The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Northrop Grumman Team Up for Lunar Railway Concept Development.
In a groundbreaking collaboration, Northrop Grumman and DARPA are working together to bring to life the concept of a railway network on the lunar surface. “Our aim with the proposed lunar railway network is to streamline the transport of humans, supplies, and resources across the moon, thereby facilitating the growth of a space economy that will benefit the United States alongside its global allies,” Northrop announced in a March 19 press release. The endeavor will involve delineating the necessary interfaces, resources, and financial backing needed for the network’s establishment and tackling the associated technological and logistical hurdles. Northrop is set to design lunar rail system prototypes and investigate the feasibility of their construction and management.
This project forms a key part of DARPA’s LunA-10 Lunar Architecture Capability Study, a seven-month exploration not intended for immediate construction or hardware development but aimed at identifying key technologies required to build future lunar infrastructure.
In December, Northrop emerged as one of 14 firms selected by DARPA to research support mechanisms for an anticipated lunar economy by 2035. These investigations cover various areas including power generation, lunar mining, resource utilization, navigation, and mobility and logistics, drawing on a wide array of participants from launch service providers, startups, major defense contractors, to tech companies. The specific values of the contracts awarded by DARPA remain undisclosed.
This research is in line with the aspirations of the U.S., its allies, and commercial players for future lunar missions. In recent times, DARPA and the Air Force Research Laboratory have initiated several projects aimed at examining logistics and satellite sensing in lunar settings.
Moreover, the Space Force is increasingly acknowledging the strategic significance of lunar vicinity operations. Announced in February, the creation of the Space Futures Command aims to validate forward-thinking ideas and emerging tasks, with cislunar operations as one of its primary focuses.
At the Satellite 2024 conference held in Washington, D.C., on March 18, Space Force Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton underscored the cislunar projects of the Space Futures Command, which will evaluate the military advantages of such operations, with the outcomes to be reported to Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman and Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.
“The potential for mission significance is there, yet the military utility is still to be determined,” Bratton noted. “It’s our duty to furnish our leaders with solid evidence that supports the critical nature of cislunar operations and to propose how best to utilize them.”
About Courtney Albon
Courtney Albon serves as C4ISRNET’s reporter focusing on space and emerging technologies. Since 2012, she has covered the U.S. military, with particular attention to the Air Force and Space Force, reporting on the Defense Department’s paramount acquisition, budget, and policy issues.
