Tuesday, June 17, 2025 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM Integrative Learning Center ILCN255
Lunar Surface Sustainability From a Coupled Infrastructure Systems Perspective
in-person
Marco Janssen1, Afreen Siddiqi2, and Parvathy Prem3
1Arizona State University, United States, 2Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States, 3John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, United States
Over a dozen nations have expressed plans to engage in robotic and human missions to the Moon. The Artemis campaign explicitly aims for sustainable exploration, and its current plans include crewed and robotic operations on the lunar surface. With growing interest in lunar surface exploration and sustainability goals, it is important and timely to explore what lunar surface sustainability means. Based on a survey among diverse stakeholder groups, we derive insights into the different dimensions of lunar surface sustainability.
We use the coupled infrastructure systems framework for evaluating lunar surface sustainability. By understanding the interactions of diverse actors in the operations and political economy of moon missions, we aim to identify critical trade-off situations. We will apply the CIS framework to the lunar south polar region, a location of interest for multiple governmental, commercial, and other actors.
