NASA opened a new Moon Base data call on November 12, 2026, with white papers due January 4, 2027. The opportunity appears as Directed Call 03, Architecture Driven Data Gaps, under the agency’s NextSTEP-3 Appendix B solicitation.
The call gives industry a scheduled route to propose work supporting the information NASA uses to plan lunar operations. The agency’s published timetable sets November 18, 2026, as the deadline for initial questions. It anticipates proposal invitations on February 5, 2027, followed by proposals on March 5 and an estimated award announcement on March 31.
NASA previewed the effort in its November 7 Moon Base announcement. It said the work could involve small spacecraft, payloads carried on future Moon Base flights, or purchases of information gathered by commercial partners. Those approaches connect the proposed service to the information delivered rather than requiring every proposal to take the form of a new spacecraft.
Information Used to Design Missions
NASA’s architecture-driven data framework explains how these information needs are identified. The agency begins with its Moon-to-Mars objectives and determines what measurements or knowledge are needed to design hardware, assess operations, support science, and protect crew health.
An architecture is the organized description of how mission elements work together to accomplish those objectives. Data can influence the design of an individual system or the way several systems operate together. NASA’s framework connects each identified need to exploration objectives, the period when the information is needed, and target measurement parameters.
The framework distinguishes information needs from technology-development needs. A measurement can help establish the performance a technology must achieve; a technology project develops the capability itself. NASA tracks the relationships between the two.
Commercial partners can contribute through data purchases, sharing agreements, and other arrangements. The framework identifies lunar-delivery companies as potential sources of information acquired during their own operations. Its catalog communicates the information sought and the purpose it serves; the November directed call supplies a separate procurement process with submission dates.
A Directed Call Within an Existing Program
The parent Appendix B opportunity, numbered 80MSFC26R0003, was announced in June and posted in July 2026. NASA describes its purpose as supporting industry-led demonstrations and studies that connect development work with Moon Base operations. Directed calls specify individual topics within that broader program.
The data call follows earlier topics covering initial surface power and a surface mating system. The latter concerns the connection of surface equipment. These topics sit within an Appendix B scope that includes transportation, power, communications, habitation, mobility, robotics, and lunar science.
The November announcement also described related surface-power work. NASA selected Honeybee Robotics for energy storage, Redwire for power generation, and Yank Technologies for wireless power transfer for the Mini-Communications and Solar Tower, or miniCAST. NASA Marshall engineers are to assemble and test those components before lunar delivery.
That component procurement and the data call perform different tasks within the Moon Base program. One supplies equipment for a planned surface system; the other solicits work to obtain information used in exploration planning and development. NASA’s published schedule places the first submission milestone for the new data call on January 4, 2027.
