NASA and the Italian Space Agency made history by successfully tracking GNSS signals on the Moon, proving that Earth-based navigation can extend into deep space.
This technology could revolutionize lunar exploration, allowing spacecraft to determine their position autonomously.
LuGRE Makes History with Lunar Navigation Breakthrough
NASA and the Italian Space Agency achieved a historic milestone on March 3 when the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) became the first technology demonstration to detect and track Earth-based navigation signals on the Moon’s surface.
LuGRE’s success in both lunar orbit and on the surface confirms that signals from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) can be received and utilized at the Moon. This breakthrough could enable future missions, including NASA’s Artemis program, to autonomously determine their position, velocity, and time with greater accuracy. It also lays the groundwork for more advanced navigation systems on both the Moon and Mars.
Exciting Implications for Future Artemis Missions
“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
A Milestone Landing: The Journey to the Moon
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.
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?
First Lunar GNSS Navigation Fix: A Historic First
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.
Breaking Records Beyond Earth’s Orbit
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.
Autonomous Space Navigation: A New Era for NASA Missions
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 Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) is a groundbreaking navigation technology demonstration developed through a collaboration between NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the Italian Space Agency (ASI), Qascom, and Politecnico di Torino. Overseen and funded by NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program, LuGRE was selected as one of 10 research and technology payloads delivered to the Moon by Firefly Aerospace Inc. as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
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