WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is releasing some final space policy documents focused on cislunar activities and technology development.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) published Dec. 18 a policy memorandum directing the development of a cislunar reference system needed for future navigation on and around the moon as well as a cislunar science and technology action plan.
The memorandum directs the federal government, led by NASA, to develop “common reference systems” for the moon, providing an implementation plan to the White House by the end of 2026. Such reference systems provide a means to determine position and direction and the ability to convert them to other reference systems, like Earth-centered ones.
“A shared understanding of reference systems at the Moon is essential for safe navigation, scientific discovery, and commercial activity, just as it is at Earth,” Arati Prabhakar, director of OSTP, stated in the memo. “Now is the time for the U.S. to lead a coordinated approach to establishing reference systems at the Moon, while these and complementary foundational standards for Cislunar activities are being defined and infrastructure at the Moon is being built.”
The cislunar reference frame memo follows up on a similar memo from OSTP in April directing the work on a timing system for the moon. That time standard must account for the effects of general relativity that would cause a clock on the lunar surface to lose nearly 60 microseconds per day compared to a clock on Earth, creating navigation and other challenges.
NASA would lead the development of this new cislunar reference system, working with the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Interior, State and Transportation. The memo also calls on the agencies to work with the international community on the proposal.
OSTP also released a 15-page National Cislunar Science and Technology Action Plan. That plan is intended to implement a cislunar science and technology strategy the office released in 2022. That strategy set four objectives to support research and development for cislunar activities, expand international science and technology cooperation, extend space situational awareness (SSA) capabilities into cislunar space and develop cislunar communications and navigation systems.
The first objective, to support research and development for cislunar activities, includes a series of tasks on enabling an “enduring” human presence in cislunar space, conducting science and supporting the workforce. NASA is the lead for most of those tasks, although the Defense Department is the lead agency on tasks on workforce issues.
The second objective, to expand international science and technology cooperation, endorses the concept of an International Lunar Year by the end of the decade, with the State Department leading that work and a goal of submitting a proposal to the United Nations General Assembly by 2026. Another key area is international cooperation on best practices for safe cislunar activities.
For cislunar SSA, the action plan directs work to identify needs and gaps, and efforts to develop or improve ground- and space-based sensors. It includes development of an “integrated cislunar object catalog” jointly by NASA, the Defense Department and the Commerce Department, as well as efforts to share data with others that operate in cislunar space.
The final objective calls for the creation of a National Communication and Position, Navigation, and Timing Architecture, with an interagency group led by NASA charged with developing and overseeing that architecture. The plan endorses the development of standards to make that architecture interoperable with commercial and international systems.
In most cases, the plan does not set specific deadlines for the actions included other than stating that it covers efforts over the next five years. “Federal departments and agencies should implement these actions in accordance with a core principle of the Strategy: that a key long-term interest of the United States in Cislunar space is to lead in shaping future ‘rules of the road’ and international governance for outer space activities, consistent with the U.S. Space Priorities Framework and National Security Strategy,” the plan states.