NASA has successfully demonstrated the ability to receive and track Earth-based navigation signals on the lunar surface, a historic milestone that paves the way for advanced navigation systems in space. The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) payload, carried by Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander, achieved this feat on March 3.
The LuGRE payload successfully acquired and tracked GPS and Galileo signals from Earth-based navigation systems, approximately 225,000 miles away from our planet. This achievement demonstrates the potential for autonomous navigation in lunar missions, reducing reliance on human operators.
This breakthrough has significant implications for NASA’s Artemis missions and future exploration of Mars. The LuGRE payload is a collaborative effort between NASA, the Italian Space Agency, Qascom, and Politecnico di Torino, with funding from NASA’s SCaN Program office.
The successful navigation fix came after a 14-day mission on the lunar surface, providing data for further GNSS milestones. This record-breaking achievement marks a significant milestone in the development of space navigation systems and services for the Moon and beyond.
LuGRE also broke records on its journey to the Moon, surpassing previous altitude signals acquisition and reaching the highest point ever recorded by NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission at 243,000 miles from Earth.
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/somd/space-communications-navigation-program/nasa-successfully-acquires-gps-signals-on-moon