A moon is a kind of ship on the Arvo network. Moons are child identities issued by planets, stars, and galaxies. A moon is not independent; it is always subordinate to the ship that issued it. By this we mean that the networking keys for the moon are controlled by the parent, and may be altered or revoked at any time by that parent.

Moons may be utilized for many purposes, including but not limited to:

• vanity identities
• backup identities incase the parent identity cannot be accessed
• identities for children
• testing software
• bots

Looking towards the future, we expect moons to also be utilized as identities for devices, such as such as phones, desktops, smart TVs, and digital thermostats

Unlike planets, stars, and galaxies, moons have no presence on Azimuth. Moons are representable with 64 bits and have long names like ~doznec-salfun-naptul-habrys, the latter half of which is inherited from their parent planet.

Further Reading

• User manual: Basics: The "Moons" section contains instructions for creating and managing moons.
• Lunar Urbit and the Internet of Things: Blog post on the past, present, and future of moons.