Welcome to our engine room.
Since 2018, Open Lunar has been investing in solutions that contribute to a peaceful lunar presence. We run a rigorous methodology creating key public goods for the Moon.
Our projects are building blocks for the lunar governance ecosystem, spanning technical standards, policy and law, shared infrastructure and hardware. They range from the creation of research papers to the development of new institutions, standards, proof of concept technologies and missions.
We evaluate all of our projects on an annual basis and we're always looking for partnerships that can help them grow. Whether you're an academic institution, government, company, philanthropy or non-profit, please reach out.
Our Innovation Methodology
Ideas: We're always in the market for new ideas. These can come from anywhere. We wouldn't be called Open Lunar if they couldn't! Every June & July we engage our community in a selection process that filters all the ideas we've received down to 4-6 keepers. These ideas we call 'hunches'.
Hunches: We announce our Hunches publicly and recruit fellows to develop them. Fellows are compensated for their time (a day a week investment). Hunch fellowships must have an output, this is typically a research paper, but can also be a concept of operations, a business plan, a standard or a technical specification.
Concepts: We evaluate the impact potenntial of the hunches based on the work conducted by fellows. Open Lunar will pursue a deeper investment in a selection of hunches which show promise against our criteria. These enter 'Concept' phase and have staff allocated.
Initiatives: Some of our Concepts become Initiatives if they can potentially attract enough support to run as independent entities at some point in the future. We also support Initiatives that we think have intrinsic value for our mission, even if independent support isn't yet feasible.
Investing in Impact
We use a nine point impact critera to determine which ideas are worth pursuing. This following criteria is only the first step of our evalation process. As projects mature, they are also assesed for viability and sustainability.
Impact Criteria
- Increases the responsible stewardship of resources
- Develops effective non-state commons management
- Avoids monopolies & increasing diversity of access of resources
- Increases governance capacity for commons and public goods
- Contributes to cooperation and conflict reduction
- Builds shared, open access infrastructure/ resources
- Aligns with sector readiness and present relevance
- Adds non-duplicative and unique value
- Addresses a market failure
We are building an Open Lunar future.
These are the projects we're currently working on within the Open Lunar network. Click on the boxes to learn more about how these projects are contributing to a peaceful lunar presence.
Lunar Accidents, Incidents, and Issues Reporting System
Investigating the design of a registry for logging accidents and issues across Lunar missions, inspired by FAA's Accident and Incident Data.
Lunar Power Standards
Investigating the potential for the standardization of power provision for Lunar missions, focusing on both public and private sector best practices on Earth and in Space.
Payload X
Revisiting lunar settlement challenges with updated technology and proposing key payloads. What near-term payloads are most important for unlocking a sustainable Lunar presence?
Community Payload Review
Establishing a transparent community-driven payload review mechanism for Lunar missions, inspired by governance systems like those used by ICANN and the FAA.
Cooperative Landing Pads
Developing a business model for cooperative and sustainable lunar landing pad infrastructure.
Special Zones for Lunar Activities
Exploring the feasibility of zones on the moon ranging from unregulated areas to protective zones for specific activities.
A Global Registry of Lunar Objects and Activities
The Lunar registry project aims to establish a neutral, independent source of truth where anyone can find information on past, current and future Lunar activities and objects.
Lunar Policy Platform (LPP)
LPP is aims to advance international Lunar policy discussions between government actors. It does this through a combination of qualitative research and advocacy with key stakeholders. This work is then synthesised to identify potential areas for progress.
Timekeeping & Lunar Clocks
The establishment of a local lunar time standard or a shared and openly accessible reference timing signal can greatly enhance the positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) capabilities of lunar missions without the need for direct links to Earth or precision instruments to be a requirement for every mission to the Moon. This research proposes the concept of a local lunar time standard that can be accessed using technology that is likely to be included in most lunar missions for nominal activities. Even if the local lunar time standard exhibits drift or variations from terrestrial time, its existence would be a significant step towards lunar coordination.
Breaking Ground Trust (BGT)
BGT was created to demonstrate sustainable approaches to the institutional management of Lunar resources between different stakeholders. In doing so, BGT highlights gaps and encourages best practice thought leadership for sustainable Lunar resource management.