The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on Tuesday said it has selected 14 companies to quickly develop concepts for technologies that can be integrated as part of a future lunar infrastructure for science, research, and commercial activities.
The selected companies for the 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study are Blue Origin, CisLunar Industries, Crescent Space Services, LLC, Fibertek, Inc., Firefly Aerospace, GITAI, Helios, Honeybee Robotics, which is a subsidiary of Blue Origin, ICON, Nokia of America, Northrop Grumman [NOC], Redwire [RDW], Sierra Space, and SpaceX.
DARPA hopes the awards help jumpstart a civil lunar framework for U.S. and international use.
“LunA-10 has the potential to upend how the civil space community things about spurring commercial activity on and around the Moon within the next 10 years,” Michael “Orbit” Nayak, program manager in DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office, said in a statement. “LunA-10 performers include companies both big and small, domestic and international, each of which brought a clear vision and technically rigorous plan for advancing quickly towards our goal: a self-sustaining, monetizable, commercially owned-and-operated lunar infrastructure.”
CisLunar Industries, which is developing a modular space foundry, said it will provide “expertise in space-based metal processing to the mining and in-space resource utilization segment of the lunar economy.”
Firefly, which provides space launch services, said its LunA-10 offering is an analytical framework for aggregated on-orbit spacecraft hubs that respond quickly to demand for cislunar services such as refueling, delivery, and transport.
GITAI USA said its proposal involves deploying modular, multi-purpose Inchworm robots that perform tasks on the lunar surface such as construction and maintenance.
ICON, which uses 3D printing to build homes and buildings, said its selection will put it in touch with other technology providers to “understand what inputs are going to be available, when, at what cost, and in what quantities,” and at the same time give these companies an opportunity to learn about ICON’s capabilities. ICON has a small business contract with NASA to continue research and development of lunar-based construction systems.
Redwire said it will focus its part of the study on services to lunar assets from cislunar space such as high-speed communications, and position, navigation, and timing.
Sierra Space said it will work on using carbonthermal technology to manufacture oxygen on the Moon.
Each company will brief their work at the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium meeting in April 2024 and provide a final report in June 2024.