At LunARC, Fletcher alumni extend global affairs to space
On March 2, 2025, Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander touched down in Mare Crisium, a dark plain on the moon’s surface that is visible to the naked eye. The squat, bronze-colored lander was the first commercial lander to touch down on the moon, and one of its payloads included the Lunar Community Art Gallery, a digital collection of 30,000 artworks from 40 countries. The artwork, created by students from marginalized communities, will remain on the moon in a small gold pyramid.
The Lunar Community Art Gallery is part of an innovative mission at LunARC, a not-for-profit founded in 2022 by Lakshmi Karan, F00, FG09, and Topher Wilkins.
"Our first lunar mission put a spotlight on who gets to be in conversations about humanity's future in space," Karan said. "We chose to begin with the most marginalized communities. Their visions for the future, through art, are now permanently represented on the moon as a community art gallery."
Creating a New Legacy
At its core, LunARC's work is about democratizing who gets to design humanity's multiplanetary future, ensuring those who will inherit these systems are the ones building them. The not-for-profit is pioneering the Lunar University, the first off-Earth learning entity whose curriculum will be designed by youth from around the world. Karan sees the moon as a blank canvas where young people can design systems from scratch, unencumbered by Earth's inherited structures. LunARC is bringing historically underrepresented voices to the table, including those from non-space-faring countries.
“I think the world is starting to feel the dinosaurs collapse––legacy systems, institutions, and models,” Karan said. “Maybe COVID was the first meteor that hit us. But unlike previous moments of systemic collapse, this one coincides with humanity's expansion beyond Earth, creating a rare chance to design new systems rather than simply reform old ones.”
At LunARC, Karan partners with fellow Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) alum Jim Alexander, F00, who serves as general counsel. Alexander worked on the International Space Station in the early 2000s when it was still being built. During international negotiations, they would work out deals based on the assumption that it would cost $10,000 a pound to launch anything to space. Today, companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin have reduced that cost dramatically.
“It's not the cost of producing items, such as food, oxygen, and propellant,” he said. “It's the cost of launching everything. That was always the limiting factor, and that has gone down radically in recent years, which is enabling a quantum leap in space development.”
LunARC is already planning a second lunar mission for 2026 that will contain over 1,000 submissions from Indigenous and tribal individuals, honoring ancestral knowledge systems essential to humanity's future in space. This payload, created in partnership with LunarCodex and NanoFiche, will travel to the moon aboard Astrobotic's Griffin Lander.
Systems Perspective at Fletcher
Though LunARC has their vision set on the moon, the team is building its foundation through global collaboration on Earth. Next year, LunARC will host three design sprints to conceive of alternative models for the governance of the Lunar University. The three cohorts will consist of jazz musicians in Cuba, Indigenous students in Bolivia, and Tibetan monks in India. The goal of these sprints is to reimagine governance starting with first principles.
“We’re asking, ‘From the vantage point of your logic model, how would you define governance?’” Karan asked. “Think about jazz—resonance, listening, reciprocity. Or governance as a mandala, the Tibetan framework. Or governance as a regenerative ecosystem.”
The ideas and findings from these design sprints will be translated by LunARC’s legal partner at the human rights advocacy center, ICAAD, and presented to the United Nations Outer Space Committee next year.
Both Karan and Alexander emphasized that their time at Fletcher influenced their approach to LunARC. Specifically, Fletcher encouraged them to think with a systems perspective. Karan said that learning alongside people with diverse worldviews taught her how to create environments that can hold multiple perspectives at once, which is now fundamental to how LunARC designs its work.
“The Fletcher experience was formative,” Alexander added. “We try to take a larger perspective, both in terms of geography and in terms of time. We're thinking multi-generationally about the future, and I think we can attribute a lot of that to Fletcher.”
Practical Experience for Fletcher Fellows
This year, two Fletcher students received fellowships with LunARC. MALD student Eshita Eshita, F25, has been participating in workshops with ICAAD and helping to plan the design sprints scheduled for next year. Currently, Eshita is working on an article about space governance. Master of International Business (MIB) student Siddhi Raval, F26, has been helping LunARC with public outreach and managing their social media campaigns.
“It's been really great having them,” Alexander said. “We hope to continue the graduate fellowship every year.”
Imagining LunARC’s future, Karan mentioned the overview effect, a phenomenon experienced by astronauts looking back at Earth from space. The overview effect is described as a feeling of awe and transcendence upon seeing our planet as a whole.
"Fletcher gave us a global perspective," Karan said. "Now we're helping a new generation develop a multiplanetary one, not someday, but through the work they're doing right now, designing across borders for our shared future in space and on Earth."
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