2025 Architecture-Driven Data Gaps (spreadsheet)¶

Document: 2025 Architecture-Driven Data Gaps, a two-sheet Excel workbook published by NASA with ADD Rev C. No version number or date is printed in the data. The download path (/2025/12/) dates it to December 2025. The extracted sheets are named rev-c-data-gaps and key. The data sheet's title is "Rev C Data Gaps": the workbook was opened on 2026-10-01 to check one cell (DN-015 L, below). "Key" for the second sheet is inferred from the extraction's file name. Files: text sources/text/docs/2025-12-2025-architecture-driven-data-gaps/rev-c-data-gaps.csv and .../key.csv; raw sources/raw/docs/2025-12-2025-architecture-driven-data-gaps.xlsx (fetched 2026-10-01T07:22:46Z from https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-architecture-driven-data-gaps.xlsx, two sheets, per sources/manifest.csv).

Summary. The spreadsheet lists the 25 architecture-driven data gaps of the current architecture, one row per gap: 19 lunar (DN-001 L to DN-019 L) and 6 Mars (DN-001 M to DN-006 M). For each gap it gives a title, description, need driver, data type, segment, objectives, target measurement parameters, current state of data, and the impacts without the data and benefits with it. Unlike the technology gaps spreadsheet, it has no priority field. The Moon Base Users Guide names all 19 lunar data gaps among its "near-term Moon Base development" challenges (p. 11; see Technology and knowledge challenges). The ACR25 data-gaps white paper explains what a data gap is and how the list is built.

How to cite¶

Cite by data-gap ID (the row), e.g. ([Data gaps spreadsheet, DN-008 L](2025-12-2025-architecture-driven-data-gaps.md)). The sheet has no page numbers. This follows the tech-gap spreadsheet practice (open question 12).

Columns¶

The Key sheet defines each column. Its definitions are quoted below.

Column	Key's definition	Data-gap page section
ID	"A numeric identification"	title
Title	"Brief and clear descriptor of the Data Gap that includes proper keywords/terms"	title
Description	"Clear statement of need"	Description
Need Driver	"Area(s) where the data gap has the highest impact"	Need driver and data type
Data Type	"Category of Data (i.e. Orbit-to-Surface Imagery, In situ measurement, etc.)"	Need driver and data type
Segment	"The M2M segment during which the data is needed, but not necessarily when it is collected"	Traceability
Objective	"Mapping of the Data Gap to the M2M Objectives"	Traceability
Target Measurement Parameters	"A set of measurable goals/metrics to define the criteria for the Data Gap being successfully fulfilled"	Target measurement parameters
Current State of Data	"A summary of existing data sets and capabilities, with associated risks and insufficiencies"	Current state of data
Impact if Data is Unavailable	"A description of what is unable to be done, or additional risk incurred in the absence of this data"	Impact if data is unavailable
Benefits if Data is available	"A description of the capabilities enabled and other benefits of the availability of this data"	Benefits if data is available

Codes used in the sheet¶

IDs. DN-NNN L rows are all about the Moon and DN-NNN M rows all about Mars (read off the content; the Key doesn't explain the suffix). The two series are numbered separately, so DN-001 L and DN-001 M are different gaps.
Segments. The sheet uses three codes. ADD Rev C's acronym list expands them: HLR "Human Lunar Return", FE "Foundational Exploration" and H2M "Humans to Mars" (ADD Rev C, p. 292). The white paper's Figure Three also labels DN-001 L's segment "Human Lunar Return" (ACR25 data-gaps white paper, p. 3). No data gap lists the fourth segment, Sustained Lunar Evolution (SLE, p. 293).
Objectives are codes such as LI-07 L, TH-03 L, SE-05 LM or TH-06 M, printed one per line in the cell. The sheet doesn't give their titles. Data-gap pages print the codes as given. The lunar codes' wording is on Lunar objectives, from the lunar decomposition spreadsheet; the three Mars-only codes (MI-04 M, TH-06 M, TH-07 M) are on Mars objectives, from the Mars decomposition.

