If the National Cislunar Science and Technology Strategy (the Cislunar Strategy) released by the White House on November 17, 2022 actually becomes long-term U.S. policy, it could be the first truly historic document guiding human settlement of the Moon and beyond. That’s how ambitious and far-reaching the Cislunar Strategy is in its vision of organizing the region of space in the Earth-Moon system beyond geosynchronous (GEO) orbit.
The Cislunar Strategy’s specifics have been organized using four key Objectives:
- Support research and development to enable long-term growth in Cislunar space.
- Expand international S&T cooperation in Cislunar space.
- Extend U.S. space situational awareness capabilities into Cislunar space.
- Implement Cislunar communications and positioning, navigation, and timing capabilities with scalable and interoperable approaches.
The details associated with each of these objectives will be covered later in this article.
There’s a very good reason why the Biden administration is making this move now. “NASA estimates that over the next ten years human activity in Cislunar space will be equal to or exceed all that has occurred in this region since the Space Age began in 1957,” says the Cislunar Strategy. “The growth of current and planned activities in Cislunar space is driven by decreasing launch costs, advanced and increasingly commodified space technologies, growing commercial interest in space activities, new missions by national space programs that are motivated by national and geopolitical ambitions, and the utility of Cislunar activities as a programmatic step toward some future missions into the solar system.”
Of course, successive Congresses will have to support the Cislunar Strategy’s vision for it to become reality, as will other nations and private industry. But there’s no denying the potential usefulness of the Cislunar Strategy in organizing humanity’s efforts now before our exploration/exploitation of the Moon and beyond begins in earnest. It is akin to a detailed ‘To Do’ list prepared by an extremely experienced camper, who thinks of everything they need to take with them before spending a month alone in the deep, dark woods.
An American-Centric Vision That Reaches Out to Others
Given that the Cislunar Strategy was written by the U.S. government’s National Science and Technology Council (NTSC) — specifically the NTSC’s Cislunar Technology Strategy Interagency Working Group — it is not surprising that it reads as if America has been predestined to open Cislunar space on humanity’s behalf, with the thanks of a grateful world.
“The National Cislunar Science & Technology Strategy provides a vision and the first science and technology objectives for realizing U.S. leadership in Cislunar space, including the Moon,” the Cislunar Strategy’s Executive Summary proclaims. “Fostering scientific discovery, economic development, and international cooperation are essential to sustaining this leadership.”
At the same time, the Cislunar Strategy is careful to plant its four policy ‘Objectives’ in firm legal ground. “Multiple international agreements already govern Cislunar space, including activities on the Lunar surface,” the Cislunar Strategy acknowledges. “This strategy is designed to be fully consistent with those agreements as well as other non-legally binding instruments that are applicable to Cislunar space. Particularly relevant to this strategy are the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, the Rescue Agreement of 1968, the Registration Convention, the Liability Convention, the ITU Radio Regulations, the Artemis Accords, additional efforts of the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), and other ongoing multilateral discussions and international treaties.”
Mindful that commercial and other non-government actors are aiming for the Moon as well, the Cislunar Strategy takes pains to embrace them. “In addition to government space programs, many other kinds of entities (spanning commercial, nonprofit, and academic actors) are also expected to be operating in Cislunar space in the years ahead,” the Cislunar Strategy admits. “The vision articulated in this document is designed to engage and be relevant to all space-faring entities as part of advancing a sustainable ‘Cislunar ecosystem’.”
Objective 1: Support research and development to enable long-term growth in Cislunar space.
The first of four Objectives listed in the Cislunar Report is full of compelling details for anyone interested in America’s Cislunar intentions. They include:
- “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 dust-resistant spacesuits, surface mobility in extreme environments, and sustainable habitats on planetary bodies.”
- America will also support Lunar resource assessments, to see what materials can be found on the Moon for “manufacturing of components from in-situ materials, autonomous assembly of structures, construction of structures that maximize the use of in-situ [on site] materials, and processing of useful molecules such as water and oxygen.” The U.S, is willing to do this “in collaboration with private entities.”
- The U.S government intends to research the negative impacts of space on humans on the Moon and in Cislunar space, and find ways to mitigate these effects for their benefit and that of humans traveling to Mars and beyond. They also plan to research “the guiding ethics of human expansion into space, long-term cooperative models for space development, and equitable governance structures for space communities.”
