Aegis Station

About

Aegis Station Infrastructure designs buildable early-phase architectures for lunar surface operations, cislunar logistics, and long-duration habitation—and builds the software to fly them.

The reference architecture published here is a set: a crewed surface-to-surface hopper, a pressurized long-duration rover, an autonomous water tanker fleet, a seismic ice-prospecting rover, a lunar propellant depot, and a rotating orbital habitat shielded with lunar water. The set is tied together by published interface standards and a linked model chain, from mission and sizing trades through trajectories and abort profiles to flight software constants.

The order matters. The surface systems and the logistics chain get built first; they have customers before any station exists. The station is what that supply chain is ultimately for, and it is designed to that end—but it waits on two things the surface program is meant to bring about: a viable moonbase and lunar water at industrial scale.

The station is the long-horizon anchor: the reason the supply chain is worth building, and the design it is built toward.

Surface Systems

What gets built first. Each vehicle below has a technical page and flight software behind it.

Aegis-Class Rover

Aegis-Class Lunar Surface Mobility Platform

The Aegis-Class Rover program develops the pressurized crew module, integrated power and thermal architecture, and the cFS-based flight software and operations console for a long-duration lunar surface vehicle. The mobility chassis is sourced rather than rebuilt: ASI specifies the interface and integrates onto a third-party platform from the maturing open-architecture lunar rover market. Engineered for 30–60 day missions in polar terrain — designed as infrastructure, not a short-sortie explorer.

• Crew: 2–4 (up to 6 emergency capacity)
• Mission Duration: 30–60 days autonomous
• Gross Vehicle Mass: ~5,400 kg (laden)
• Track Width: 4.0 m • Static Stability Factor ~1.30
• Habitable Volume: ~57 m³ gross
• Suitport-based EVA with dust isolation boundary
• Integrated stacked solar-shade radiator architecture (SSSRA)

Mission Profile

• Polar water prospecting and ISRU support
• Surface-to-site crew transport
• Mobile command and field operations platform
• Solar storm shelter and emergency refuge

Geometry is driven from interior standing height outward—cabin height sets hull dimensions, which define CG, which defines track width and stability margin. The roof footprint then governs radiator and solar array sizing for polar sun angles.

Systems Summary

• Multi-axle independent suspension with wide-track stability
• LIDAR + visual SLAM navigation with autonomous modes
• Reduced-pressure cabin (8.0 psia) optimized for EVA cadence
• Battery storage with deployable solar augmentation and fuel cell backup
• Heading-independent thermal rejection via roof-integrated SSSRA

Luna–Aegis Shuttle

The "Short Hopper" – Linking Surface and Station

The Luna–Aegis Shuttle is a reusable single-stage VTOL lunar ferry connecting Aegis Station in low lunar orbit with surface sites near the Moon's south pole. Designed for crew, cargo, and hybrid missions, it carries up to 4 astronauts or 1,000 kg of cargo on a 500 km surface round trip without refuelling, or 1,500 km one-way with a LUNET node at the far end — with direct pressurised docking to the Aegis-Class Rover, no EVA required.

• Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) on unprepared lunar terrain
• 4 crew standard (6 max); up to 1,000 kg cargo in cargo config
• LOX/LH₂ engine-out-capable cluster — 60 kN total, Isp 440 s
• Gross wet mass 18,160 kg at full load; design ΔV 2,244 m/s per 500 km leg (10% margin)
• Direct pressurised rover docking — no EVA required for crew transfer
• Fully autonomous landing with ±3 m precision (LUNET beacon compatible)

Operational Profile

• Surface-to-orbit crew and cargo transfer; ISRU-compatible LOX/LH₂ propellants
• 500 km round-trip hops standalone; 1,500 km one-way with refuel at a LUNET node — outpost resupply, sample return, medevac
• 24–48 hr turnaround with LUNET node support; min. 5–10 sorties per vehicle
• Fully integrated with Aegis Station, Aegis-Class Rover, and LUNET beacon network

View Full Technical Page →

Lunar Tanker Fleet

The Lunar Water Tanker Fleet is the backbone of Aegis Station's shielding campaign and the cornerstone of a future orbital resource economy. These rugged autonomous vehicles ferry water from the Moon's surface to low lunar orbit at unprecedented scale—fueling life, shielding against radiation, and laying the groundwork for ISRU-based logistics beyond Earth orbit.

• 45-tanker fleet delivering 2,025 metric tons of water per day
• Fully reusable, autonomous craft with hot-swappable tanks
• Transitions to depot resupply and orbital economy after shield layer fill

View Full Technical Page →

Ice Prospecting

Every number in the water chain depends on finding ice at deposit scale. Two capability pages define how: a seismic survey and drill method that confirms ice before a program commits to a site, and a regolith mechanics instrument that answers whether a vehicle can drive across a patch and a tanker can land on it.

• Subsurface Ice Deposit Assessment (SIDA) — deposit-scale prospecting: seismic survey, onboard evaluation, drill confirmation
• Regolith Mechanics Head (RMH) — in-situ bearing capacity, layering, and mobility risk before wheels or landing gear touch it

Cislunar Logistics

The depot is the first useful thing in lunar orbit and the first customer for surface water. LUNET and the water logistics chain connect it to the surface.

