Northrop Grumman set to create Moon rail system
On Tuesday, Mar. 19, the USA’s Department of Defense’s subsidiary company, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), approved the company Northrop Grumman to begin working on the 10-year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study, focusing on the refinement of a lunar railway system. Within the next decade, Northrop Grumman will construct a plan for and allocate all necessary funding for creating a lunar railroad that spans the entire length of our barren Moon—a decision that sparked widespread debate amongst many, mainly because of the controversial companies leading the charge: DARPA and Northrop Grumman.
Northrop Grumman is a privately owned weapons manufacturer specializing in U.S. national security—creating anything from a hypersonic propulsion system to nuclear warheads—which has caused some to voice apprehension for their right to lead this project, specifically DARPA.
This agency was blown open due to Annie Jacobsen, author of The Pentagon’s Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America’s Top Secret Military Research Agency (2015), who took the testimony of various formerly employed DARPA agents and exposed how intrinsically tied the group was to many U.S. international affairs. As reported by PBS, “Today, DARPA…has a presence in the modern press…but it will always be these stories on the beneficent access—like DARPA’s working on a cure for Alzheimer's, or DARPA’s sending robots into the Fukushima nuclear site.”
Outside of our limited knowledge of these entities, we know much about the LunA-10 program. The LunA-10 program was created to “...enable the near-term maturation of lunar technologies and capabilities that will be necessary for future architecture objectives…” having all participants “...create new benchmarks and metrics defining performance parameters for each integrated system solution, directly tied to…[a] self-sustaining, monetizable, commercially owned-and-operated lunar infrastructure.” Northrop Grumman was one of these companies—another being SpaceX—and was recently named the sole manufacturer of lunar railway systems, locking down this facet of the program solely for themself, a position that will entail their company being at the forefront of lunar railway advancements. Besides this definitive, in June 2024, the nine remaining companies will be assigned their placement during a final report period of this program.
The task for Northrop Grumman’s study is to establish “sort[ing] out the interfaces and resources required to build a lunar rail network, make a critical list of foreseeable cost, technological and logistical risks, develop the prototypes to concept design and architecture, and work out how to construct the railway with robots as well as how to deal with the problems of grading the rail line, building its foundations, laying the tracks, and the ongoing matters like inspection, maintenance, and repair.” This is no simple task, and it does not guarantee project funding, as many online are speculating.
The backlash from this issue, however, doesn’t lie in the potential trillions of dollars wasted on this project; it is due to the priorities of the U.S. government. Many believe that their focus is misguided and not set on issues that should be taken care of, like the perpetuated issues of the railroad system in places like East Palestine, Ohio—an issue that Norfolk Southern has prolonged since February 2023.
This decision may act as a pivotal reflection point for those in the U.S., allowing them to reassess where their officials’ priorities lie and if they truly agree with them. Stay informed and up to date on this ongoing deal; it could affect the future of the USA.
Thumbnail photo courtesy of Pexels