Credit: CSPS

 

Aerospace’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy (CSPS) released a new policy paper that explores future opportunities in cislunar space—essentially, the space inside the moon’s orbit and the orbital area around the moon.

The policy document — Cislunar Development: What to Build— and Why –discusses the possible applications for cislunar space—for example, outposts on the moon, extraterrestrial mining operations, interplanetary waystations—and determines the infrastructure that will be needed to realize those ambitious goals.

Underdeveloped resource

Author James Vedda, senior policy analyst with CSPS, says that the cislunar region remains a largely underdeveloped resource, and any coherent, long-term strategy for space commerce and exploration will need to make better use of it.

Credit: NASA

“An enduring, multi-purpose space infrastructure means more than just rockets and spacecraft,” explains Vedda. “It needs a wide range of capabilities, such as inter-orbital transportation, on-orbit servicing, standardization, fuel storage, energy distribution, communication and navigation services, resource extraction, and materials processing.”

The Center is part of The Aerospace Corporation, a nonprofit that provides objective advice to the government on complex space enterprise and systems engineering problems.

To access the policy paper, go to:

http://aerospace.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/CislunarDevelopment.pdf

Leave a Reply