Lunar Orbital Propellant Depot

First Cislunar Infrastructure Node — Downstream of ISRU, Upstream of Everything Else

The Lunar Orbital Propellant Depot (LOPD) is the first useful thing to build in lunar orbit — and the first operational consumer of ISRU-produced water. It is a downstream node in the water supply chain: it never receives Earth-launched water, only surface-sourced cartridges delivered by the Lunar Tanker. The entire Aegis Station program has always been gated on ISRU, and the depot inherits that gate directly. Its commissioning date is set by ISRU and LT readiness, not by depot hardware delivery.

That makes the depot a forcing function, not a waiting room. By providing a concrete orbital demand signal and a near-term target for first surface water, the depot pulls ISRU forward — helping bring it online faster is a primary program objective, not a precondition the program waits passively for.

• Propellant standard: Methalox (LCH₄ / LOX) — common across Hauler and Lunar Tanker fleet
• LOX source: On-orbit electrolysis of lunar-sourced water delivered by LT — never Earth water, in any phase
• LCH₄ source: Earth-import via Hauler manifest; cryo-conditioned and stored on-depot
• Commissioning gate: ISRU first water → LT first delivery → depot first light — hardware can stand dormant until ISRU is ready
• LT capability for first light: Single vehicle at low cadence — full fleet is sized for the downstream station shield-fill campaign, not for depot operations
• Crew access: Short-stay pressurized node — days-duration maintenance visits, not long-duration habitation
• Ops baseline: Fully autonomous — electrolysis, storage, and fueling operate without crew present
• Lifecycle: Modular architecture supports future incorporation into Aegis Station or continued standalone operation

View Full Technical Page →

Lunar Water Logistics

A world in orbit begins with water.

Shielding, life support, and long-term operations depend on a reliable lunar supply chain—this is the system that makes it possible.

See how lunar water powers Aegis Station and the off-world economy

LUNET

Lunar Utility Node & Exchange Terminal — a distributed surface–orbit system coordinating power, water, mobility, and data across the Moon.

LUNET connects fuel production sites, rovers, depots, and orbital nodes into a coherent, scalable lunar infrastructure—designed to grow.

Explore LUNET →

The Software Exists

Flight software on NASA's core Flight System for five flight software stacks—four vehicle classes and one instrument—each with a hardware abstraction layer, a physics simulation, fault-management tables, and unit tests. The mission apps do not change between simulation, bench, and flight; only the hardware layer beneath them does.

Above the vehicles, a ground coordination tier that has run 45 real flight software instances as a fleet, and that is being generalized to mixed fleets of dissimilar vehicles sharing one lunar work site.

Beneath the flight software, a trajectory tool validated against the Apollo 11 ascent, feeding a sizing model, a budget workbook, and a requirements set that all render from the same inputs. That chain is how the hopper's published 1,500 km mission was found not to close as a standalone round trip, and why the baseline is the 500 km mission that does.

• Fleet Commander — 45 tankers, one console: live captures of the coordinator in operation
• Mixed-Fleet Surface Operations — the coordination tier above the vehicle safety boundary
• Short Hopper, Rev C — the vehicle re-baselined from the model chain

Our Approach

No single shop builds a lunar program. The work spans propulsion, structures, life support, autonomy, logistics, and orbital systems, and it needs coordinated development across all of them.

For that reason, Aegis operates under a subcontractor-first model. Domain experts design and build individual systems, while centralized architectural authority and program management preserve design intent, control interfaces, manage integration risk, and maintain schedule discipline.

Implementation remains flexible. Architectural intent does not.

Explore Program Architecture & Technical Domains

Aegis Station

The destination. A rotating habitat in lunar orbit, shielded with lunar water, at the top of the supply chain the surface program builds. The design is complete at the reference-architecture level; the sections below are its record. It proceeds when two gates open: a working moonbase and lunar water at industrial scale.

Why We Updated to 1g

Aegis Station was originally designed with 0.5g artificial gravity—enough to reduce health risks in orbit while easing structural demands. But as our vision matured and long-term habitation took center stage, we developed a 1g variant using the same core architecture.

The change nearly doubles habitable capacity without doubling cost. It also offers full Earth gravity for crew health, physical performance, and compatibility with terrestrial biological systems. Most supporting systems—shuttles, rovers, tankers—remain unchanged.

That choice also settles where the station belongs. Earth does not need a massive 1g habitat in orbit—Earth is a massive 1g habitat. A full-gravity station earns its cost only where people have to stay for years and there is no 1g to go home to: in lunar orbit, at the top of the supply chain it exists to run.

Hub/Ring Boundary

How Rotation Meets the Rest of the Station

Everything the station needs to move — crew, cargo, water, power, data, heat — crosses the boundary between the despun central hub and three co-rotating habitat rings. The architectural principle is singular: no continuous rotary mechanical interface carries a life-critical flow. No slip rings. No continuous rotary seals. Every crossing is contactless, cyclic, or eliminated entirely by distributing the function across both sides.