Things to know when using it¶

No priority. There is no bin or rating. The Users Guide says the initial list is "not comprehensive or prioritized" (Users Guide, p. 11). The white paper calls it "a small set meant to inform partners of NASA's high priority, near-term needs" (p. 3) and "an initial list of high-priority, near-term items; they are not a comprehensive or prioritized representation of NASA's data needs" (p. 4). So the list as a whole is high-priority, but its items are not ranked.
Segment is when the data is needed, "not necessarily when it is collected" (Key sheet, above). Segments are not Moon Base phases, and no source maps one to the other.
Data type is not a requirement. The white paper says the gaps "are agnostic to how the data should be collected; they identify a need, but do not prescribe how NASA or its partners could acquire the data" (p. 1).
No links to technology gaps. No row names a tech gap, and no tech-gap row names a data gap. The white paper says only that the two "can be connected" and that NASA "will continue to track the connections" (p. 2). The Users Guide co-cites them under shared challenges (pp. 12–13).
Text as printed. Pages copy the cells as printed, including:
- "Permanently Shadow Regions" (DN-001 L)
- "<0.1 vertical error" with no unit (DN-002 L description; the target says "0.1 m")
- "ins resolution" (DN-018 L)
- "10-6 - 102 g" (DN-015 L). The workbook stores it as plain text: cell H16 of "Rev C Data Gaps" has no superscript formatting (opened 2026-10-01). ADD Rev C prints it the same way, with no visible superscripts on the rendered page (p. 279). Reading it as 10⁻⁶ to 10² g is the wiki's inference (open question 20)
Three cells hold line breaks inside the text (the "Current State of Data" of DN-005 L, DN-017 L and DN-018 L). Pages join each into one passage.

Counts¶

Read off the sheet:

Need driver	IDs	Count
Lunar Exploration Surface Site Characterization	DN-001 L to DN-005 L	5
Lunar Resource Exploration	DN-006 L, DN-007 L	2
Lunar Surface Natural Environment Characterization	DN-008 L to DN-016 L	9
Lunar Surface Induced Environment Characterization	DN-017 L to DN-019 L	3
Mars Surface Natural Environment Characterization	DN-001 M to DN-004 M	4
Mars Surface Induced Environment Characterization	DN-005 M, DN-006 M	2

Segments: HLR 17 (all lunar except DN-006 L and DN-007 L), FE 2 (DN-006 L, DN-007 L), H2M 6 (all Mars). The data gaps index has the full tables.

Compared with ADD Rev C, Appendix E¶

ADD Rev C prints the same 25 records as tables in its Appendix E: the field definitions (p. 262), the E.1 list (pp. 263–264) and the E.2 catalog, one page per gap (DN-001 L on p. 265 to DN-006 M on p. 289). Every table is compared with its row here, field for field, with every page checked in the PDF (ADD Rev C; summary on the data gaps index).

The sheet is the ADD's catalog in table form. 23 of the 25 tables match their rows exactly: title, description, need driver, data type, segment, objectives, targets, current state, impacts and benefits.
Two content differences:
- DN-016 L: data type "In Situ Measurement" in the ADD (p. 280), "In Situ Monitoring" here.
- DN-007 L: the first sentence of the impacts reads "a critical input for both ISRU system design and architecture analysis and identification of potential water reserve sites" in the ADD (p. 271), "a critical input for ISRU system design, architecture analysis, and identification of potential water reserve sites" here.
Both are December 2025 documents; the wiki keeps the sheet's text and notes the ADD's (open question 38).
One print difference in the ADD's list: DN-005 L's title lacks "the" in E.1 (p. 263), but not in its table (p. 269).
Same quirks. The ADD has "Permanently Shadow Regions", "<0.1 vertical error", "ins resolution" and "10-6 - 102 g" too (pp. 265, 266, 282, 279).
The field definitions differ in wording. The ADD defines ten fields (p. 262) where the Key sheet defines eleven. It merges the two impact and benefit columns into one field, "Impacts and Benefits": "A description of the architectural risk that the absence of this data incurs, as well as the benefits that the data offers". It calls the ID "A unique three-digit identifier" (Key: "A numeric identification"). Where the Key says "M2M", the ADD says "Moon to Mars" or nothing; the Segment definition is otherwise the same words. The full comparison is on the data gaps index.
No priority in either. The ADD's list says "While the current data gaps are not listed in priority order, they all represent near-term, high-priority needs" (p. 263).

Data-gap pages¶

One page per gap in data-gaps/, named dn-NNN-l.md or dn-NNN-m.md. The data gaps index lists all 25. Each page also cites its ADD Appendix E table.

ACR25 data-gaps white paper · Technology and knowledge challenges · Tech gaps spreadsheet · data gaps index