When humans return to the lunar surface in the coming decade, the tools they carry to listen to the earliest echoes of deep space will bear the distinct imprint of Vanderbilt University research and design.
At the center of that effort is Karan Jani, assistant professor of physics and astronomy and of electrical and computer engineering, and founding director of the Vanderbilt Lunar Labs Initiative. Also, Jani is principal investigator on two new federal awards: a $400,000 award from the NASA Astrophysics Research and Analysis program and a five-year, $793,953 National Science Foundation CAREER award.
The dual funding fuels development of the Laser Interferometer Lunar Antenna, a gravitational-wave observatory program for the moon that Jani first proposed in 2020, while expanding artificial intelligence and space-science training for students.
“These awards from NASA and NSF are a mandate to build the next frontier in gravitational-wave astronomy,” Jani said. “We are developing the laser technologies for the lunar environment, the AI data infrastructure for the astrophysical discoveries this frontier will open, and the workforce for the new era of space exploration.”
A quiet observatory on the moon
Earth-based observatories like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory can catch the brief crash of black holes colliding, but daily vibrations on our home planet create too much noise to detect subtle space ripples. The planned European Space Agency-NASA Laser Interferometer Space Antenna mission in deep space is being built to record only the slowest, lowest frequency waves. That leaves a wide range of cosmic signals that technology on Earth or in deep space cannot hear.
The moon provides the quiet environment needed to bridge the gap.
“I have three grand questions that I want to answer in my lifetime, and one is how the universe began,” Jani said. “We want to listen to the first sounds that the universe made. That frequency is inaccessible from Earth, and it is inaccessible from deep space with current technology. The moon is the only place we know in the solar system from which you can detect these signals.”
Jani has built his career around a mysterious class of black holes, hundreds to thousands of times the mass of the sun. His 2019 study, featured on the cover of Nature Astronomy, laid out how these black holes could be observed across multiple gravitational-wave bands, and in 2020 he was among the scientists who discovered GW190521, the first confirmed gravitational-wave signal from the merger of two massive black holes. His students have since discovered more of these objects in public LIGO data. Where the signals come from, however, is an open question—and the answer sits in the frequency band that only the lunar surface can reach.
“Earth-based detectors catch the final fraction of a second of a black hole merger. A lunar observatory can track them for months,” Jani said. “That lead time allows us to point flagship observatories like JWST and Roman at the exact coordinates before the collision even happens. We are shifting from reactive observation to predictive astronomy.”
The three-year NASA APRA grant, led by Jani, will fund ground demonstrations to test how laser interferometry performs under lunar conditions, including radiation and extreme temperature changes. James Trippe and Robert Reed of Vanderbilt’s Institute for Space and Defense Electronics lead the hardware effort.
The project unites co-investigators at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and the University of Florida and collaborators at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, UC Berkeley, the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris and Italy’s National Institute for Nuclear Physics. Their data will help shape a science-driven mission architecture, with the goal of an operational detector on the moon in the 2030s.
Jani also serves on the science team for the South Pole Seismic Station, selected by NASA for astronauts to deploy during Artemis IV. Slated to be among the first scientific instruments placed on the moon by humans since Apollo 17 in 1972, its data will feed directly into where and how LILA is built. Additionally, Jani serves on a NASA-sponsored National Academies study identifying high-value lunar destinations for human exploration.
Breaking down thin walls
“When I arrived at Vanderbilt, Chancellor Diermeier said the walls here are thin. That culture is what led us to build the Lunar Labs Initiative,” Jani said.
That spirit of cross-campus partnership has been crucial to building the initiative from the ground up. Today, Lunar Labs unites researchers from the College of Arts and Science, the School of Engineering, Vanderbilt Law School and the College of Connected Computing, and it trains a cohort of postdoctoral fellows and doctoral students who form the core of the effort.
The initiative is home to the International LILA Collaboration, which connects 25 institutions across the United States, France, Italy and India to establish an active network of academic, industry and federal partners.
“Karan’s groundbreaking work is the perfect example of how innovating across disciplines, universities and global borders can significantly expand our knowledge and discoveries,” said Jason Merchant, Searcy Family Dean of the College of Arts and Science. “Through this radical collaboration, Vanderbilt researchers are charting humanity’s future and unlocking answers to the most pressing questions about our universe and our existence.”
Building the future space workforce
Alongside lunar hardware, the NSF CAREER award focuses heavily on foundational artificial intelligence and student development.
Jani’s lab is building AI models to comb through vast archives of public LIGO data to uncover elusive intermediate-mass black holes that slipped past traditional algorithms. These models, developed through the AI for New Messengers program with the College of Connected Computing, will form the operating intelligence of an observatory on the moon. At the same time, the grant will expand hands-on training pipelines, integrating education modules directly with the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program and partner institutions.
Through modular coursework and annual workshops hosted by Vanderbilt, students will learn to navigate the intersection of astrophysics, data science and aerospace engineering.
“This is the new way to train scientists,” Jani said. “Our students will learn to explain complex astrophysics to computer scientists, systems engineers and space industry executives. As humans prepare to live and work on the lunar surface, these students are becoming the first native workforce of the lunar economy.”
Fueling impact through early investment
The road to these federal awards began with early campus investments. Support from the Office of the Chancellor through a Sesquicentennial Grant seeded the Vanderbilt Lunar Labs Initiative, providing the runway to launch initial studies.
That foundation was strengthened by an Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation Scaling Success Grant, an internal seed program designed to help faculty springboard bold research toward external funding.
Throughout that ramp-up, Research Development Support, a unit within OVPRI, worked closely with Jani to navigate the complex federal sponsorship landscape. RDS provided comprehensive proposal guidance, facilitated peer review and coordinated planning for the NASA APRA and NSF CAREER submissions.
That collaborative approach is central to Vanderbilt’s institutional research support mission.
“Dr. Jani’s achievement illustrates the trajectory our internal grant programs and research support are designed to foster,” said Susan Margulies, vice provost for research and innovation. “By investing early in bold, collaborative concepts and pairing faculty with experienced proposal support team members, Vanderbilt positions our researchers to lead high-stakes, nationally competitive initiatives that redefine what is possible.”
With federal backing secured and groundwork underway, Vanderbilt’s team now looks toward the next frontier: turning a quiet crater on the moon into humanity’s newest window on the cosmos.