• Crew: Despun transfer pod — enter stationary, ride to ring-matched rotation, step off at 1g
• Cargo & water: Cyclic magazine system — cartridges loaded at hub, captured at ring speed, no continuous seal
• Power: Rotary transformer — contactless inductive transfer across an air gap, no slip rings
• Data: Free-space optical link — line-of-sight laser comms across the boundary, zero physical contact
• Thermal: Independent loops on each side — radiators on both hub and ring, no rotary fluid coupling

View Full Technical Page →

Highlights

Full Dossier (PDF)

Gradient One

Orbital multi-gravity validation platform — a 350-meter rotating system operating at ~1.6 RPM.

G1 simultaneously provides 0g, 0.16g (Moon), 0.38g (Mars), and 1g environments in a single continuous spin architecture—enabling partial-gravity biology, rotating-habitat operations, and artificial gravity validation before scaling to permanent infrastructure.

Visit the Gradient One Page

Construction & Deployment

Aegis Station is assembled in lunar orbit using modular components and lunar-sourced water for shielding. Construction begins dry, with a phased buildout and activation timeline that enables early operations and long-term scalability.

See how we're building Aegis Station

Life Aboard Aegis Station

The exterior is the easy part. Step inside—homes and gardens, galleys and labs, a microgravity dome with the Moon in the window. Early concept explorations of what life aboard could feel like: bright, green, and built for people.

Explore Life Aboard Aegis Station

Work Aboard Aegis Station

Some things are better—or only—made in orbit: optical fiber drawn flawlessly in freefall, structured meat that won't sag under its own weight, propellant from lunar water, and the rings themselves, assembled in place. Early concept explorations of industry aboard Aegis Station.

Explore Work Aboard Aegis Station

Earth–Aegis Long-Hauler

The Orbital Railroad — Cargo and Crew, Scaled for Tomorrow

The Long-Hauler is a spacefaring freightliner built to bridge Earth and Aegis Station. Designed with no launch constraints, it moves people and cargo like an orbital train: modular, scalable, and grounded in current technology. Its forward crew and passenger cars carry up to 48 people comfortably, while trailing freight modules can haul tanks, habitats, RONs, or regolith processors.

• Zero-g-native linear configuration
• Forward crew command pod + stackable passenger cars
• Rear-mounted propulsion and power blocks
• Up to 48 passengers and 30 tons of cargo
• Compatible with Aegis Station and surface-bound shuttles

View Full Technical Page →

AOCN: Orbital Compute Spine

The Aegis Orbital Compute Node (AOCN) is a modular LEO compute platform built around current launch, power, thermal, and communications technologies. It's not a cloud replacement — it's infrastructure for workloads where heat rejection and serviceability set the scale.

• Radiator Area: 1,800–3,300 m²/MW (dominant thermal driver; 290–330 K operating range)
• Solar Arrays: ~2,500 m²/MW — co-equal structural driver alongside radiators
• Power: MW-class arrays with eclipse buffering or compute throttling during shadow
• Comms: Optical backbone + Ka-band RF fallback
• Design focus: Thermal realism, modular servicing, shielded compute core

Heat rejection sets the scale in space. AOCN is the infrastructure-first answer.

Future Concepts

Beyond Aegis Station lies a larger vision—expeditions to the outer solar system, modular deep-space vessels, and the infrastructure to sustain a mobile human presence. This is just the beginning.

Insights & Policy Notes

Surface & Logistics

• Stacked Solar-Shade Radiator Architecture — Lunar Thermal & Power Configuration
• Lunar Regolith Mechanics & Mobility Risk
• Subsurface Ice Deposit Assessment (SIDA) — Deposit-Scale Lunar Prospecting
• Mixed-Fleet Surface Operations — Surface Coordination Software
• Lunar Orbital Propellant Depot (LOPD) — Orbital Logistics Capability

Station Verification

• Centrifugal Water Shield Segment Demonstration (CWSSD)
• Water Shield Radiation Evaluation (WSRE) — Shield Performance Verification
• Artificial Gravity Requirements Evaluation (AGRE) — Rotation Parameters as Evaluated Outputs
• Extravehicular Structural Inspection Capability
• Why Three Rings — Three Chances, a Long Way from Home

Strategy & Policy

• What the Moon Is For — The Moon as On-Ramp
• Industrial Policy in Orbit — Infrastructure as Strategic Competition
• The Case for Sending Probes to Proxima — The One Interstellar Target We Can Reach
• We're Going to Talk One Day
• Rebalancing National Priorities — Space as the New High Ground

Design Authority

Aegis Station Infrastructure LLC is a SAM-registered small business with a CAGE code. The role it plays is design authority: requirements, interfaces, trades, and the honest statement of what is and is not demonstrated—pre-Phase-A and Phase-A system-of-systems analysis, concept of operations, hazard and abort analysis, and verification planning.

Open to design authority, architecture, and flight software roles, and to teaming with companies bidding NASA lunar surface programs, where early technical clarity changes the outcome.

Contact: contact@aegisstation.com