Michael Nayak

Tomorrow is my drawing board

Welcome! I’m Mikey Nayak.

I’m a scientist,
author, skydive/airplane/wind tunnel instructor, and Antarctic expeditioner.

Find out more about my debut novel, Symbiote (Feb 2025, Angry Robot Books) here.

Explore this website to find out more!

 

press for my darpa programs

 
 

Luna-10
(10-year lunar architecture)

DARPA’s first dedicated lunar investment: Design a series of future integrated lunar infrastructure nodes, in frameworks that leverage commercial development.

Institution of Mechanical Engineers:
Lunar railway from DARPA and Northrop-Grumman could do heavy lifting for commercial Moon operations

Space Daily:
Catalyzing a Lunar Economy: DARPA's Initial Findings from LunA-10 Study

ExecutiveGov:
DARPA Posts Updates on 10-Year Lunar Architecture Capability Study

Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium Remarks, Day 3:
LunA-10 Initial Results (YouTube)

DARPA Press Release:
Catalyzing an Integrated Lunar Economy: Initial Results of the LunA-10 Capability Study

(Podcast) Ecosystemic Futures
Launching the Lunar Ecosystem

(Op-ed) The Mitchell Institute
Securing Cislunar Space and the First Island Off the Coast of Earth

Railway on the Moon / Lunar Logistics: articles from:
C4ISRNet Payload Space Satellite Today
Business Insider Quartz Breaking Defense
The Register Aviation Week TechSpot
Defense News Indian Express The Independent
Washington Exec AutoEvolution Trading View
PCMag Inceptive Mind Newser
SatellitePro MSN DaxStreet
Northrop-Grumman GFR Mashable

Space.com:

DARPA picks Northrop Grumman to develop “Lunar Railroad” Concept
Massive 'lighthouses' on the moon could light the way for future lunar astronauts
DARPA-funded 'Inchworm' robots could help us build moon bases. Here's how.
DARPA moon tech study selects 14 companies to develop a lunar economy
DARPA wants to build a 'thriving commercial economy' on the moon in 10 years

Quartz:
DARPA asks a $170 billion question about making money on the Moon

(Op-ed) The Hill:
How and why the Pentagon is laying the groundwork for an economy on the Moon

(Op-ed) Newsweek:
The Space Force Must Lead Without Fighting—And It Starts With the Moon

(Op-ed) Defense News:
Why the military is integral to America’s return to the moon

Geek Wire:
PowerLight joins Blue Origin to study power beaming system for the Moon

Space Voyaging:
DARPA’s LunA-10 Initiative: 14 Companies Charting a New Course for Lunar Exploration

Austin Business Journal:
2 Austin companies picked by US defense agency for lunar moonshots

Payload Space:
DARPA Awards LunA-10 Moon Infrastructure Project Contracts

Interesting Engineering (Similar article from Inceptive Mind):
GITAI's Inchworm robots get DARPA backing to advance lunar missions

TCT Magazine:
ICON's advanced construction 3D printing know-how to support DARPA's 10-year Lunar Architecture study

Sat News (Similar article from Moon Daily):
Firefly Aerospace to support DARPA LunA-10 with framework for on-orbit spacecraft hubs

Defense One:
SpaceX, Blue Origin, others set to compete in military Moon business program

Space Watch (Similar article from ExecutiveBiz):
DARPA Selects 14 Companies for LunA-10 Capability Study

Denver Business Journal:
4 Colorado space companies win contract with DARPA to create lunar economy

Aviation Weekly:
DARPA Picks 14 Firms To Study Designs For Moon Infrastructure

Defense Daily:
DARPA Selects 14 Companies For Integrated Technology Concepts For Lunar Economy

Breaking Defense:
DARPA picks 14 vendors for lunar economy-building study

Defense Scoop:
DARPA taps 14 companies to study infrastructure needs for future lunar economy
New DARPA study to explore infrastructure needs for future lunar economy

Space News:
DARPA picks 14 companies for lunar architecture study
DARPA to study integrated lunar infrastructure

Tech Crunch:
Commercial companies to collaborate for DARPA’s new lunar economy study

DARPA Press Release:
Collaborating Toward Integrated Commercial Lunar Infrastructure

(Podcast) The Downlink:
Building a secure cislunar economy: What’s it going to take?

