Description: As the pace and scale of lunar exploration grows over the next decade, generating, storing, and transmitting power to lunar surface assets will be a critical infrastructure need for a future permanent lunar settlement. There is no existing lunar surface power generation and transmission solution that can satisfy the next generation of power needs at the 50 kW scale and above. Therefore, Astrobotic proposes the VSAT-XL as a SWAP-efficient power solution to address this demand. Astrobotic defines its VSAT product line as a deployable, relocatable, self-leveling, sun-tracking solar powered system. We are developing both static and mobile variants of the VSAT. Therefore, the VSAT-XL will be designed to be integrated with landers and rovers and will be grounded in Astrobotic and Redwire's mature power systems. This system incorporates engineering solutions developed from Astrobotic's lunar landers, Astrobotic's rovers, Redwire's Mega Roll Out Solar Arrays (ROSA), and most importantly, Astrobotic's state-of-the-art 10 kW VSAT system. We envision VSAT-XL to be a continuation of the 10 kW lunar VSAT Astrobotic is currently developing. The VSAT-XL increases the scale from 10 kW to 50 kW power output by physically linking multiple ROSAs to each other into a "Mega-ROSA" mounted on a leveling and pointing gimbal mechanism. The resulting system could be used to power surface-based systems like pressurized rovers, habitats, and future in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) pilot plants. The VSAT-XL is inherently scalable to power outputs well above 50 kW by linking multiple VSAT-XLs together. The VSAT-XL can be either stationary (e.g. lander-integrated) or integrated to a mobile base. The mobile base is capable of traveling autonomously to new lunar sites, thus mitigating dependency on an external rover for its placement.

Benefits: NASA CLPS has a maximum budget of $2.6 Billion through 2028 per the master Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. The funds allocated under this IDIQ can be used for the delivery and operation of lunar science and exploration payloads that continuously operate with lunar night survival. Approximately $250 million is currently spent per year on CLPS mission deliveries, which include the surface operation of payloads. However, once night survival operations are implemented, the IDIQ budget cap can allow that annual budget to grow to cover lunar night survival operations if NASA SMD budget funding within a fiscal year permits it. With LunaGrid, all science missions to the lunar south pole can be enabled to survive the lunar night, from the smallest CLPS-class mission delivering 100 kg, up to highly sophisticated decadal-class science missions like those of the Discovery and New Frontiers programs. In fact, Astrobotic is in discussion with the PIs and/or prime contractors of three such mission types now, each of which could require the use of lunar night survival as well as have demand for high power volumes. Of particular interest is NASA STMD's upcoming LIFT-1 demonstration mission that is planned to launch in 2027. Those missions could have a $150M-$250M per year addressable market given their scale, scope, and frequency of competition. Lunar night survival and surface operational power is needed for commercial payload customers who are seeking to close long-term business cases. The Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) recently published a survey that found several technologies reported large power demands (10's of kW to MW) to accomplish their primary objectives. In one year of continuous work, technology developers reported that 50k tons of regolith could be excavated using 430 kWh of energy, 100 tons of O2 could be produced with 1 MWh of energy, and 100 tons of H2O could be produced with 100 kWh of energy. (Berdis, Fuhrman, Mastandrea, & Andrade). Given the power scales reported, LSIC's deduced power increments of 10 kW, 50 kW, and 200 kW would be best suited to address the broad needs of the lunar community. Consequently, Astrobotic is designing its VSAT and lander product line to be scalable for diverse applications. For instance, future pursuits of resources like lunar water ice will need to power long-term pilot plants for in situ resource utilization. Those systems will need to be powered for months, if not years, at a time. International space agencies have communicated to Astrobotic their intent to do long-term operation on the Moon in conjunction with the Artemis Program, which also needs its own lunar power for surface habitats, rovers, and other long-term surface assets. Those elements easily account for at least $100M in the TAM for lunar night survival that could be addressed by LunaGrid. The LunaGrid solution being proposed here could be used directly for robotic lander missions to survive the night and address this $500M per year TAM. Additionally, this $500M TAM is representative of the near term market through the late 2020's, whereas we believe planned missions from 2028 onwards represent an inflection point in energy demand and overall mission scale. Consequently, we anticipate the TAM to grow significantly in 2029 and beyond.