At NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, aerospace engineer Richard Spolzino works within the Moon Base mission architecture and systems interoperability effort. His team identifies what NASA still does not know about the Moon and Mars, and works to have that missing information found before it becomes a problem.

Spolzino describes a data gap as a way of documenting what is unknown. Using lunar regolith as an example, he notes that specifics such as how much weight the material can bear and its shear strength shape decisions from rover driving distances to habitat foundations. A published data gap records what is missing, why it matters, what currently falls short, and a measurable target that industry and international partners can aim for. According to the source, published gaps grew from roughly 25 last year to a pace of 60 by the end of this year.

The approach has influenced decisions, Spolzino says. For the lunar lander company now known as Voyager, formerly Astrobotic, his team helped prioritize which data from the upcoming Griffin-1 mission gets sent home first through a constrained communications pipeline. His team has also evaluated proposed instruments against published gaps to help leadership decide which are worth flying, and leadership now asks companies pitching instruments to show how proposals map to a data gap.

Spolzino, who studied history and physics before graduate work combining aerospace engineering and space architecture, says the job taught him that NASA's reputation requires constant, deliberate work rather than being automatic.