Infrastructure Stack · Layer 03
Mobility
Crewed and autonomous transportation connecting landing sites, habitats, science locations and infrastructure.
Why it matters
Connecting the places a base depends on.
A lunar base is not a single point. Landing sites have to be kept clear of habitats, the best power ridgelines are not where the ice is, and the science is scattered across the south polar region.
Mobility is the layer that connects those places, moving crews, cargo and equipment across unprepared terrain with limited help from Earth.
Rovers will provide mobility.
Inside this layer
5 building blocks
Crewed rovers
Pressurized and unpressurized vehicles that extend how far and how long astronauts can work from a base.
Autonomous vehicles
Uncrewed rovers that keep working between crewed missions and through the lunar night.
Cargo mobility
Moving delivered cargo from the lander to where it is actually needed.
Navigation
Surface navigation across shadowed, featureless and hazardous terrain.
Regional surface transportation
Routes and vehicles that link landing sites, habitats, power and resource sites across a region.
Connect the stack
Dependencies
These aren’t isolated technologies. The opportunity lies in understanding how those systems connect.
This layer depends on
This layer enables
Questions we are watching
Open questions
- Which vehicle platforms become the common chassis that many missions use?
- How do crewed and autonomous vehicles share routes, navigation and timing references?
- Who operates surface mobility as a service rather than as mission hardware?