The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has embarked on an ambitious initiative to conceptualize a lunar railroad network as part of its 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study. The agency has selected Northrop Grumman Corporation to further develop the concept of building a moon-based railroad system to transport humans, supplies, and resources across the lunar surface.
Enabling Commercial Ventures on the Moon
The envisioned lunar railroad network aims to contribute to a growing space economy for the United States and its international partners. By facilitating the transportation of personnel and materials, the proposed infrastructure could enable and support commercial ventures on the Moon, fostering economic development and exploration activities.
Defining the Lunar Rail System
Northrop Grumman’s study will focus on several key aspects of the lunar rail system concept. These include:
- Defining the interfaces and resources required to build a lunar rail network.
- Establishing a critical list of foreseeable cost, technological, and logistical risks.
- Identifying prototypes, demonstrations, and analyses necessary for a fully operating lunar rail system’s concept design and architecture.
- Exploring concepts for constructing and operating the system with robotics, including grading, foundation preparation, track placement, alignment, joining, finishing, inspection, maintenance, and repair.
Integrating Lunar Infrastructure
DARPA’s LunA-10 Capability Study aims to create an analytical framework for integrated lunar infrastructure that minimizes the lunar footprint while providing commercial services for future lunar users. The study seeks to shift from individual scientific projects to shared, scalable systems that work together, enabling a sustainable and efficient lunar presence.
Catalyzing Economic Vibrancy on the Moon
According to Dr. Michael “Orbit” Nayak, program manager in DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office, a significant paradigm shift is anticipated for the lunar economy in the next decade. The LunA-10 study uniquely aims to identify solutions that can enable multi-mission lunar systems, accelerating key technologies that may be utilized by both government and commercial space industries, ultimately catalyzing economic vibrancy on the Moon.
Pioneering Space Exploration
DARPA has a rich legacy of pioneering and de-risking technologies vital to civil space advancement, from the rocket technology in the Saturn V that took humans to the Moon for the first time to the recent DARPA-NASA partnership to enable faster space travel with a nuclear thermal rocket engine. The lunar railroad concept study continues this tradition, identifying and accelerating critical technologies that could shape the future of space exploration and exploitation.