2025 Architecture-Driven Technology Gaps (spreadsheet)¶
Document: 2025 Architecture-Driven Technology Gaps, a one-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 sheet is named
technology-gaps-in-add-rev-c, so the sheet title is probably "Technology Gaps in ADD Rev
C". That title is inferred from the extraction's file name, because the workbook itself was
not opened.
Files: text sources/text/docs/2025-12-2025-architecture-driven-technology-gaps/technology-gaps-in-add-rev-c.csv;
raw sources/raw/docs/2025-12-2025-architecture-driven-technology-gaps.xlsx
(fetched 2026-10-01T07:22:46Z from
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-architecture-driven-technology-gaps.xlsx,
per sources/manifest.csv).
Summary. The spreadsheet lists the 57 architecture-driven technology gaps of the
current architecture, one row per gap, with ID numbers ESDMD #0101 to ESDMD #1202. For
each gap it gives the description, impacts, current state of the art, performance target,
child gaps, traceability to use cases, functions and definition tasks, the segments and
sub-architectures affected, a priority bin (1–6) and an overall prioritization rating
(1–57). The Moon Base Users Guide names 19
of these gaps among its challenges for "near-term Moon Base development" (p. 11; see
Technology and knowledge challenges).
How to cite¶
Cite by gap ID (the row), e.g. ([Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #0801](2025-12-2025-architecture-driven-technology-gaps.md)).
The sheet has no page numbers.
Columns¶
| Column (as printed) | What it holds | Gap-page section |
|---|---|---|
| Gap ID No. | ESDMD #NNNN. "The first two digits are determined by the gap's most relevant sub-architecture" (ADD Rev C, p. 199). Which number stands for which sub-architecture (01 C&PNT, 02 Data Systems and Management, 03 Habitation, 04 Human, 05 Infrastructure Support, 06 ISRU, 07 Logistics, 08 Mobility, 09 Power, 10 Autonomous Systems & Robotics, 11 Transportation, 12 Utilization) is the wiki's reading: in every row, that sub-architecture is listed first (gaps index). |
title |
| Gap Title | title | |
| Gap Description | Description | |
| Architecture Impacts and Benefits | what happens without (or with) gap closure | Description ("Impacts and benefits" paragraph) |
| Metrics: Current State of the Art | Current state of the art | |
| Metrics: Performance Target | split into "Moon:", "Mars:" or "Moon/Mars:" parts | Performance target |
| Architecture-Driven Child Gaps | numbered NNNN-NN |
Child gaps |
| Architecture Traceability: Use Cases & Functions | pairs such as UC-M-601 L -- FN-C-201 L, or a use case with "All FN", or a use case alone. IDs only; the ADD's titles for the lunar IDs, with this column reversed (which gaps cite each ID), are on Lunar use cases and Lunar functions. |
Traceability |
| Architecture Traceability: Definition Tasks | split into "Moon:" and "Mars:"; some marked ✓. Only tasks whose outcome "affects the degree of need for the gap directly" are listed (ADD Rev C, p. 199). | Traceability |
| Segments | Foundational Exploration, Sustained Lunar Evolution, Humans to Mars. The segments "for which the capability is needed"; the first one feeds the urgency score (ADD Rev C, p. 199). | Segments and sub-architectures |
| Sub-Architectures | one or more of 12 sub-architecture names | Segments and sub-architectures |
| Priority Bin | 1 to 6 | Priority |
| Overall Prioritization Rating | 1 to 57, each value used once | Priority |
Priority bins and ratings¶
Each gap has a unique rating from 1 to 57, and the bins are contiguous blocks of ratings:
| Bin | Ratings | Gaps |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1–6 | 6 |
| 2 | 7–15 | 9 |
| 3 | 16–30 | 15 |
| 4 | 31–36 | 6 |
| 5 | 37–48 | 12 |
| 6 | 49–57 | 9 |
This is read off the data. The spreadsheet itself doesn't explain the two columns; ADD Rev C does, and 1 is the highest priority. The rating is "The gap's location in the prioritized list of gaps, indicating architecture preference of gap closure based upon the weighting and combination of the four priority metrics", and the bin is "Distinct groupings of architecture preference of gap closure based upon prioritized list to show relative priority" (ADD Rev C, p. 199). The ADD's prioritized list starts with #0801 at rating 1 (p. 200). The four metrics are criticality, urgency, breadth and depth, weighted in that descending order; cost is not considered; and "all gaps, even those in the lowest priority bin, are highly architecture driven" (pp. 77–78). The weight values are not printed in Section 3.2, and no per-gap scores appear in this sheet, the ADD's D.2 list (p. 200) or its gap tables (e.g. p. 204). The full method is on the gaps index.
