How we go mattersMission, Vision and Values
MISSION
Open Lunar’s mission is to enable a peaceful, human presence on the Moon for the long term, which contributes to the positive evolution of society for the benefit of all life.
VISION
Our vision is to look up at the Moon knowing we secured lunar futures which advance positive evolutions of civilisation for the benefit of all life, on Earth and beyond.
VALUES
COLLABORATION & OPENNESS
EXPERIMENTATION & ITERATION
PRAGMATISM & DISCIPLINE
COOPERATION & EQUITABILITY
INTENTIONALITY & INTEGRITY
OUR STORY
It’s 2018. We’re sitting in an industrial office in San Francisco’s SOMA district, surrounded by space agency executives, astronauts, CEOs, lunar scientists, and engineers. Laptops and snacks cover the massive table, along with pages of handwritten notes and diagrams.
THE CONVERSATION?
Lunar dust mitigation from landings and its damage to other machinery. The ground-truth data we desperately need on water ice in permanently shadowed regions. The propulsion gaps holding small spacecraft’s back from translunar injection. And most critically, the tension between those envisioning lunar mining and those advocating for untouched lunar research parks.
OPEN LUNAR HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT ACTION
From those early days, we asked what a small, values-driven nonprofit could do to set wise precedents and accelerate our shared future on the Moon? The answer: build the utilities and public goods that make lunar stewardship tangible.
UTILITIES ARE THE INFRASTRUCTURE
Data registries, open standards, shared landing pads, accountability frameworks—that shape how the Moon is governed and operated. By building these tools, we’re not just solving technical challenges; ensuring we have a seat at the table.
2018
Our global team would work in monthly sprints to research, discuss, and evaluate potential projects. Some projects advanced to pilot programs, others simmered on a backlog, waiting for the right people, resources, or moment.
2022
This process evolves into a formalized innovation pipeline—a “factory” of precedent-setting projects designed to fill critical gaps and shape the lunar ecosystem. Incubation, though, is not the goal. It’s a means to an end: building interconnected, value-driven infrastructure that others rely on.