Moon Nights Get a Bright Solution with Giant Solar Lanterns
One day on the Moon lasts as long as two Earth weeks, but its nights are significantly longer and colder. These long, dark nights have proven disastrous for lunar landers, which rely on sunlight for power. As human exploration of the Moon approaches, this poses a significant threat for future missions.
Space technology company Honeybee Robotics has come up with a solution: giant moon lanterns that function as solar panels. Known as the Lunar Navigation with Advanced Remote Sensing and Autonomous Power Redistribution (LUNARSABER) project, this initiative is funded by the US government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Each LUNARSABER light would stand taller than New York’s Statue of Liberty, collecting solar energy during the lunar day and illuminating the desolate landscape during the two-week-long nights. The project’s principal investigator, Vishnu Sanigepalli, emphasizes the need for these towering lights, citing both the vast craters and the weight of scientific equipment that must be lifted to higher vantage points.
The construction of such colossal structures on the Moon presents significant challenges. Honeybee engineers have devised an automated system to address this, allowing the towers to rise efficiently by straightening twisted metal strips into tall cylindrical tubes. This minimizes the logistical burden of transporting the entire structure to the Moon.
While still in its nascent stages, the LUNARSABER project is one of ten initiatives selected by DARPA for the 10-year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study. This signals the dawn of a new era for the Moon, where human activity will illuminate the previously desolate nights.