PLAZAIC / Lunar industry
Moon Base Economics
Engineered on Earth. Built, tested and deployed on the Moon.
Explore how a base operator could turn local materials and field services into a business.
02 / From design to deployment
A lunar production contract
Engineered on Earth
Customers send designs and critical components to the base. Qualified lunar metals supply the structural mass.
100 kg imported · 900 kg made locally · 120 workshop hours
03 / The operator’s result
An annual business
Annual full-cost profit
After project costs, base operations and annual capital recovery.
Break-even volume
—Operating cash surplus: —
Simple capital payback: —
Payback uses cash surplus before capital recovery; financing and tax are excluded.
04 / Follow the money
Revenue has costs attached
The invoice passes through the base operator. Only the amount left after all modeled costs belongs to the operator.
05 / One customer contract
Share the cost advantage
| Imported component delivery | — |
| Usable lunar metals | — |
| Printing, machining & assembly | — |
| Field trials & deployment | — |
| Operator service fee | — |
06 / Production limits
Contracts need working capacity
Qualified metals
—Workshop hours
—Field trial slots
—Model scope / Technical basis
The base sells completed lunar work
What the customer buys
A structure, machine or system built to an Earth-engineered design, integrated with imported components, tested in lunar conditions and deployed on site. Avoided delivery of structural mass creates room for a lower customer price and an operator fee.
This example sells bundled contracts to lunar customers. Standalone metal sales, oxygen sales and exports to Earth are excluded.
How the result is calculated
- Alternative = whole-system delivery + fabrication, trials and deployment.
- Local cost = imported delivery + usable metal + workshop work + field services.
- Fee = operator’s share × positive cost advantage.
- Invoice = local cost + fee.
- Profit = completed projects × fee − base operations − capital ÷ recovery years.
Only whole projects within all three capacity limits are delivered. Capital recovery is a simple annual allocation, not a discounted investment return.
What must be proven
Material purity, suitable alloys, machining tolerances, inspection, system qualification and reliable power determine how much hardware can be made locally. Imported precision parts remain part of the scenario.
NASA has produced metals and oxygen from simulated lunar soil in vacuum testing. Its additive manufacturing research and commercial lunar payload services provide technical context; they do not establish a profitable lunar factory.
Common Earth design and critical-component purchase costs are excluded from both alternatives. Project costs cover additional work; annual operations cover shared overhead. Financing, taxes, inflation, ramp-up and failure losses beyond usable output and availability are excluded.