participate in a new study to develop

Establishing commercial markets on the moon is going to require thinking a little differently.

That’s DARPA’s hunch, anyway. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is the U.S. Department of Defense’s R&D arm, which has just selected 14 companies to participate in a new study to develop technological frameworks for a lunar future.

“The next decade may give rise to a thriving lunar economy,” the agency said in a statement. “Getting there requires looking beyond the current technical paradigm of isolated, self-sufficient systems that must organically support all necessary resources — such as power and communications — and toward a future framework that emphasizes integrated models of commercial activity.”