The US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced the start of a series of projects aimed at developing a base for the development of a full-fledged lunar infrastructure in the next decade.

On August 15, DARPA announced the LunA-10 project and sought input from both potential providers of lunar power, communications, navigation and other infrastructure, as well as future users of that infrastructure. The agency plans to select a task force that will then work on “new system solutions spanning multiple services” that will be rolled out by 2035.

LunA-10 project leader Michael Nayak noted that many companies are already working on different elements of the lunar infrastructure, but are isolated from each other. “We want to bring these companies together within the framework of the LunA-10 project and form a kind of consortium,” he says. Within the framework of this project, methods of combining projects will be discussed. An example is the lunar power module, which will also provide communications and navigation.

Within the scope of the studies, the commercial status of the Moon infrastructure will also be determined after 10 years. “It’s a situation where we have a self-sustaining lunar economy. We need to see what technologies are needed to build that and identify gaps. I’d like to look at an analysis based on engineering considerations and covered by financials,” Nayak says.

Such research should be brought to the attention of NASA, which is currently working on the architecture of the lunar and Mars exploration program, when the agency released its first phase in April. But Nayak says that DARPA is not in competition, but is collaborating with NASA, describing the LunA-10 as complementary to NASA’s development.

“We started working with NASA, we learned what they were doing to determine what their plans were, and then we looked to see if there were any additional investments we could bring in the technologies DARPA was working on,” Nayak says.

DARPA emphasizes that the project review process will be based on Article 4 of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which mandates the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies for peaceful purposes only, and prohibits the establishment of military bases and weapons testing.

By September 25, DARPA plans to select people to work on the implementation of the project at the Consortium’s autumn meeting, scheduled for October 10-11 in Pittsburgh. The delivery date of the final report is June 2024. Source