NASA Receives First GPS Signal on the Moon

NASA and the Italian Space Agency have achieved a groundbreaking milestone by receiving the first GPS signal on the Moon. This historic feat was made possible by the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), which successfully acquired and tracked Earth-based navigation signals on the Moon’s surface on March 3.

This achievement has significant implications for future space missions, particularly NASA’s Artemis program. By leveraging these GPS signals, spacecraft can achieve autonomous positioning, velocity, and timekeeping, paving the way for advanced lunar and Martian navigation systems.

The LuGRE payload is a collaborative effort between NASA and the Italian Space Agency, with the goal of demonstrating GNSS-based spacecraft navigation in transit to the Moon and on the lunar surface .This technology has the potential to revolutionize space exploration, enabling more precise and efficient navigation.

As Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s SCAN Program, noted, “On Earth, we can use GNSS signals to navigate everything from smartphones to airplanes.” This achievement marks a significant step forward in extending GNSS capabilities to the Moon and beyond.