Gizmodo:
DARPA Launches Study on Starting a Lunar Economy in 10 Years

Science Times:
DARPA To Build Technologies for Integrated Lunar Infrastructure With LunA-10’s Aid

C4ISRNet:
DARPA to explore technology needed for moon-based economy

Data Center Dynamics:
DARPA LunA-10 project to study digital infrastructure on the Moon

DARPA Press Release:
A Framework for Optimized, Integrated Lunar Infrastructure



Other similar articles from:

TS2 Space. Next Big Future. The Register. The National Digest. MeriTalk. Fagen Wasanni.
The Indian Express. Mezha Media. EE News Europe.
Executive Gov. Boing Boing. Bol News. Mil Aero. Inquirer Technology. Phone World. The 1014, NZ. Gadget Technology. Bharat Times.
Technology Times. City Life. Yahoo News. Crast. Comps Mag. The Blot. Day FR Euro. Open Access Government. Interesting Engineering. Unexplained Mysteries.

SHALE
(SIX HYPOTHESES FOR ACCELERATING THE LUNAR ECONOMY)

A community Request for Information (RFI) to seed a potential future DARPA investment.

Interesting Engineering:
DARPA reveals list of technologies for a thriving lunar economy

ArsTechnica:
The US Government seems serious about developing a Lunar Economy

ArXiv:
Six Hypotheses for Accelerating the Lunar Economy

ZENITH

Design Liquid Mirror Telescopes that maintain a light focusing shape even if tilted out-of-plane, in monolithic and segmented designs that require no motion to operate.

SPIE Photonics West Daily:
DARPA Targets Liquid Optics

YouTube:
Program Manager’s Industry Day Presentation

Press Release:
Liquid-Mirror Program to Revolutionize Telescope Designs

Inside Defense:
DARPA explores potential research investment in liquid mirror telescopes

Science Springs:
From DARPA: Liquid Mirror Program

ExecutiveGov:
DARPA seeks research proposals for Liquid Mirror Tech Development Program

Astrospace
DARPA intende costruire specchi liquidi per rivoluzionare i futuri telescopi

SAM solicitation links:
Zenith Program
Request for Information (RFI) Liquid Mirrors

 

ATMOSENSE
(ATmosphere as a sensor)

Understand the fundamentals of atmospheric energy propagation from transient events to inform new detection techniques and hazard forecasting for activities on the Earth's surface.

CEDAR workshop (2023):
DARPA’s Atmosphere as a Sensor program

AGU invited presentation (2022):
Understanding the Ionospheric Impact of the Coupled System Surface: DARPA's AtmoSense: Atmosphere as a Sensor

SEE
(Space ENVIRONMENT EXPLOIT’n)

Characterizing plasma structures and irregularities in the ionosphere and the interaction of chemical agents with the ionosphere plasma.

Press releases will be posted as they become available.

Click the button below to learn more about this program.

 

CHUTE
(CANOPIES FOR HIGH SPEED ULTRA LONG TERRAIN EXECUTION)

YouTube
Program Manager’s Industry Day Presentation

Click the button below to learn more about this program.

FLARE
(FAST, LIGHT, AIRWORTHY, REPACKABLE PARACHUTES)

YouTube
Program Manager’s Industry Day Presentation

Click the button below to learn more about this program.

Find me online:
Follow me on Twitter

My author page on Amazon
My research contributions on Google Scholar

 

 

Unless otherwise noted, all of the material on this web site is the intellectual property and copyright © by Michael Nayak. All rights are reserved. No part of this web site may be reproduced, published, distributed, displayed, performed, copied or stored for public or private use in any information retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any mechanical, photographic or electronic process, including electronically or digitally on the Internet or World Wide Web, or over any network, or local area network, without written permission of the copyright holder. No part of this web site may be modified or changed or exploited in any way used for derivative works, or offered for sale, or used to construct any kind of database or mirrored at any other location without the express written permission of the copyright holder. You may not, without the copyright holder's express written permission, mirror any material contained on this web site on any other server. Any unauthorized use of any material contained on this web site may violate copyright laws and subject to violator to legal judgement and penalties. Please use the contact form if you would like to make use of any material on this website.