Honeybee Robotics is developing a streetlight design taller than the Statue of Liberty that could help autonomous robots survive the harsh cold nights on the Moon.
The Moon may soon become the first extraterrestrial construction zone for humans, with plans for permanent settlements, floating habitats, and advanced nuclear reactors. Daytime on the Moon lasts about two weeks on Earth, and the freezing cold nights are equally long. These extended dark nights are a disaster for lunar landers that depend on sunlight for energy production. They could even pose a significant threat to explorers in the coming decades. Therefore, Honeybee Robotics, a space technology company under Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, proposes a solution: building gigantic streetlight columns on the Moon that could function as solar energy batteries, Live Science reported on August 8.
Giant streetlight design on the Moon. (Photo: Honeybee Robotics)
Although it seems far-fetched, the project named Lunar Utility Navigation with Advanced Remote Sensing and Autonomous Beaming for Energy Redistribution, or LUNARSABER, is one of several projects funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to kickstart the next era of lunar exploration.
According to the project’s lead researcher Vishnu Sanigepalli, each LUNARSABER light will be taller than standard streetlights. Standing at 100 meters, they will surpass the Statue of Liberty in New York. These massive light poles are designed to store solar energy during the day on the Moon, then illuminate the surrounding area with floodlights during the long lunar night that follows. The height of the lights is crucial, not only for lighting the vast lunar crater but also for raising a ton of scientific equipment such as cameras and communication tools to a better position.
Meanwhile, the base of each light pole can be equipped with power converters to charge autonomous robots or other nearby infrastructure. If several LUNARSABER lights can be deployed in different areas on the lunar surface, this network of beacons could serve as the first power grid on the Moon, according to Sanigepalli.
Of course, erecting such large structures on the Moon comes with many challenges. To address this, Honeybee engineers have designed an automated system that allows each LUNARSABER light to efficiently rise from its base by unfurling metal strips into tall cylindrical tubes. This means that only the base of the equipment needs to be transported to the Moon.
The project is still in its early development stages, but it is one of over a dozen initiatives selected by DARPA for the 10-Year Lunar Architecture Study (LunA-10) last year.
