Astronauts will find way on Moon thanks to 100-meter-tall lighthouses

By Dean Murray via SWNS

Astronauts are set to navigate the lunar landscape with the aid of colossal 100-meter-tall lighthouses.

The U.S. government has selected a Californian tech company to develop so-called LUNARSABERs, which stands for Lunar Utility Navigation with Advanced Remote Sensing and Autonomous Beaming for Energy Redistribution.

Honeybee Robotics has been chosen as part of DARPA’s 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study.

DARPA, a research and development agency under the United States Department of Defense, is responsible for pioneering emerging technologies for military application.

Proposed at over 100 meters tall, Honeybee’s LUNARSABER is a deployable structure that integrates solar power, power storage and transfer, communications, mesh network, PNT (Position, Navigation, and Timing), and surveillance into a single infrastructure.

Additionally, it utilizes onboard gimbaled lights to illuminate the local terrain during lunar nights.

Kris Zacny, VP of Exploration Systems at Honeybee Robotics, says: "The infrastructure would literally shine light on new possibilities, increasing operating hours for human and robotic missions on the Moon.

"LUNARSABER can turn night into day in the deepest craters on the Moon. It is truly a game-changing system that will pave the way for a prosperous lunar economy.”

LUNARSABER can host payloads at the base of the system for other commercial services to interface with the system, or they can be mounted at the top of the mast to significantly increase their service range.

Vishnu Sanigepalli, Principal Investigator of LUNARSABER on LunA-10, says: "We’re looking forward to partnerships with both commercial and non-commercial customers to host payload and services that will help accelerate lunar infrastructure."