In 2026, Open Lunar enters its eighth year of formal operations. The first month of the year always offers a strategic moment to pause. It’s a time for reflection on the year behind us and intention-setting for the one ahead. This past year was action-packed, and our team has been hard at work delivering outsized impact through our programs, partnerships, and shared infrastructure. Before moving forward, we wanted to invite you to look back with us—to reflect on where Open Lunar began, and why our mission continues to matter.
While our projects have evolved over seven years, our purpose has not. Open Lunar exists to ensure that humanity’s return to the Moon is coordinated, peaceful, and guided by shared stewardship. The precedents set today will shape not only the Moon, but the future of exploration beyond it. We remain committed to building the public goods and neutral spaces that make collaboration possible, so that when we look back decades from now, we can be proud of how we chose to begin.
Our Fellows are key to advancing Open Lunar’s research, and this year the Fellowship will focus on Designated Lunar Areas—exploring how activity-based, non-appropriative designations could help coordinate growing lunar activity.
As missions to the Moon accelerate, the lack of shared norms for surface and cislunar use risks conflict, inefficiency, and environmental harm. While the Outer Space Treaty sets high-level principles—including non-appropriation—it offers limited guidance on how specific lunar areas should be used, protected, or shared. This Fellowship examines whether time-bound, adaptive designations—such as scientific preservation zones, radio-quiet areas, or end-of-life disposal regions—can support safe, inclusive, and peaceful lunar development without territorial claims. It builds on the research led by our 2025 Fellow, Christine Tiballi in developing a “Lunar Operations Field Guide”, which highlights practical frameworks for managing activity and risk at high-interest lunar sites as human and robotic missions rapidly increase.
Throughout the year, our Fellows will work with the Open Lunar community to help shape practical guidance and a global code of conduct for lunar surface operations.
If you have insights to share or want to engage with the research, we’d love to hear from you. More opportunities to connect will be coming soon—as always, you can find our Fellows in Slack!
“I am excited to work with the Open Lunar Foundation to advance open-access frameworks for sustainable lunar development. I relate to this work through my experience using Earth science data to guide better decision-making, and I’m inspired to carry that approach into lunar exploration.” — Aaron
“I am interested in how engineering and governance frameworks can support long-term human presence beyond Earth.” — Vic
This year, we’re excited to be working towards a public launch of the Lunar Ledger— establishing a public, comprehensive, up-to-date global database of lunar missions. In a world marked increasingly by fragmented information, mistrust, and uncertainty, the Lunar Ledger works to advance cooperation and collaboration on the Moon. Based on the overwhelmingly positive reception of the project, we remain hopeful that this work can continue cultivating within our community of lunar actors to ensure a peaceful, collaborative return to the Moon.
This work is not possible without the support of our community. If you’d like to learn more about how to support the Lunar Ledger—whether you’re a lunar operator looking to register a lunar mission, or you’d like to support our public launch this year, you can reach the team at lunarledger@openlunar.org for more information.
Ashley Kosak and Philip Linden share their thoughts on a new approach to lunar timekeeping—built from affordable commercial hardware, redundant clock networks, and shared open infrastructure. Read More
Open Lunar is recruiting a Development Director! Learn more about this role in a post by Rachel Williams, Executive Director. Read more
