Lunar Innovation Park – Initial Surface Infrastructure to Kickstart a Space Resource Based Economy

This paper introduces the Lunar Innovation Park (LIP) - a concept for establishing the minimum viable infrastructure needed to kickstart lunar surface operations and commercial development. LIP is permanent co-located infrastructure built up over a series of Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) scale missions and uses existing and emerging NASA and industry technologies to make the LIP feasible in the near term, perhaps as soon as two years from initiation. The LIP will reduce costs and risks for subsequent technology development missions and commercial operations by providing services such as: power, local and direct to Earth communications, Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT), robotic regolith manipulation, logistics, and perhaps most importantly, the ability to land spacecraft in extreme close proximity to and within the LIP. In addition, the Innovation Park will provide an opportunity for technology demonstration, maturation and risk reduction that will enable future Artemis “Foundational Exploration” and “Sustained Lunar Evolution” segments and lower cost for long-duration science missions. Finally, the LIP can play a significant role in addressing the USA Executive Order mandate to “lay the foundation for lunar economic development”, and “establish lunar infrastructure and standards that enable implementation of space priorities and a robust space industrial base”. The LIP can be established in the time frame specified in the Executive Order. This basic infrastructure (Communications, PNT, Power, construction robots, precision landing beacons) reduces risk by providing ready services and enables commercial and international partner augmentation for added capability and experimentation.