On March 19, the American national defense company, Northrop Grumman, announced that they were selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a concept for a Lunar Railroad.
This concept is part of DARPA’s 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study which seeks to “identify risks, commercial solutions over [the] coming decade to enable [a] future lunar economy” according to DARPA’s website.
The lunar railroad will be conceptually designed to “transport humans, supplies, and resources for commercial ventures across the lunar surface” according to Northrop Grumman’s announcement.
This announcement comes as nations around the world increase their space-based power projections, namely the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, France, and India.
Russia and China have also announced plans to cooperate to build a nuclear-powered base on the moon by 2035, according to Reuters.
