Astrotech Plans Commercial Lunar Power Facility, Evaluating Nuclear Fission Power Supplement Options

Astrotech Corporation announced on August 11 that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Lunar Power & Light (LP&L), plans to develop a commercial power generation, storage, and distribution network in high-illumination regions near the lunar poles to provide lunar power services for future government and commercial customers. The company also stated that the plan remains in its early stages, with further progress contingent on technology validation, financing, customer commitments, launch conditions, and relevant government authorizations.

According to LP&L's vision, the proposed power grid would consist of distributed elevated solar towers, sun-tracking systems, utility-scale and local battery storage, autonomous control systems, ground transmission and distribution facilities, metering systems, and charging stations. During periods of sufficient sunlight, the solar systems would supply power directly and charge the storage systems; when solar output is insufficient, stored energy would be fed back into the same grid to maintain continuous power supply.

Based on preliminary planning assumptions, LP&L estimates that with a 90% annual solar availability rate, the relevant area could provide approximately 7,884 hours of direct solar utilization time in an 8,760-hour Earth year, with the remaining approximately 876 hours supported in full or in part by battery storage. The company emphasized that these figures are planning assumptions only and are not final guarantees. Actual capacity design will depend on factors such as multi-year illumination and shadow analysis of specific sites, customer load requirements, reserve capacity configuration, and maximum low-generation periods.

Under the proposed business model, future customers could purchase continuous power, reserved power, firm capacity, metered electricity, transmission, charging, and contracted storage services from shared infrastructure, without needing to launch, build, and maintain independent power systems for individual missions. Potential application scenarios include lunar construction operations, landing pad and road construction, lunar data centers, artificial intelligence systems, high-performance computing, communications and scientific facilities, as well as mining, resource extraction, materials processing, robotics, lunar rovers, and other facilities requiring continuous or backup power.

Thomas B. Pickens III, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Technology Officer of Astrotech Corporation, stated that LP&L's goal is not to provide intermittent daytime solar power, but rather stable, metered utility-grade power services. He also stated that LP&L plans to evaluate nuclear fission power generation with qualified partners as a potential source for increasing power capacity and enhancing supply resilience.

The company stated that LP&L is monitoring the draft Broad Agency Announcement for "Lunar Enablement Infrastructure Accelerator" (LEIA), Appendix A of NASA's "Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-3" (NextSTEP-3). Among these, Topic 1, "Vertical Solar Array Technology," aims to advance the technology readiness of lunar surface power and reduce risk. LP&L is evaluating the submission of potential proposals to advance its vertical solar tower technology and subsequently integrate it into a battery-supported lunar utility architecture.

Astrotech Corporation also noted that the relevant NASA documents remain draft versions for comment and do not represent NASA's selection, award, authorization, endorsement, or funding commitment to Astrotech or LP&L, nor do they constitute a service procurement agreement.

The company further clarified that "Lunar Power Company" is used solely to describe LP&L's proposed commercial power generation, storage, and distribution service model, and does not imply that LP&L currently operates as a regulated terrestrial utility, nor that the company has obtained licensing, certification, full financing, deployment approval, or power supply contracts. Future launches and operations may also require launch, payload, communications, export control, and other relevant authorizations.

To date, the LP&L project has not announced final site selection, installed capacity, transmission lines, launch plans, service dates, or project costs, nor has it announced binding power purchase agreements, customer commitments, strategic partnerships, financing commitments, launch contracts, or operational authorizations. Initial work is expected to include polar site screening, identification of potential customers, illumination and shadow analysis, solar array and storage capacity design, transmission and charging standard development, as well as selection of technology, launch, financing, and operational partners.