AiRANACULUS announced that it has been awarded a $5 million Civilian Commercialization Readiness Pilot Program contract from NASA.
The 24-month effort will support the development of next-generation heterogeneous communication networks for lunar and deep-space missions.
AiRANACULUS is a Massachusetts-based deep technology company focused on intelligent RF and autonomous networking systems. The company will use the NASA contract to advance its Cross Layer Spectrum Aware Cognitive Control Plane and Intelligent Routing Engine, known as CLAIRE, and its Intelligent Network Slicing and Policy-based Routing Engine, known as INSPiRE.
The technologies are designed to improve performance, resilience, and adaptability across complex communications environments. AiRANACULUS will work with NASA Ames Research Center and industry collaborators including Nokia Federal Solutions, NVIDIA, Dell Technologies, Curtiss-Wright, Supermicro, and Radisys.
The program will include integrated testing and spaceflight validation activities. The effort is intended to advance the Technology Readiness Level and Manufacturing Readiness Level of the CLAIRE and INSPiRE platforms through testing and space flight demonstrations with NASA Ames.
As NASA and its partners expand lunar exploration through the Artemis program, communications networks must support habitats, robotic systems, rovers, autonomous vehicles, science payloads, mining operations, radio astronomy, lunar orbiters, and future Mars missions.
These environments require coordination across multiple network types, including 4G/5G cellular, Wi-Fi, and satellite communications, operating across various frequency bands and conditions.
AiRANACULUS said its technologies will enable more flexible and resilient communications between lunar surface operations, lunar orbiting systems, and cislunar infrastructure.
CLAIRE is designed to dynamically manage networks through cross-layer sensing, adapt to changing RF environments, mitigate interference and congestion, and route traffic to maintain mission-critical Quality of Service. INSPiRE extends these capabilities through intelligent network slicing and policy-driven orchestration across heterogeneous space and terrestrial infrastructures.
AiRANACULUS develops intelligent RF and autonomous networking technologies for space, defense, smart cities, transportation, and critical infrastructure. The company said it has secured more than $25 million in government contracts and has built an intellectual property portfolio with 7 granted patents and 58 international patents pending.
KEY QUOTES:
“Nokia Federal is proud to support the evolution of lunar communications infrastructure through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. AiRANACULUS’ CLAIRE architecture creates an important bridge between terrestrial 4G/5G systems, Wi-Fi, SATCOM, and cislunar communications while enabling more intelligent Delay Tolerant Networking across space environments.”
Steve Vogelsang, Chief Technology Officer at Nokia Federal Solutions
“The future of lunar exploration depends on resilient, adaptive, and interoperable communications architectures capable of supporting a broad range of missions and operational environments. AiRANACULUS’ technology represents an important building block for the future of lunar and space networking, and Arc Ventures has proudly invested in AiRANACULUS to build the foundation to support the Lunar economy and the next generation of intelligent, mission-critical networks.”
Joseph Korff, Founder of Arc Ventures
“From resilient defense communications and interference-aware 5G systems to autonomous space networking, CLAIRE and INSPiRE represent the next evolution of intelligent communications infrastructure where reliability is mission critical, whether on Earth or beyond. This award validates our leadership for AI-driven, self-optimizing RF and networking systems and positions AiRANACULUS at the forefront of AI-RAN innovation for lunar and deep-space exploration.”
Dr. Apurva N. Mody, Founder and CEO of AiRANACULUS