Compared with ADD Rev C, Appendix D¶
ADD Rev C prints the same gaps as one table per gap, in its Appendix D (pp. 199–260; p. 261 is the Appendix E divider), and its Section D.1 defines the 13 fields under the same names as this sheet's columns (p. 199). The definitions are tabled on the gaps index.
- The prioritized list (D.2, pp. 200–202) matches this sheet for all 57 gaps: ID, title, rating and bin (PDF checked).
- The catalog tables (D.3), all 57 (pp. 204–260), match their rows here field for field
(text layer, with every page checked in the PDF). There are two exceptions:
- A print difference: "FN-C-107M" under #0102 (p. 205), against this sheet's "FN-C-107 M".
- A content difference: under #1107 the ADD pairs UC-U-501 M with FN-U-501 M (p. 258), where this sheet has FN-U-502 M. Neither source says which is meant (#1107; open question 37).
- Labels become icons. In all 57 tables, the ADD marks performance targets with icons labeled "Moon", "Mars" and "Moon/Mars", and each definition task with a Moon or Mars icon. This sheet writes them as text. The ADD also shows segments and sub-architectures as labeled icons, with C&PNT abbreviated (e.g. pp. 206, 208).
- Same quirks. The ADD's tables repeat this sheet's oddities: "TBR" and "TBD", the "Sustained Lunar Exploration" wording under #0601 and #0603 (pp. 229–230), the four unstarred "High-performance processors" child gaps (pp. 209, 240, 248, 250), and #0902's solar and fuel-cell child gaps beside a ticked MD-07 (p. 245). The missing colon after "0304-02*" under #1202 is this sheet's alone: the ADD prints each child gap's ID in its own column (p. 260).
So the gap pages, built from this sheet, also quote the ADD's text, and all 57 cite their ADD page.
Things to know when using it¶
- Markers the sheet doesn't explain, but the ADD does. Some child gaps carry an asterisk
(e.g.
0201-03*). Starred child gaps appear under more than one parent gap, and ADD Rev C's Appendix D says "the * symbol denotes a child gap with multiple parents" (ADD Rev C, p. 199). Some definition tasks carry a check mark (e.g.✓LD-103 Surface Communications Strategy). The ADD's gap tables carry the legend "“✓” indicates completed definition task" (Appendix D, e.g. ADD Rev C, p. 204, checked against the PDF). It fits Section 3.1.3: the four ticked tasks (LD-03-L, LD-102, LD-103, MD-07) are all among its legacy decisions and completed tasks, and the five unticked ones (MD-01, MD-09, MD-10, MD-11, MD-12) are not (Key definition tasks; open question 12). - Repeated child-gap title under different IDs. "High-performance processors for deep
space missions" appears as
0202-01,0805-02,1002-02and1004-01, unstarred each time. The ADD prints all four unstarred too (pp. 209, 240, 248, 250), so by its definition of the star each has one parent (open question 14). - Placeholders. Several targets contain "TBR" or "TBD" (e.g. #0306, #0804, #1001, #1201). Gap pages copy them as printed.
- Segment name variant. The Segments column says "Sustained Lunar Evolution". The performance targets of #0601 and #0603 say "Sustained Lunar Exploration".
- Sub-architecture names are printed as in the sheet, e.g. "Autonomous Systems & Robotics" and "Communications and Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Systems".
- The "Moon:", "Mars:" and "Moon/Mars:" labels in the performance-target column show which destination a gap serves. Several gaps (#0102, #0104, #0606, #0802, #0803, #0902, #1102–#1105, #1202) are Mars-only.
Gap pages¶
One page per gap in gaps/, named esdmd-NNNN.md. The gaps index tables all 57 by rating, with
destination, segments, sub-architectures and the Moon Base flag, and lists them by ID group.
Related pages¶
Technology and knowledge challenges · Moon Base Users Guide · gaps index · ADD Rev C (Section 3.2 explains the gaps and their priority; Appendix D, pp. 199–260, catalogs them)