NASA Delivers Navigation System for Commercial Lunar Relay

The Moon's rocky, uneven, and otherworldly surface features are highlighted by the terminator – the difference between light and darkness.

Credits: NASA

NASA delivered the NavCube3-mini payload on July 13 to Intuitive Machines for integration into Altus-1, the company’s first lunar relay satellite, marking an important milestone in the development of future lunar communications and navigation services. The lunar relays are designed to enable communications and navigation for astronauts and rovers operating at the agency’s future Moon Base.

About half the size of a shoebox and weighing just 3.5 pounds, NavCube3-mini is a compact but powerful navigation receiver designed to use signals from Earth-based GPS and Galileo Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) at lunar distances. Operating on less than 20 watts of power, roughly the same as a laptop computer, it can determine a spacecraft’s precise position far beyond Earth orbit. The compact payload builds on a series of navigation technology advancements developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, each extending GPS navigation to new record-breaking distances from Earth.

NavCube3-mini in the Space Navigation Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., prior to delivery to Intuitive Machines for integration into the Altus-1 lunar relay satellite.

NASA/Dave Ryan

The payload will fly aboard Intuitive Machines’ Altus-1 lunar relay satellite, the first of a planned network of lunar relay satellites being developed under the company’s Near Space Network Services contract with NASA. The relays will provide communications and navigation support for missions operating at the Moon, including the challenging lunar South Pole region, where Artemis astronauts will land in 2028, and where direct communications with Earth can be difficult. By extending communications coverage and improving navigation services, the relay network will help realize NASA’s vision for a sustained human presence on the lunar surface. 

Before being shipped to Intuitive Machines, NavCube3-mini underwent an extensive environmental and performance test campaign at NASA Goddard to verify it is ready for spaceflight. The environmental testing included vibration testing to simulate launch conditions, thermal vacuum testing in the extreme temperatures and vacuum of space, and electromagnetic compatibility testing to ensure the payload can operate reliably alongside other spacecraft systems without causing or experiencing electromagnetic interference. Performance testing was conducted before and after each environmental test using high-fidelity simulations of the GPS and Galileo signals the NavCube will encounter in lunar orbit, verifying functionality and performance throughout the testing campaign. 

Munther Hassouneh, the NavCube3-mini project manager, in the Space Navigation Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

NASA/Dave Ryan

NavCube3-mini will serve as a key technology demonstration aboard Altus-1, validating the use of GNSS-based navigation in the lunar region and providing valuable performance data to support the development of future lunar navigation infrastructure. This technology is part of NASA’s broader strategy to develop communications and navigation services that work across both commercial providers and NASA’s networks. These capabilities are designed to support a growing lunar ecosystem that includes orbiters, landers, rovers, and, eventually, astronauts living and working on the Moon.

The delivery of NavCube3-mini marks another step toward building the communications and navigation infrastructure needed for long-term lunar exploration. Through partnerships with commercial providers like Intuitive Machines, NASA is building a more connected and capable lunar environment. As activity around the Moon continues to grow, these capabilities will enable lunar spacecraft and explorers to operate more safely, efficiently, and autonomously. 

Source: NASA Delivers Navigation System for Commercial Lunar Relay - NASA

Gut Jet Lag: How Trans-Meridian Travel Disrupts Athletes’ Internal Clocks and Microbiomes

What does rapid long-distance travel actually do to the body’s internal clock and gut bacteria, and can any of it be managed?

Two clocks, one disruption
The body runs on a central circadian clock in the brain’s suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is set primarily by light exposure. But the gut has its own daily rhythms too, governed by feeding and fasting cycles and a local molecular clock in the intestinal lining. Normally these two systems stay in sync. Rapid time-zone travel throws that synchrony off, producing what researchers are increasingly calling “gut jet lag”, a state where the internal body clock and the gut’s own rhythm fall out of step with each other and with local time.

East is harder than west
Because the human body’s natural clock runs slightly longer than 24 hours, adjusting to travel that delays the schedule (westward flights) tends to be easier than adjusting to travel that advances it (eastward flights). The review cites real performance data to back this up: NBA teams playing on the East Coast shortly after flying from the West Coast saw win percentages drop by about 6%, alongside worse shooting accuracy. Major League Baseball showed a similar pattern, with eastward travel linked to reduced home-team offensive output. An 11-year analysis of Super Rugby travel found measurable declines in performance indicators after roughly 24 hours of eastward long-haul travel across 12 time zones, even after accounting for team ranking and other confounding factors.

What actually shifts in the gut
Beyond circadian misalignment itself, travel brings a cluster of secondary stressors, dehydration, disrupted meal timing, higher intake of processed food, and psychological stress, that independently reshape gut bacteria. The review points to a study of international travelers where gut microbial diversity dropped in 61% of participants, with a rise in E. coli abundance and new colonization by Klebsiella and Shigella strains. Separately, a study comparing airline pilots to fitness instructors found pilots had meaningfully lower levels of beneficial bacteria like Akkermansia muciniphila and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, species linked to gut barrier integrity and short-chain fatty acid production.

Why gut bacteria matter for performance
Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like acetate, propionate, and butyrate, produced when gut bacteria ferment fiber, aren’t just digestive byproducts. In animal studies, these compounds get taken up directly by skeletal muscle and used as fuel, activate a key metabolic enzyme (AMPK) that boosts glucose uptake and fat oxidation, and support glycogen storage and insulin signaling in muscle tissue. Germ-free mice, lacking gut bacteria entirely, show reduced muscle mass, lower glycogen stores, and impaired endurance, effects that are reversible once the microbiota is restored. The authors are careful to flag that most of this mechanistic evidence comes from animal models, with direct human athletic data still limited.

What might help
The review lays out evidence-informed (not yet gold-standard) strategies for athletes: timed light exposure to reset the central clock faster, chrononutrition (aligning meal timing with the destination time zone to help entrain peripheral clocks), and targeted probiotic or prebiotic supplementation aimed at restoring SCFA-producing bacteria. One small proof-of-concept trial cited in the review found a multi-strain Lactobacillus intervention improved self-reported sleep quality by up to 69% and energy levels by 31% in elite athletes, though the authors note this is based on a small cohort and needs replication.

The caveat that matters
This is a narrative review, not a systematic one, and the authors are upfront that a lot of the mechanistic story is built on animal and non-athlete human data. Whether the same effects hold up cleanly in elite athletes under real competition conditions is still an open question. But with a World Cup spanning six time zones on the calendar, it’s a timely reminder that recovery planning for major tournaments may need to think about the gut as seriously as it thinks about sleep.

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Source

·         Biliński, K.; Wiśniewski, K.; Rafner, L.; Witko, P.; Gaweł-Dąbrowska, D. “Travel-Induced Circadian and Microbiota Disturbances: Implications for Athlete Health and Performance: A Narrative Review.” Nutrients 2026, 18(10), 1523. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18101523

Source: Gut Jet Lag: How Trans-Meridian Travel Disrupts Athletes’ Internal Clocks and Microbiomes