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Building a giant catcher's mitt on the moon

Members of the space exploration community are always coming up with novel ideas to solve problems that they view as holding back humanity's expansion into the cosmos. One such problem that has become more noticeable of late, due to the failure of several powered lunar landers, is the difficulty of landing on the moon.

To open up the wealth of resources on our nearest neighbor, we will have to regularly deliver cargo to it as well as ship cargo off of it. A new idea from Lunar Cargo, a company based in Europe, has come up with a novel, patented way to deliver cargo to the moon—the Momentum Absorption Catcher for Express Deliveries on Non-Atmospheric Somata, or M.A.C.E.D.O.N.A.S.

So, what is M.A.C.E.D.O.N.A.S? Perhaps the best way to describe it is to watch the concept video below, but in words, it's a system that transfers momentum from a landing craft into a hardened projectile. The system then uses the spring tension of a smart material to slow down the momentum of that hardened projectile and uses electricity to reset itself for the next delivery. In essence, it acts like a giant, mechanically advanced, resettable catcher's mitt.

To complete the throw, though, the system requires a "mothership" that is able to send packages of material every orbit, which on the moon takes a little less than two hours according to Lunar Cargo's calculations. Also, after payloads are delivered safely to the net, rovers would be dispatched to collect them and arrange them as necessary at the delivery site.

After each delivery, the smart material activates, applying electric current to the "springs" and resetting them, and the ballistic projectile, back to their original state. The project is made of an anti-ballistic textile, which would stop it from shattering when the payload impacts it.

That lack of shattering is actually one of the defining features of the M.A.C.E.D.O.N.A.S. system. One major concern about future lunar landing systems is the dust and debris they would kick up, which, since there is hardly any atmosphere on the moon and it has extremely weak gravity, could potentially damage other infrastructure even if it is placed far away. With M.A.C.E.D.O.N.A.S, there is no ejecta or debris—all the momentum is transferred safely into the "catcher," and everything is reset once the package is delivered.

Another advantage it has is that it can be scaled to almost any size—from a soda can to a full lander, M.A.C.E.D.O.N.A.S can catch pretty much any payload thrown at it, up to a point. In a PowerPoint provided by Charis Kosmas, Lunar Cargo's founder and CEO, there aren't a lot of technical details about key features, such as the mothership, but another advantage it mentions is that, once the smart material is worn out from catching too many payloads, it can be recycled back into feedstock for a 3D printer.

The company recently received a patent for its technology and is actively seeking funding to move operations to the next phase. It's already won several awards, including the Moon Village Association's Moon Market Award in 2024. It also relies heavily on a report on the lunar landing economy produced by consultancy firm PwC, which shows exponential growth in the sector while operations in space begin to scale up.

Ultimately, M.A.C.E.D.O.N.A.S. is an elegant solution to a problem that humanity doesn't quite have yet, at least not at the level where it would be willing to invest in the infrastructure necessary to make that solution happen. As we move more and more of our science and industry offworld, though, Lunar Cargo and its high-tech catcher's mitt are well placed to facilitate the explosive growth the industry could see.