Catalyzing a Lunar Economy: DARPA's Initial Findings from LunA-10 Study

Catalyzing a Lunar Economy: DARPA's Initial Findings from LunA-10 Study
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 14, 2024

The expansion of commercial space capabilities has transformed how we deliver mass and services to the Moon. These capabilities could create a real off-Earth economy if they operate jointly. An underlying analytical framework emphasizing integrated models of economic activity is needed to bridge current approaches to lunar system development and an integrated future lunar economy. This framework aims to reduce barriers to lunar surface entry and promote shareable, scalable, sustainable systems.

The DARPA 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study seeks to encourage commercial companies to study the shift from self-supported systems to interoperable lunar infrastructure within the next decade.

Since the program's inception five months ago, participants have collaborated to design integrated system-level solutions across multiple lunar services. The LunA-10 Government Integration Team (GIT), comprising experts from various government agencies, developed an analytical framework for a future lunar economy based on four notional "Lunar Ages." The GIT also outlined five enterprise value chains detailing the technical steps necessary for a viable, sustainable commercial lunar economy.

At the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) Spring Meeting, DARPA, LunA-10 participants, and the GIT shared their initial findings. DARPA Program Manager Michael Nayak highlighted each LunA-10 participant's contributions and identified topics requiring further technical development, such as Recyclable in-situ resource utilization (Re-ISRU), robotics as a service (RaaS), and aggregated thermal generation and rejection as a service.

"LunA-10 is a great example of the types of insights we can generate when we drive companies to break down vertically integrated siloes and collaborate to find new opportunities and limitations," said Dr. Nayak. "The LunA-10 program has uncovered how current foundational technologies and capabilities could stitch together into a self-sustaining lunar economy, and where there are gaps that require further exploration and technology maturation."

LunA-10 GIT members presented the program's preliminary analytical framework and enterprise value chains, mapped to 19 use cases. LunA-10 participants shared their study contributions in breakout sessions at LSIC for community input.

To view recordings of the DARPA LunA-10 LSIC presentations, including a keynote from DARPA STO Office Director Dr. Philip Root and presentations by Dr. Nayak and the LunA-10 Government Integration Team, please visit the LSIC 2024 Spring Meeting website. Initial results from LunA-10 participants and the preliminary analytical framework developed by the program can be found here.