LunaGrid-Lite: Demonstration of Tethered, Scalable Lunar Power Transmission (LunaGrid-Lite-TP)

The LunaGrid-Lite Project team, led by Astrobotic Technology, will develop, launch, and deploy a high-voltage cable, converter, and cable reel system to demonstrate power distribution on the lunar surface. Astrobotic will demonstrate tethered, long-distance (100m - 500 m), high power (1 kW) transmission on the Moon for the first time by delivering LunaGrid-Lite to the lunar surface on an Astrobotic commercial lander mission as early as 2026. LunaGrid-Lite will characterize performance that can only be validated on the Moon, including robotic cable deployment in one-sixth gravity and transmission losses due to cable interactions with the regolith and lunar surface plasma.This demonstration will be the first robotic unreeling of a 1 km cable on the Moon, followed by the first high voltage transmission of power through that cable across the lunar surface. The cable will be deployed by a 6U CubeRover delivered on an Astrobotic lander as early as 2026. This demo will push Astrobotic’s lunar power service, LunaGrid, past the commercial tipping point by advancing three critical gap technologies – a high voltage power converter, cable, and cable reel system – from TRL 4 to 7. The high voltage converter will be advanced from that of the GCD MIPS project, providing a return-on-investment in prior STMD-funded technology. Once operational, LunaGridTM will serve a multitude of customers across Artemis, Commercial Lunar Payload Services, decadal-class, international, and commercial business missions.LunaGrid-Lite is a scaled-down version of Astrobotic’s commercial lunar power service, LunaGrid. Most of the major elements of LunaGrid are already in an advanced stage of development, including landers, rovers, Vertical Solar Array Technology towers (VSATs), wireless chargers, and physical connectors. This project will advance from TRL 4 to 7 the remaining critical technologies needed to fully commercialize LunaGrid. LunaGrid is a scalable, tethered, surface-based power grid designed to operate continuously at the lunar poles by deploying VSATs at strategic sites. As polar shadows shift over time, various VSATs take turns generating solar power, as well as storing energy in batteries, to survive lunar night. Power can be delivered from LunaGrid to customer assets via tethered CubeRovers with wireless chargers or, for high power transfers, ruggedized, self-aligning physical connectors.

By realizing >100m to 500 meters- and kilowatt-scale power transmission, LunaGrid will enable the distribution of power to lunar surface assets positioned at safe distances from landing site ejecta, as well as assets in remote, hazardous, and shadowed regions. More generally, it will free assets from carrying their own integrated power sources. This will lower mass and cost profiles for a host of future missions, including Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) missions, Artemis missions, decadal-class science missions, international space agency missions, and commercial business missions. By testing our power transmission technology on the Moon, LunaGrid-Lite will burn down risks and allay concerns of underperformance due to regolith or plasma losses, or of cable deployment difficulties in lunar gravity. This will answer the final questions customers may have about LunaGrid and enable Astrobotic to begin providing commercial power services on the lunar surface.Additionally, the LunaGrid-Lite technology demonstration will address several key technology areas in STMD’s strategic framework, specifically within Taxonomy Element 3.0. In particular, the UMIC will fill the need for reliable, rad-hard power electronics while the Cable and Reel will fill the need for transmission cable systems.

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