Recognizing the rapid

lunar exploration The physical exploration of the Moon began when ''Luna 2'', a space probe launched by the Soviet Union, made a deliberate impact on the surface of the Moon on 14 September, 1959. Prior to that the only available means of lunar exploration had ...

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...

envisions a thriving cislunar and lunar economy of scientific research and commercial development over the next decade. It has launched two programs to address the need for shareable, scalable commercial systems essential to a robust lunar economy.

Lunar Guidelines for Infrastructure Consortium (LOGIC)

LOGIC intends to bring industry, academia, and government together to identify critical lunar

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

interoperability Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader de ...

and interface needs for commercial lunar infrastructure. In October 2023, the

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

(JHU)

Applied Physics Laboratory The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (or simply Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University ...

(APL) was selected to administer LOGIC as a permanent, self-sustaining, and independent forum for collaboration.

10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10)

Announced in August 2023, LunA-10 will conduct a seven-month capability study to create core technology concepts toward a series set of adaptable, expandable systems that can work together and be shared, “minimizing lunar footprint and creating monetizable services for future lunar users.” The study is tailored to capabilities for commercial and economic uses, and will not be for military applications. The LunA-10 study’s focus areas are based on key sectors identified in a report titled �
Lunar market assessment: market trends and challenges in the development of a lunar economy
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in September 2021. Transit/mobility, energy, and communications are the three areas LunA-10 sees as forming the foundation of any other lunar industries. Industries that may integrate technologies into the LunA-10 infrastructure include construction, mining, medicine, sciences, communications, etc. In December 2023, 14 companies were funded to complete the study by June 2024 about the necessary infrastructure and capabilities required to develop a moon-based economy over the next ten years. They include

Blue Origin Blue Origin Enterprises, L.P. is an American space technology company headquartered in Kent, Washington. The company operates the suborbital New Shepard rocket and the heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. In addition to producing engines for its own ...

, CisLunar Industries, Crescent Space Services, Fibertek, Inc.,

Firefly Aerospace Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an American private aerospace firm based in Cedar Park, Texas, that develops small- and medium-lift launch vehicles for commercial launches to orbit. The current company was formed when the assets of the former co ...

, GITAI, Helios, Honeybee Robotics, ICON, Nokia of America,

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...

, Redwire Corporation, Sierra Space and

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

. For example, aerospace company Northrop Grumman will provide a conceptual study of a “lunar railroad” network for commercial ventures. NASA has been working on a detailed architecture for lunar and Martian exploration. DARPA has coordinated with NASA to make LunA-10 complementary to NASA architecture studies. An update on the program occurred in April 2024. With industry participants providing insight on how a lunar economy could be operationalized. Many proposals relied on the viability of

in-situ resource utilization In space exploration, in situ resource utilization (ISRU) is the practice of collection, processing, storing and use of materials found or manufactured on other astronomical objects (the Moon, Mars, asteroids, etc.) that replace materials th ...

and low enough launch costs.

Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design (NOM4D)

In 2022, DARPA kicked off NOM4D (pronounced “nomad”) to explore using lightweight raw materials that can be transformed and assembled once they reach orbit. NOM4D complements other initiatives such as LOGIC and LunA-10. The initiative is to overcome the challenges of assembling large-scale structures in orbit by testing new in-space manufacturing capabilities. In February 2025, DARPA shifted the final phase of NOM4D from laboratory experiments to small-scale orbital demonstrations.{{Cite web , last=Hanks , first=Micah , date=2025-02-11 , title=DARPA Program Plans to Build Massive Structures in Orbit with Paradigm-Shifting Technology , url=https://thedebrief.org/darpa-program-plans-to-build-massive-structures-in-orbit-with-paradigm-shifting-technology/ , access-date=2025-03-13 , website=The Debrief , language=en-US One of NOM4D's long-term objectives is to develop 100-meter-wide space-based antennas to enhance situational awareness in the cislunar region between Earth and the Moon during crewed lunar exploration missions.

External links

NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative

LOGIC

10-Year Lunar Architecture Capability Study (LunA-10)

NASA: A Researcher’s Guide to: Space Environmental Effects

NASA: Moon to Mars Architecture

Space Environment Exploitation (SEE)

References

Exploration of the Moon Human spaceflights Spaceflight

Lunar Guidelines for Infrastructure Consortium (LOGIC)

10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10)

Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design (NOM4D)

See also

External links

References