Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: DARPA/Inside Outer Space Archives

When talking about the Moon, throw some LOGIC into the mix.

In this case it’s the Lunar Operating Guidelines for Infrastructure Consortium or LOGIC for short.

This consortium is being put in place by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Better known as DARPA, its purpose is to develop operational guidelines and pathways to close interoperability gaps for commercial lunar infrastructure.

Watch this space! Image credit: ESA Matthias Maurer

Stakeholders

DARPA intends to bring “international stakeholders across industry, academia, and government to identify critical lunar infrastructure interoperability and interface needs,” the agency explains in a statement.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) will administer LOGIC, providing technical leadership and management of the consortium.

“We are proud to support DARPA and NASA in achieving their integrated goals in the cislunar domain,” said Bobby Braun, head of APL’s Space Exploration Sector.

“Whether for scientific, security or economic objectives, development of cislunar technology has long been a focus at APL. We are excited to apply our team’s capabilities to the benefit of our nation,” said Braun.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is moving forward on the Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials and Mass-efficient Design (NOM4D) program. (Image credit: DARPA)

NASA is tied in through APL’s operation of the civil space agency’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII) and Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) in which hundreds of universities and businesses are participating in NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program.

NOM4D, LunA-10, LOGIC

Over several years, DARPA has increasingly zeroed-in on the Moon.

Last year, DARPA selected teams for its Novel Orbital Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass Efficient Design (NOM4D) program.

Image credit: DARPA/Inside Outer Space Archive

More recently, DARPA initiated the 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study to spur the development of a future civil lunar framework for peaceful U.S. and international use.

DARPA said that LunA-10 seeks to rapidly develop foundational technology concepts “that move away from individual scientific efforts within isolated, self-sufficient systems, toward a series of shareable, scalable systems that interoperate — minimizing lunar footprint and creating monetizable services for future lunar users.”

On the horizon

“Widespread exploration and commerce on and around the Moon are on the horizon,” said Michael “Orbit” Nayak, program manager in DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office.

Wanted: Interoperability standards for commercial lunar infrastructure.
Image credit: DARPA

“With LunA-10, we’re studying the technologies that can help to get us there – and interoperability needs to be part of the picture from the start,” Nayak added.

“While other efforts focus on technology development,,” Nayak said, “LOGIC will zero in how systems work together. We’re looking for maximum participation from the public and private sectors and from international stakeholders.”