEO of ICON, in a press release. ICON specializes in advanced construction technologies and large-scale 3D printing.
Gary Calnan, CEO of CisLunar Industries, reiterated: “DARPA has finally done what the industry has been waiting for. … These efforts will lay the foundation for a marketplace in which the entire space sector can participate.” Cislunar is focused on lunar mining, such as precious metals, and “will support the development of the METAL framework (materials extraction, treatment, assembly and – logistics),” the company said in a press release.
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