AiRANACULUS, a Massachusetts-based deep technology company focused on intelligent RF and autonomous networking systems, announced that it has been awarded a $5 million Civilian Commercialization Readiness Pilot Program (CCRPP) contract from NASA. The effort will support technology development enabling next-generation heterogeneous communication networks for lunar and deep-space missions.
AiRANACULUS will enhance its Cross Layer Spectrum Aware Cognitive Control Plane and Intelligent Routing Engine (CLAIRE) and Intelligent Network Slicing and Policy-based Routing Engine (INSPiRE) technologies. These platforms are designed to improve performance, resilience and adaptability across complex communication environments. The work will be conducted in collaboration with NASA Ames Research Center and industry collaborators including NVIDIA, Nokia Federal Solutions, Dell Technologies, Curtiss-Wright, Supermicro and Radisys. The program will also include integrated testing and spaceflight validation activities.
As NASA and its partners expand lunar exploration efforts through the Artemis program, communications architectures must support a broad set of use cases, including habitats, robotic systems, rovers, autonomous vehicles, science payloads, mining operations, radio astronomy, lunar orbiters and even future Mars missions. These environments require coordination across multiple network types, including 4G/5G cellular, Wi-Fi and satellite communications, operating across a range of frequency bands and conditions.
The AiRANACULUS technologies will enable more flexibility and resilient communications between lunar surface operations, lunar orbiting systems and cislunar infrastructure. AiRANACULUS’ CLAIRE platform is designed to dynamically manage these networks by cross-layer sensing, adapting to changing RF environments, mitigating interference and congestion and dynamically routing traffic to maintain mission-critical Quality of Service (QoS). The company’s INSPiRE technology extends these capabilities through intelligent network slicing and policy-driven orchestration across heterogeneous space and terrestrial infrastructures leveraging NVIDIA accelerated computing platforms such as the NVIDIA Aerial Testbed and NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip.
“Nokia Federal is proud to support the evolution of lunar communications infrastructure through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program,” said Mr. Steve Vogelsang, Chief Technology Officer, at Nokia Federal Solutions. “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.”
“The future of lunar exploration depends on resilient, adaptive, and interoperable communications architectures capable of supporting a broad range of missions and operational environments,” said Joseph Korff, Founder of Arc Ventures, “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.”
“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,” said Dr. Apurva N. Mody, Founder and CEO of AiRANACULUS. “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.”
The NASA 24-month CCRPP effort will focus on advancing the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) of the CLAIRE and INSPiRE platforms through integrated testing and space flight demonstrations in partnership at NASA Ames.
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