[NASA] NASA Successfully Acquires GPS Signals on Moon

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NASA Successfully Acquires GPS Signals on Moon 

An artist's concept of the Blue Ghost lunar lander receiving GNSS signals from Earth.

Credits: NASA/Dave Ryan

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.  

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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 (

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. “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.  

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Kevin Coggins

Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA SCaN

The road to the historic milestone began on March 2 when the

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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

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in Greenbelt, Maryland, began conducting their first science operation on the lunar surface.

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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

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. 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

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. 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.  

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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

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Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and the

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. 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: 

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The joint NASA and Italian Space Agency LuGRE team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA

About the Author

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Katherine Schauer is a writer for the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program office and covers emerging technologies, commercialization efforts, exploration activities, and more.