- Also under Objective 1, the U.S. plans to conduct advanced Cislunar science, and foster the development of future Space workers through the United States Space STEM Task Force Roadmap.
Objective 2: Expand international S&T cooperation in Cislunar space.
The second Cislunar Strategy objective is meant to open up its Science and Technology (S&T) Cislunar science efforts to international partners. To this end, the Cislunar Strategy proposes the following:
- “A United States-led initiative to establish an International Lunar Year (ILY) can build upon the historical examples of past International Polar Years (IPY), the International Geophysical Year (IGY), and the International Space Year (ISY).” The idea is to enlist international help towards achieving U.S. goals under the ‘Artemis Accords’ such as “the coordinated use of Lunar data centers, coordinated Moon-based research (such as Lunar geophysical networks, solar science, and far side radio astronomy), and similar joint ‘leave behind capabilities.”
- Developing ‘Best Practices’ for safe Cislunar space flight operations, aka air traffic control above and around the moon. “In coordination with standard developing organizations, the U.S. government will support development of best practices related to debris mitigation, minimizing the hazard of Lunar landing ejecta, end-of-life operations, mishap reporting, collision avoidance, astronaut search and rescue, radio frequency interference, and other events associated with safety of flight. The U.S. government will also ensure Cislunar activities are supported by existing and future communication capabilities that manage spaceflight safety issues or emergencies.”
Objective 3: Extend U.S. space situational awareness capabilities into Cislunar space.
This objective takes the air traffic control concept noted in Objective 2 and expands it to cover “space situational awareness (SSA) in Cislunar space … to promote and sustain responsible spaceflight practices”, the Cislunar Strategy explains. This includes:
- Developing “technology useful for Cislunar SSA, including improved monitoring methods and better understanding of Cislunar orbit families and spacecraft dynamics”.
- Developing and/or improving current ground-based sensors for SSA, and coming up with cost-effective space-based and Lunar surface sensors, as needed.
- Increasing cooperation and SSA data-exchanges with other users of Cislunar space, both government and private sector.
- Cataloging and sharing data on natural and human-made Cislunar objects that could be a threat to navigation, both in space and on the Moon.
- Sharing Cislunar SSA data publicly.
Objective 4: Implement Cislunar communications and positioning, navigation, and timing
capabilities with scalable and interoperable approaches.
The usefulness of global communications and GPS has been well-proven on Earth. So it makes sense that similar systems be developed for use on and around the moon. The buzzwords here are ‘Cislunar communications’ and ‘PNT (Position, Navigation and Time) system capabilities’.
To make this happen, the U.S. government wants to:
- Establish foundational capabilities in a timely fashion to enable and manage “network communications and PNT … mapping, in-space and Lunar surface transportation, radio frequency spectrum management, in-situ mobility, Lunar surface power generation and storage, use of Lunar resources, search and rescue, and space situational awareness. The United States government will define the needed capabilities, to include consideration of the cybersecurity, scalability, and interoperability of associated systems.”
- Make sure that these systems are “scalable and interoperable with systems operated by private and international actors”, and have sufficient cybersecurity protections built in to discourage cyber attacks.
- Set standards for “PNT in Cislunar space, radio and optical communications, a Lunar reference frame tied to the celestial and terrestrial reference frames, spacecraft safety and rescue, and orbit message formats and propagation models in Cislunar space.”
A Historic Document — If It Becomes Reality
Despite its pro-American rhetoric, the National Cislunar Science and Technology Strategy is a thoughtful, practical, and insightful approach to preparing a To Do list today for humanity’s settlement of the Moon in the future. The issues raised and addressed by its four Objectives — if heeded by both U.S. political parties and the world’s nations — could go a long way to ensuring an orderly, intelligent, and farsighted approach to this unprecedented challenge.
This being said, it remains to be seen if China, Russia, and the Republican Party get onboard with the Cislunar Strategy. One hopes that they will, because it is an enlightened ‘look before you leap’ overview of Cislunar exploration, exploitation, and settlement that humanity dearly needs.
The full National Cislunar Science and Technology Strategy can be found online at https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/11-2022-NSTC-National-Cislunar-ST-Strategy.pdf.