DARPA Wants to Repeat Seeding the Internet Economy to Make a Booming 2035 CisLunar and Moon Economy

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative and revolutionary approaches to design integrated, multi-service commercial nodes for mass-efficient lunar infrastructure supported by analytical frameworks intended for future use by the United States and all nations with a declared commitment to the peaceful use of the Moon per the Artemis Accords.

LunA-10 will help to enable the near-term maturation of lunar technologies and capabilities that will be necessary for future architecture objectives. The study will result in the design of system-level solutions that fuse multiple necessary lunar services and deliver a quantitatively defendable analytical framework for future lunar infrastructure that leverages technology overlap between potential services to the maximum extent possible. More than one framework is anticipated. Performers will create new benchmarks and metrics defining performance parameters for each integrated system solution, directly tied to an aggregate “critical mass” for a self-sustaining, monetizable, commercially owned-and-operated lunar infrastructure. Performers will ultimately create a System Concept Review (SCR) level design of the integrated systems, identify key enabling technologies or necessary innovation in quantitative terms, and analyze cost, logistical and technological challenges facing the aggregate frameworks thus composed. Input is sought from both lunar technology providers and lunar technology users. Solutions that are stand-alone or are not designed to integrate with other concepts or larger architectures are specifically excluded.

Many services are needed to field a commercial-owned and operated lunar infrastructure, and an underlying common framework that emphasizes integrated models of economic activity may be the “rising tide” that lifts all lunar vessels. Note, due to mass constraints associated with lunar launch and landing, mass efficiency should be a primary factor considered in all prospective designs.

LunA-10 aims to facilitate the fusing and co-optimization of as many infrastructure sectors as possible onto standard payloads that can be delivered to the lunar surface and, in the future, scale up to the size of ubiquitous infrastructure for the Moon. As one example (of many possible combinations): Energy; Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT); and communications needs may be combined via a single infrastructural laser system designed to provide optical power beaming, laser communications (lasercom), and PNTOC3. On the other hand, challenges include heat rejection for dense multi-service systems or system mass per kilowatt transmitted, while accommodating pointing and tracking for lasercom and waveform generation equipment for PNTOC.

LunA-10 aims to create quantitative joint multi-service system design(s) created by credible teams of engineers actively working on near-term commercial lunar investments

Program Description/Scope

LunA-10 TA-1 will help to enable the near-term maturation of lunar technologies and capabilities necessary for future architecture objectives. The study will result in the design of system-level solutions that (1) fuse multiple necessary lunar services and (2) deliver a quantitatively defendable analytical framework for future lunar infrastructure that (3) leverages technology overlap between potential services to the maximum extent possible.

More than one multi-service (integrated) system may be part of a framework, and more than one framework may be generated given different technical solutions.

For each integrated system solution, performers will create new benchmarks and metrics defining performance parameters directly tied to an aggregate “critical mass” that will likely result in a self sustaining, monetizable, commercially owned-and-operated lunar infrastructure. Performers will create System Concept Review (SCR) level designs of each integrated system, identify key enabling technologies or necessary innovation in quantitative terms, and analyze cost, logistical and technological challenges facing the aggregate frameworks thus composed.

Input is sought from both lunar technology providers and lunar technology users. Solutions that are stand-alone or are not designed to integrate with other concepts or larger architectures are specifically excluded. Not all solutions need to be lunar surface-based; in fact, multiple sectors are expected to be better suited for orbital solutions. Both will be considered and analyzed under LunA-10 TA-1. However, terrestrial-based solutions are not of interest.

LunA-10 will select companies that:
1) Have a clear vision and technically rigorous roadmap/business plan for providing or using one or more lunar services with known needs and interfaces,

2) Have a concept for integrated infrastructure that can be delivered to the Moon given the right investment profile, and can defend that concept with technical rigor and concrete metrics for system design and infrastructure performance specific to the lunar environment,

3) Can provide access to excellent multi-disciplinary engineers whose breadth of technical experience encompasses the anticipated technical challenges for a series of multiservice infrastructure nodes and are capable of credible, fast-paced engineering and feasibility analysis updated on a weekly cadence.

The goals defined above are to 1) broadly catalyze the future lunar economy, 2) increase opportunities for multi-service overlap, and 3) create monetizable lunar infrastructure services implemented by commercial companies for various lunar users. Therefore, companies with business plans for the Moon, known needs and interfaces, and mature teams of multi-disciplinary engineers are essential to program goals.

Winners will get up to $1 million over 7 months.

TA-1 Thrust Areas
It is anticipated that three sectors are cornerstones to accomplishing the envisioned lunar goals:
1) Transit/Mobility
i. Specifically excludes downmass. The study of enabling logistics is encouraged.
2) Energy
i. Specifically includes wireless power beaming and specifically excludes surface nuclear fission.
3) Communications
i. Includes three scales: local area surface to surface, surface to lunar orbit, and to/from Earth.

A successful LunA-10 TA-1 team will likely incorporate some expertise in these vital cornerstone sectors and their specific technical strengths. However, this is not an all-encompassing list.

Proposers should specify what other sectors they believe are required to create monetizable commercial services provided to a wide variety of users intending to operate on and around the Moon and their expertise in those areas.

Due to mass constraints associated with lunar launch and landing, mass efficiency should be a primary factor considered in proposed designs and as a measurable metric.

Proposers are not expected to outline all multi-service systems required to achieve the overall lunar vision. However, proposers should outline at least one, which DARPA will use to determine their suitability to be one of the LunA-10 companies designing integrated lunar frameworks.

Successful proposers will then contribute to designing several multi-service systems during the program; performers should expect to ingest other companies’ perspectives and contribute them to others. Ultimately, LunA-10 will create a “best in breed” set of integrated lunar frameworks at the SCR level, with well-defined component system nodes and metrics for performance.

DARPA intends to provide economic expertise as part of the Government Integration Team to help analyze and validate definitions of critical mass for a lunar economy; teams may suggest other ways to utilize this expertise throughout the program. No other GFE/GFI will be provided.

Program Structure and Deliverables

LunA-10 TA-1 will be executed in a single Phase lasting seven (7) months. Five primary metrics will be measured at the final SCR conducted near program completion:

1. The existence of a defined end state that constitutes an aggregate “critical mass” for a self sustaining, monetizable, commercially owned-and-operated lunar infrastructure; all solutions will be aimed at realizing this end state;
2. Designed multi-service systems show sufficiently realistic mass budget fidelity to convincingly close their design;
3. Key technical risks and challenges are well understood, with convincing technical ways forward to address those risks in a revolutionary (not iterative) manner;
4. The designed system shows a sufficiently rigorous basis for a calculated lifetime estimation given a near-100% duty cycle and details envisioned component-level hardware testing that will validate relevant assumptions in future development phases;
5. A concrete and detailed plan for system scaling to the infrastructure level and any additional challenges anticipated with that deployment, with particular attention to differing environmental conditions across the Moon.