Positioning, Navigation and Timing for Planetary Exploration and Colonization: to the Moon and Beyond

• Published in: GEOmedia Vol. 24; no. 3
• Main Author: Marco Lisi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: mediaGEO soc. coop 01-09-2020
• Subjects: GNSS; infrastructure; Moon; navigation; Positioning; timing
• ISSN: 1128-8132; 2283-5687
• DOI: 10.48258/geo.v1i3.1728

With the Artemis program, NASA plans to collaborate with commercial and international partners to land in 2024 human beings on the Moon and then to establish a permanent "base camp” by the end of the decade. Challenges ahead are numerous: the Moon "base camp” will have to meet very stringent requirements in terms of operations, logistics, and safety of life; moreover, a permanent base on the Moon will have to be affordable and sustainable, i.e., its cost will need to be assessed over its life-cycle, under a long term technical, economic, and political perspective. The exploration of the Moon with human and robotic missions and its colonization, through the establishment of a permanent base, will require many vital supporting infrastructures, such as communication networks and positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems.