The expansion of commercial space capabilities has opened up a new horizon: the possibility of a lunar economy. This revolution in the way goods and services are delivered around and to the Moon could be the spark that ignites a new era of economic advancement and exploration. However, for this vision to become a reality, a fundamental change is needed in the way the development of the lunar system is approached.
At the moment, Each entity must be self-sufficient and carry with it all the resources necessary for its mission. However, creating a truly integrated lunar economy requires an analytical framework that allows us to focus on interconnected patterns of economic activity. By charting a path to “connectivity” rather than “fractionation,” this framework could remove barriers to entry to the lunar surface and promote sustainable, shared systems.
This is where DARPA’s 10-year Lunar Architecture Capability Study (LunA-10) comes into play. This ambitious project aims to getting commercial companies to work together to create an interoperable lunar infrastructure in the next decade. Since its inception five months ago, LunA-10 participants have been working hard to design integrated system-level solutions that span multiple lunar services and define how they can be interconnected and scaled.
The LunA-10 Government Integration Team (GIT) was instrumental in this process. Composed of experts from various government agencies, the GIT developed an analytical framework that envisions the future lunar economy in the context of four theoretical “moon ages”. In addition, they identified five business value chains that outline the technical steps necessary to achieve a viable and sustainable commercial lunar economy.
Recently, at the Spring Meeting of the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC), DARPA and LunA-10 participants shared the first insights from their work with the lunar community. DARPA Program Director Michael Nayak emphasized the importance of this collaborative effort and emphasized emerging themes that could be key to the lunar economic future.
Concepts such as in-situ renewable resource utilization (Re-ISRU), robotics-as-a-service (RaaS), and aggregated thermal generation and rejection-as-a-service have been mentioned as possible drivers of a future lunar economy. These are just a few examples of the innovative ideas LunA-10 is exploring.
In the words of Dr. Nayaka: “LunA-10 discovered how today’s core technologies and capabilities can be combined into self-sufficient lunar economy and where there are gaps that require further exploration and technological maturation.
GIT LunA-10 members presented a preliminary analytical framework at the LSIC conference and mapped business value chains for 19 use cases. LunA-10 participants also shared their contributions to the study through posters, inviting the lunar community to discuss and contribute ideas.
