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Moon Base

NASA announced the Moon Base on 24 March 2026 at its "Ignition" event: "the United States would establish a Moon Base in the lunar South Pole region, using a phased iterative approach" (Users Guide, p. 2). The end goal is "a continuous human presence on the lunar surface" (p. 3). NASA describes it as "humanity's first lunar outpost, a place where astronauts will live, work, and explore near the Moon's South Pole" (Moon Base). The Moon Base came after ADD Rev C (Dec 2025). Its link to the architecture is the April 2026 Users Guide, which maps ADD resources onto Moon Base needs.

Pages

Page What it covers
Phases Three phases, with dates, launches, landings, mass to surface and goals; why phased
Priorities Where the sources state Moon Base priorities, in one place
Needs, by phase What the architecture says the Moon Base needs, by phase, linked to functions, tech gaps, data gaps and elements
Phase 1 functional gaps 31 unallocated or under-performing ADD functions in seven groups, with capability targets
Technology and knowledge challenges The 19 tech gaps and 19 data gaps the Users Guide ties to Moon Base capabilities
Environment Lighting, temperature, terrain, volatiles, dust, interoperability
Missions and assets Named Phase 1 and Phase 2 missions, and assets with no phase stated
Surface technology NASA's nine lunar-surface technology areas and their projects
Mars-forward Seven ways the Moon Base prepares for Mars

Key facts

  • Location: lunar South Pole region (Users Guide, p. 2).

  • Phases:

    • Phase 1 (Now–2029): access, experiment, learn
    • Phase 2 (2029–2032): build and expand
    • Phase 3 (2032 and beyond): live and work on the Moon

    (Moon Base encyclopedia, "Development"). The Ignition release of 24 March 2026 names them differently ("Build, Test, Learn", "Establish Early Infrastructure", "Enable Long‑Duration Human Presence"), and other March 2026 documents differ again; Phases lists all five sets.

  • Scale: 25 / 27 / 29 launches, 21 / 24 / 28 landings and ~4,000 / 60,000 / 150,000 kg to the surface for Phases 1 / 2 / 3 (Users Guide, p. 4). The source doesn't say whether these are per-phase or cumulative; see Phases.

  • Leadership:

    • Carlos GarcĂ­a-Galán, Program Manager
    • Jim Geffre, Deputy Program Manager
    • Nujoud Merancy, Chief Architect

    (Moon Base encyclopedia, "Leadership"). Their staff pages: García-Galán was deputy manager of the Gateway Program, Geffre deputy program manager for EVA and Human Surface Mobility, and Merancy deputy associate administrator of the Strategy and Architecture Office (García-Galán, Geffre, Merancy). That office "leads the definition, documentation, and disposition of the architecture" (2024 executive overview, PDF p. 20).

  • The program: since the May 2026 realignment, a Moon Base Program within the Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate (HSMD, the merger of ESDMD and SOMD), beside the Artemis and Low Earth Orbit programs. Directive 6 consolidates "all lunar programs outside of the Artemis program" into it ("CLPS, large cargo landers, Argonaut/HLS cargo, human surface mobility, advanced exploration systems, lunar infrastructure development, habitation, and the current Gateway surface relevant scope"), makes it "NASA's central authority for all lunar activities", aims at "a sustained U.S. presence on the Moon by 2030", and places the program office at Johnson (Administrator's workforce note, 22 May 2026; realignment release; HSMD page). What this means for the architecture's own process: Architecture definition process.

  • Systems by phase: mobility, communications and PNT, habitation, power and logistics, on NASA's Moon Base Systems page; compared with Ignition deck 2 on Phases.

  • Partners: "commercial participation at an unprecedented scale" ("Collaboration"). Phase 1 relies on "Near-term flights aboard CLPS landers and other commercial missions" (Users Guide, p. 6).

  • Artemis context: the first crewed landing is still in 2028, now Artemis IV, and NASA plans "semi-annual crewed lunar missions after Artemis V" (Going back to the Moon, p. 1).

How the ADD resources support the Moon Base

The Users Guide names three kinds of ADD resource. They are "appendixes for needed functions not currently allocated to exploration elements; technology areas that would benefit from research and development investments; and needed knowledge about the cislunar environment that could be met by current or future NASA or partner missions" (Users Guide, p. 3). In wiki terms:

ADD resource Moon Base use (Users Guide) Wiki pages
Unallocated functions Phase 1 functional gaps (pp. 8–10) Phase 1 functional gaps; the ADD's list, B.5, in full on Lunar function allocation. It holds 11 of the 31 Phase 1 functional gaps (open question 65).
Architecture-driven technology gaps Technology challenges (pp. 11–13) Technology and knowledge challenges; gaps index
Architecture-driven data gaps Knowledge challenges (pp. 11–13) Technology and knowledge challenges; data gaps index

The guide ties the functional gaps to Phase 1 (headed "PHASE 01", pp. 8–10). It ties the technology and data gaps to "near-term Moon Base development efforts": missions in phase one "offer opportunities to collect data and mature technologies to enable essential phase two and phase three capabilities" (p. 11). The wiki labels these "named in the Moon Base Users Guide (near-term)", not "for Phase 1". No source so far maps ADD segments or elements to Moon Base phases. The guide does group its Phase 1 functional gaps by ADD sub-architecture (p. 9).

The ADD itself is described on the ADD Rev C source page, including what it says it is not ("not a manifest", "not procurement direction") and the plan changes since its December 2025 release.

Sources

The Users Guide and the NASA Moon Base web pages:

Also the March 2026 Artemis fact sheet.