Potomac Database Systems has unveiled plans to develop a series of lunar missions aimed at collecting and selling scientific and operational data from the Moon.<\/p>\n
The Washington-based company said it intends to focus on supplying commercial and government customers with lunar surface data through three different mission concepts designed to support future exploration and development efforts.<\/p>\n
The first concept, called Compass, would involve a satellite deploying an impactor onto the lunar surface and studying the resulting debris plume.<\/p>\n
The mission is similar in concept to NASA\u2019s LCROSS mission, which confirmed the presence of water on the Moon in 2009.<\/p>\n
Potomac\u2019s second planned system, Pathfinder, is described as a ballistic surface node capable of surviving impact with the lunar surface and transmitting data after landing.<\/p>\n
The third platform, named Source, is a rover intended to traverse large areas of the Moon over missions lasting at least one year.<\/p>\n
To survive the extreme cold of the lunar night, the rover would use a specially designed garage heated by a radioisotope heating unit (RHU).<\/p>\n
Potomac said its strategy focuses on using relatively low-cost systems to increase the availability of lunar surface data as interest in commercial lunar activity expands.<\/p>\n
Jacob Matthews, chief executive of Potomac Database Systems, said companies competing for lunar contracts are currently relying on largely shared public datasets.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cEverybody\u2019s\u2026working from the same public database,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut our bet is that you would invest a couple hundred thousand\u2014or a million\u2014dollars into getting novel datasets that differentiates your proposals from your competitors,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Matthews said lunar data currently commands high commercial value.<\/p>\n
In September, NASA paid an additional $10 million to acquire 120 gigabytes of data from Firefly Aerospace\u2019s Blue Ghost Mission 1.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe product of the lunar economy today is data, and it is very expensive,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lunar economy will not scale if every dataset requires a dedicated mission,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Potomac aims to launch its first commercially funded Source rover mission to the Cabeus Crater near the Moon\u2019s south pole as early as 2028.<\/p>\n
The company has also partnered with the University of Dayton Research Institute on a proposal under NASA\u2019s PRISM programme for future government-supported lunar missions in the 2030s.<\/p>\n
In parallel, Potomac announced a request for information seeking proposals for a commercial radioisotope heating unit for the first Source mission.<\/p>\n
Matthews previously co-founded Zeno Power, which develops radioisotope power systems for space applications.<\/p>\n
He said mission timing would be a key factor in selecting a heating system supplier.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m proud of the work that we had done [at Zeno]. But this really comes down to schedule,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to launch Source\u2026the sooner the better,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The initiative reflects growing commercial interest in lunar data services as companies prepare for increased activity linked to scientific exploration, resource prospecting and future Artemis programme operations.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Potomac Database Systems has unveiled plans to develop a series of lunar missions aimed at collecting and selling scientific and operational data from the Moon. The Washington-based company said it intends to focus on supplying commercial and government customers with lunar surface data through three different mission concepts designed to support future exploration and development […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5797,595,6687,6688,291,6690,443,6691,6694,6696,572,6697,6699,6700,625,6701,190,5812,6702,6703,6704,6705,6706,6707,5783,5739,5841,6708,6034],"class_list":["post-20364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-aerospace-industry","tag-artemis-program","tag-blue-ghost-mission-1","tag-cabeus-crater","tag-commercial-space","tag-compass-mission","tag-firefly-aerospace","tag-jacob-matthews","tag-lcross","tag-lunar-data","tag-lunar-exploration","tag-lunar-rover","tag-lunar-south-pole","tag-lunar-surface-data","tag-moon","tag-moon-missions","tag-nasa","tag-north-america","tag-pathfinder","tag-potomac-database-systems","tag-prism-program","tag-radioisotope-heating-unit","tag-rhu","tag-source-rover","tag-space-industry","tag-space-technology","tag-united-states","tag-university-of-dayton-research-institute","tag-zeno-power"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}