Building Bridges to the Stars: U.S. Charts a Course for Sustainable Cislunar Exploration

OBJECTIVES

U.S. science and technology leadership in Cislunar space will continue to support the responsible, peaceful, and sustainable exploration and use of Cislunar space, including the Moon, by all spacefaring nations and entities. Fostering scientific discovery, economic development, and international cooperation are essential to sustaining this leadership. To realize this vision, the U.S. government has adopted the following four high-level S&T objectives.

Objective 1: Support research and development to enable long-term growth in Cislunar space

Cislunar space is the gateway to the rest of the Solar System. It is a valuable place for us to test our systems and operations in preparation for future robotic and human missions to destinations in deep space. The Moon also has the potential to be a source of new scientific advances and resources to drive economic growth. To unlock these benefits and set the stage for humanity’s future in space, this objective includes the following clusters of sub-objectives: (1) R&D to enable enduring human presence, (2) R&D to best utilize Cislunar space for science, and (3) programs needed to ensure availability and readiness of a skilled workforce to support all efforts outlined in this strategy and beyond:

Enable Enduring Human Presence

Develop and demonstrate capabilities and emerging technologies that enable an enduring human presence in Cislunar space and inform crewed missions to Mars and beyond. The technologies that may be used for crewed missions into the Solar System—to Mars and beyond— have not yet been fully defined, leaving room for innovative concepts to be matured. Cislunar space should be used to experiment and innovate, while developing reliable and cost-effective technologies to support long-duration crewed missions beyond the Moon. The U.S. government will support the development of orbital and Lunar surface technologies and other scalable capabilities that support an enduring human presence on planetary surfaces. These include refuellable Lunar landers, environmental control and life support, lunar surface power systems, mobile and dustresistant spacesuits, surface mobility in extreme environments, and sustainable habitats on planetary bodies. The United States will identify and support engineering research on systems critical for these capabilities.

Further, the United States government will support Lunar resource assessments, as well as the advancement of research, development, and demonstration of capabilities for using materials sourced from the Moon and other celestial bodies. Such capabilities include resource characterization and surveys, manufacturing of components from in-situ materials, autonomous assembly of structures, construction of structures that maximize the use of in-situ materials, and processing of useful molecules such as water and oxygen.

The U.S. government, in collaboration with private entities, will demonstrate the ability to use the products created by these capabilities to enable an enduring human or robotic presence on the Lunar surface. U.S. government organizations will leverage collaborations with private entities to enable capabilities for large-scale ISRU and advanced manufacturing at the Moon, consistent with the U.S. National Strategy for In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing. Use of Lunar materials should be included in the trade space for Lunar surface elements and operations.

Conduct research to better understand and mitigate the negative effects on humans caused by the space environment. There are limited data on the health effects of long-duration human spaceflight, leading to large uncertainty in the design of architectures for crewed exploration of deep space. The United States will use the Moon and Cislunar space to conduct research and gather data on radiation effects on crew performance and health, the effects of microgravity and partial gravity, psychological effects caused by isolation and confinement in a space environment, and the effects caused by simultaneous exposure to these aspects of the extreme space environment. Potential countermeasures, such as artificial gravity or metabolic stasis, should also be investigated and demonstrated. Long-duration Lunar exploration missions should be designed to provide insight on these factors that would clarify requirements and mitigation techniques for missions to Mars and other destinations across the Solar System, as well as enable enduring human presence on the Moon.

Support social science research related to crewed exploration and permanent inhabitation of deep space to support enduring human presence in space. Though microgravity and radiation are hallmarks of the space environment, there are additional challenges associated with long-duration human space exploration that must be further investigated. Many unresolved issues regarding space exploration cannot be solved through engineering alone, such as the guiding ethics of human expansion into space, long-term cooperative models for space development, and equitable governance structures for space communities. The United States will enable and support research in the social sciences to advance our understanding of these issues. This research will also encourage the scientific community and broader public to think more deeply about humanity’s long-term future in space.

Advance Cislunar Science

Maintain a Cislunar-focused science objectives summary to comprehensively identify the highest-priority scientific opportunities in Cislunar space. The U.S. science community identifies scientific goals, questions, and recommended missions for the U.S. government for each traditional space scientific field by a Decadal Survey of that field. Further, NASA’s Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) provides analysis of the scientific, commercial, technical, and operational issues to further Lunar exploration objectives. These collective efforts support the prioritization of U.S. scientific objectives in Cislunar space. The U.S. government will, in consultation with international collaborators, continue to build and maintain a Cislunar-focused science objectives summary, to include priorities identified in the Decadal Survey and analyses of LEAG as well as broader space science interests. This summary will identify the most compelling scientific studies to be accomplished in Cislunar space. The summary will be a primary factor in guiding planned Cislunar research and technology developments of the U.S. government.

Develop and enhance technologies to enable near-side, far-side, and polar Lunar science. Following the identification and prioritization of science opportunities in Cislunar space, the U.S. government will advance technologies as well as develop additional practices and guidelines to enable and protect Lunar science. This may include development of technology for Lunar far-side radio astronomy, advancement of space science instrumentation, research of the Lunar surface environment to investigate its impact on equipment, and enhancement of communication technologies for enabling these Lunar science activities, especially in the Shielded Zone of the Moon. These practices should be developed in a coordinated, balanced approach and should consider the unique environment of Cislunar space. New technologies are also required to explore the polar regions that may contain significant amounts of volatile compounds that are especially important for resource utilization.

Support Our Workforce

Develop and support programs to train and retain diverse future generations of the space workforce. The successful execution of the bold yet critical objectives in Cislunar space requires an expanded and advanced technical workforce. The United States Space STEM Task Force Roadmap will identify gaps and priority areas for encouraging early preparation at the K-12 level and entrance into the STEM educational and early-career pathways for space-related employment at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels, including broadening participation and opportunities. Institutions of higher education are critical in space exploration, especially in their education of the scientists and engineers who will carry out the research envisioned, make new discoveries, and take the next steps. In particular, the training of graduate students to work in interdisciplinary teams is critical. The United States will support a diverse set of institutions, including minority serving institutions, and encourage space-related careers by groups underrepresented in STEM to prepare the technicians, scientists, engineers, geodesists[12] and critical non-STEM occupations responsible for executing Cislunar space exploration and development. For the future technical workforce within the U.S. government, agencies will especially leverage programs to develop an advanced technical workforce, such as scholarship-for-service programs. The academic community has played an essential role in space exploration in past decades, and U.S. government investment in university laboratories and academic relationships will ensure continuation of that role. In addition, a STEM-literate citizenry is needed to support space-related work: the great power of space exploration to excite people of all ages should be leveraged in both formal and informal learning environments.

[12] Several groups have discussed the ongoing need for geodesists, including through the reports Evolving the Geodetic Infrastructure to Meet Scientific Needs, National Academies; America’s loss of capacity and international competitiveness in geodesy, the economic and military implications, and some modes of corrective action, The American Association for Geodetic Surveying