NASA and the Italian Space Agency made history on March 3, when the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) became the first technology demonstration to acquire and track Earth-based navigation signals on the Moon’s surface.
The LuGRE payload’s success in lunar
orbit and on the surface indicates that signals from the GNSS (Global
Navigation Satellite System) can be received and tracked at the Moon. These
results mean NASA’s Artemis missions, or other exploration missions, could
benefit from these signals to accurately and autonomously determine their
position, velocity, and time. This represents a steppingstone to advanced
navigation systems and services for the Moon and Mars.
An artist’s concept of the LuGRE payload on Blue Ghost
and its three main records in transit to the Moon, in lunar orbit and on the
Moon’s surface.
NASA/Dave Ryan
“On Earth we can use GNSS signals to navigate in everything from
smartphones to airplanes,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator
for NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) Program. “Now, LuGRE shows us that we can successfully
acquire and track GNSS signals at the Moon. This is a very exciting discovery
for lunar navigation, and we hope to leverage this capability for future
missions.”
“This is a very exciting discovery for lunar navigation, and we hope to
leverage this capability for future missions.
Kevin Coggins
Deputy
Associate Administrator for NASA SCaN
The road
to the historic milestone began on March 2 when the Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander touched down on the Moon and delivered
LuGRE, one of 10 NASA payloads intended to advance lunar science. Soon after
landing, LuGRE payload operators at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, began conducting their first
science operation on the lunar surface.
Members from NASA and Italian Space Agency watching
the Blue Ghost lunar lander touch down on the Moon.
NASA
With the receiver data flowing in, anticipation mounted. Could a Moon-based
mission acquire and track signals from two GNSS constellations, GPS and
Galileo, and use those signals for navigation on the lunar
surface?
Then, at 2 a.m. EST on March 3, it
was official: LuGRE acquired and tracked signals on the lunar surface for the
first time ever and achieved a navigation fix — approximately 225,000 miles
away from Earth.
Now that Blue Ghost is on the Moon,
the mission will operate for 14 days providing NASA and the Italian Space
Agency the opportunity to collect data in a near-continuous mode, leading to
additional GNSS milestones. In addition to this record-setting achievement,
LuGRE is the first Italian Space Agency developed hardware on the Moon, a
milestone for the organization.
The LuGRE payload also broke GNSS records on its journey to the Moon. On Jan. 21, LuGRE surpassed the highest altitude
GNSS signal acquisition ever recorded at 209,900 miles from Earth, a record
formerly held by NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission. Its altitude record continued to climb as LuGRE
reached lunar orbit on Feb. 20 — 243,000 miles from Earth. This means that
missions in cislunar space, the area of space between Earth and the Moon, could
also rely on GNSS signals for navigation fixes.
Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander captured its first sunrise
on the Moon, marking the beginning of the lunar day and the start of surface
operations in its new home.
Firefly Aerospace
Traditionally, NASA engineers track spacecraft by using a combination of
measurements, including onboard sensors and signals from Earth-based tracking
stations. The LuGRE payload demonstrates that using GNSS signals for navigation
can reduce reliance on human operators because these signals can be picked up
and used autonomously by the spacecraft, even as far away as the Moon.
The LuGRE payload is a
collaborative effort between NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and the Italian Space Agency. Funding and oversight for the LuGRE payload comes from NASA’s SCaN
Program office. It was chosen by NASA as one of 10 funded research and
technology demonstrations for delivery to the lunar surface by Firefly
Aerospace Inc., a flight under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services
initiative.
Learn more about LuGRE: https://go.nasa.gov/41qwwQN
The joint NASA and Italian Space Agency LuGRE team at
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
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