NASA and the Italian Space Agency say they have broken the record for the farthest detection of Earth-based navigation signals from 243,000 miles away in space.
The test was among 10 experiments the U.S. space agency sent aboard the Blue Ghost moon lander, a private spacecraft built by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace. The uncrewed robotic lander softly touched down on the moon on March 2. A few hours after that landing, the receiver picked up and tracked signals again from the lunar surface — a first-time achievement.
Called Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment, or LuGRE, the demonstration has proven that a spacecraft on the moon or flying in lunar orbit could detect GPS and other navigation signals from Earth. This breakthrough could make future Artemis missions easier, allowing spaceships carrying astronauts to independently determine their location and speed as they approach the moon.
“This is a very exciting discovery for lunar navigation,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation Program, in a statement, “and we hope to leverage this capability for future missions.”
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