At a recent LA Tech Week panel hosted by USC’s Viterbi Information Sciences Institute (ISI), space leaders tackled an unusual but telling question: what kinds of infrastructure, partnerships, and policies will we need to make life, and breakfast, sustainable in space? Rather than focusing on geopolitical competition, the panel emphasized how commercial operators, researchers, and agencies can build shared systems to operate together in space. 

Held on October 13, 2025, the panel was moderated by David Barnhart, Research Professor at USC Viterbi and Director of USC’s Space Engineering Research Center (SERC) co-located at USC’s Information Sciences Center (ISI). He opened the session by asking what kind of technical foundations are needed to make sustainable operations possible. “If we’re going to go to the Moon, it’s not just to plant a flag,” he said. “There have to be some standards, platforms, or interfaces that allow us to evolve those systems.”

Designing for Growth

One of those foundations, the panelists agreed, is modularity. Keenan Albee, Assistant Professor in USC’s Department of Astronautical Engineering, emphasized the value of orbital systems that can adapt over time and function across organizations. “This idea of modular systems that are able to come together and then separate,” he said, “that’s the kind of infrastructure we need.”

Rahul Rughani, Chief Systems Engineer at Arkisys, a company developing modular orbital platforms, stressed the importance of flexibility. His team is developing scalable platforms intended to support many users and mission types. “We’re not building a platform that’s custom-built for one payload or one mission,” he said. “It’s about being able to grow the platform and to evolve the mission, dozens or hundreds of use cases.”

Setting the Traffic Rules for Space

As more private companies and national programs expand into orbit, the challenge is no longer just technical. Charity Weeden, global space policy strategist and former NASA Associate Administrator, pointed out that there is still no internationally agreed-upon set of “traffic rules” for space.

“There’s no space traffic coordination system at a global level,” she said. “That’s a huge issue.” Even basic questions remain unanswered. “Which side of the road do we drive on in space? Do we pass on the left or the right?” Weeden also noted the need for shared systems to track spacecraft and debris in real time. While the U.S. is beginning to shift that responsibility from military to civilian oversight, there is not yet a consistent international approach to space situational awareness or data sharing.

The panelists agreed that scaling up activity in orbit will require coordination on a global level.

Infrastructure Before Eggs Benedict

During the Q&A, an audience member asked what it would take to have breakfast at a hotel on the Moon. The panel used the question to highlight how much foundational work still needs to happen.

“Where’s the refueling?” asked Weeden. “Where’s the maintenance? Where’s the tugboat?” Long-term habitation and tourism, she said, will depend on the support systems that make those activities viable. Barnhart added that those systems must be designed to grow. “You don’t build infrastructure for one mission,” he said. “You build it to evolve.”

Before there can be hotels, there must be fuel depots, maintenance tools, and platforms for docking, transfer, and storage. And before any of that, there needs to be consensus on how those systems are built and managed.

Laying the Groundwork

Though the panelists came from different backgrounds—engineering, policy, and systems design—they shared a common message: sustaining human activity in space will require more than vision. It will take shared frameworks, reliable tools, and long-term investment in collaboration.

The panel was part of ISI’s LA Tech Week programming, which features sessions across space, AI, and cybersecurity. Learn more and explore other highlights here.

Published on November 17th, 2025

Last updated on November 20th, 2025