NASA asks industry for proposals for building lunar base infrastructure
NASA today issued a request for feedback from the private sector for building its Moon Base, including the infrastructure for providing “surface power, in-situ resource utilization, [and] advanced manufacturing.”
The solicitation focuses on five technologies that NASA considers necessary but insufficiently developed at this point, some of which it also considers necessary for exploring and colonizing the entire solar system.
- Solar power generation, including power management and distribution, and energy storage.
- Radioisotope power, for use by operating spacecraft systems in the solar system’s “darkest, dustiest, and most remote places”.
- In-situ resource utilization, including using lunar materials to produce fuel, water, and oxygen.
- In-space advanced manufacturing for producing “essential tools and materials” on the Moon and Mars.
- Innovative nanomaterials, for use in spacecraft and instruments in order to reduce their weight and size at launch.
The announcement notes that NASA is requesting input from industry, hoping it can “identify any areas of ambiguity, or concerns.” The agency will then revise accordingly.
This solicitation is another example of NASA administrator Jared Isaacman’s push to rationalize the entire Artemis program, to take seriously the real requirements for building a Moon base. Previously NASA made noises along these lines, but management did not do the proper due diligence to figure out what needs to get built in order to actually make a Moon base happen.
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I expect the legacy primes – who have become accustomed to only bidding on specific proposals and not to providing their own notions of a path forward – to be pretty much no-shows here. NewSpace, especially SpaceX and Blue Origin, will carry most of the weight – literally as well as figuratively.
There are a host of new space companies offering these kinds of technologies, including several of the space station startups (specifically Starlab, Vast, Max Space). Sierra Space has also proposed along these lines.
I don’t think NASA expects much from Old Space in this solicitation. It is counting on the new companies to propose things.
We will have to see how it plays out, but so far, all of this looks like the kind of thing NASA should have done five years ago. Think of how much time and brain cells and money was wasted on Gateway that could have been devoted to working out a lunar base infrastructure and logistics!
Yesterday I discovered that one of the old regulars at my parish works at Goddard, which surprised me greatly. She is surely the only person who voted for Trump in her division! Anyway, I was interested to hear from her how much the opinion of Isaacman on the ground has changed. They may hate his boss, but almost everyone seems to like Jared, because he’s transparent and accessible and has the energy and knowledge for the job. Normally I’d be skeptical of anyone too popular with NASA veterans, but they seem to like him for the right reasons, and agency morale matters. She seemed to suggest that the Goddard peeps don’t care much about Jared nuking all the Artemis white elephant hardware. (I am sure this observation will trigger Mr Wright.)
There’s more I could say, but I thought I would just mention this much, since he’s the subject of discussion here again today.
I want to see a working farm on the moon.
Small animals. like chickens and milk goats along with garden vegetables.
All part of an organic waste recycling system.
How much work, “organic additives” and how long would it take to turn lunar rigolith into a save, usable growing medium.
Hydroponics and chemicals can grow a lot but what do you do with all the organic waste created by the plants. animals and especially the people. Obviously the soil ecosystem will have to be introduced and started.
Among the reasons Mr. Isaacman’s stock continues to rise among the NASA rank and file is his visibility – he travels constantly to NASA centers and the facilities of major contractors to both speak to, and encourage, the troops and to actively seek their input. One certainly did not see this sort of thing on the part of most of his recent predecessors.
The NASA troops also see him on a wide variety of public appearances on social media including dozens of podcasts. He’s getting the message about Artemis and the Moon Base out to the general public in way no previous NASA Administrator has done.
He has also instituted a program of rewarding deserving rank and file NASAns with perks that include rides in NASA’s fleet of T-38s. I’m sure this has a positive effect on morale vastly disproportional to the modest costs involved.
Finally, he is frank about both NASA’s historic and current problems. And he is forthright in confronting criticism of the changes he is making by outsiders who still plump for the ancien regime. That includes Congress, where he has flummoxed many by defending Trump’s proposed cuts and, in the process, rendering customary budgetary threats non-functional. There is none of the traditional wagon-circling, happy-talk and evasion nor of the ceaseless rattling of the tin cup that was characteristic of most prior Administrators. This is a departure not only for NASA but for national space agencies in general with Mr. Z. having recently cited India’s current ISRO leadership as a notable counterexample.
One can only hope Mr. Isaacman completes the incineration of all bridges that might enable backsliding by any future administration by the time he leaves office even should that be in 2029. Lord willin’ ‘n the creek don’t rise, we will get another Republican administration then as well. One can hope that Mr. Isaacman might see fit to stay on for awhile longer and see his current plans through to at least significant starts.
I suspect Elon’s brother Kimbal has long since started figuring out a stepwise path to both lunar and Martian agriculture, though I do not expect him to be alone in such pursuits.
pzatchok writes: “I want to see a working farm on the moon. Small animals. like chickens and milk goats along with garden vegetables. …”
Watching baby goats bouncing around in lunar gravity would be the funniest thing ever. Live streaming it would probably generate enough revenue to pay for the whole operation.
Solar & RTGs but no reactors? Really? Cheers –