DARPA To Build Technologies for Integrated Lunar Infrastructure With LunA-10’s Aid

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) aims to develop technologies to aid the foundation for an integrated lunar infrastructure. Its plan will use the 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) study.

DARPA and LunA-10 for Integrated Lunar Infrastructure

To create a diverse technological framework that will facilitate activities in space around and on the moon's surface in the ensuing decades, the 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) capability study will try to bring together what the agency sees as disparate efforts within the scientific community. According to a statement on the agency's website on Aug. 15, the DARPA study will include lunar service providers and consumers and will span seven months.

DARPA's Strategic Technology Office program manager, Michael Nayak, said the lunar economy will undergo a significant paradigm shift during the next ten years.

LunA-10 will identify businesses with "technically rigorous business plans" and encourage cooperative innovation between them to develop numerous economically viable services on the moon by about 2035 to hasten this transition.

The schedule is in keeping with NASA's aspirations to create a long-term human presence on the moon as a testing ground for future expeditions to Mars, as the DARPA statement recognizes. The current NASA Artemis program includes long-term plans for a space station in cislunar orbit, a moon's south pole base, and lunar surface exploration missions.

A robust and dependable infrastructure will be necessary to support this level of exploration and the anticipated expansion of commercial lunar companies; this is what DARPA aims to achieve with LunA-10.

The study's main areas of attention will be power transfer and data communication, with the integration of those technologies taking precedence. Complex lasers capable of wirelessly radiating power and conveying a data stream would be one approach to achieve this.

According to DARPA, LunA-10 intends to make it easier for as many infrastructure sectors to be combined and optimized into central nodes that can be expanded.

Imagine a wireless power station with communications and navigation capabilities built into its beam, Nayak said, adding that LunA-10 is searching for such connecting nodes to support a vibrant lunar commercial economy.

DARPA has extended the deadline for firms to submit abstracts for LunA-10 until Sept. 6. Following a technical presentation later next month, the chosen businesses will compete for up to $1 million in funding. The final list of companies selected for the LunA-10 project will be revealed at the LSIC's fall meeting in October, and they will be required to update the scientific community on their developments at the consortium's meeting in April 2024.

A conference in June of next year is scheduled for final reports.

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India's Chandrayaan-3 Landed to Moon Successfully

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully landed its Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module on the surface of the Moon on Wednesday morning. The spacecraft arrived in lunar orbit on Aug. 5. On Aug. 17, the lander module separated from the propulsion module and descended to the surface. On Aug. 23, ISRO confirmed the Chandrayaan-3 lander's successful touchdown in the moon's southern polar region.

The European Space Agency (ESA) extended its greeting to ISRO's historic landing. The agency said it was proud to support the mission. Rolf Densing, Director of Operations at ESA's ESOC mission operations center in Darmstadt, Germany, added that they look forward to supporting more ISRO missions, including the Aditya-L1.