The Moonlight mission involves using a Lunar Pathfinder satellite to expand satellite navigation signals to the Moon. (Image Credit: ESA)
The first time I heard the idea of a Moon-based navigation was from the manga Uchuu Kyoudai (Space Brothers). In the story, two characters fall into a crater while driving around the Moon. They had no idea it was there! One character died, the other barely survived.. but his brother developed a lunar GPS/navigation system sometime after. I thought it was an amazing idea for when humans return to the Moon.
Side note: Uchuu Kyoudai is a great manga and anime and is now a live-action movie too. It is steeped in the realism of becoming an astronaut. Praised by JAXA. If you think coming up with solutions to common space based problems sounds exciting and fun, this is your show. Obviously, I think so. Story is ongoing!
That said…
The ESA started developing Moonlight, a moon-orbit satellite constellation that provides navigation and telecommunication services to lunar astronauts. If plans are successful, the system could be up and running toward the late 2020s, a few years following NASA’s Artemis 3 mission near the Moon’s South Pole. The ESA believes that Moonlight makes it more accessible and affordable for a lunar economy to flourish.
"Having a navigation and telecommunication network to relay what we learn on the moon back to Earth will be key for sustainability of future missions," Elodie Viau, ESA's director of telecommunications and integrated applications, said in the news conference. "You can imagine astronomers setting up observatories on the far side of the Moon. And as we have all now become accustomed to virtual meetings, who knows? We could be doing Skype on the Moon."
For starters, the ESA granted contracts to two European industrial consortia for a year and a half study on this project and to come up with an innovation that the ESA selects. As it stands now, a lunar mission utilizes a network of large Earth-based deep-space antennas to monitor and locate an orbiter or a lander. However, this technique is often time-consuming and costly.
"The idea is that this could be one of the projects that we take to the council of ESA member states in 2022 and propose for implementation," David Parker, ESA's director of human and robotic exploration, said in the news conference. "If that was the way forward, the project could start full steam ahead at the beginning of 2023, to ensure its operations within four or five years."
The precise positioning isn’t comparable with what the Earth provides, which is between 0.3 and 3 miles. Comparatively, the US’ GPS is between 1 and 16 feet. Additionally, landers must mount a 40-kilogram navigation subsystem that processes the data and measures the distance for a safe landing. A lunar navigation satellite means that a lunar only needs to carry a receiver and an altimeter.
The ESA wants to start by taking advantage of the Earth-orbiting navigational satellites. Currently, three other global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), Europe’s Galileo, Russia’s Glonass, and China’s Beidon, could provide data to lunar vehicles. The Lunar Pathfinder mission aims to test the GNSS receiver in moon-orbit. Developed by the UK-based Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL), the satellite is set to launch in 2024. SSTL leads one of the consortia to create the new constellation proposal. Italy’s Telespaznio leads the other one.
"These signals are sent by satellites to Earth, but they also bypass Earth and go further into space," said Verhoef. "We can combine the use of those signals in a receiver in order to determine the position of a vehicle on the moon."
The plan is to have three or four satellites in the lunar navigation constellation. More satellites could be added to improve communications. Meanwhile, the private sector, which sells the service to customers and the agency, is expected to run the constellation.
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