Category Archives: Lunar Communications

Friday / 10 Feb 2023

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Capstone Lunar Orbit Pathfinder Team Attempting to Establish 2-Way Communication / Navigation Link with LRO

Led by Advanced Space, Capstone mission on 13th orbit of Moon, will soon exceed 3 months in 1,500 x 75,000-km near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), the intended path of Lunar Gateway human waystation (launching NET Nov 2024); The Terran Orbital-built 6U CubeSat has ~56% fuel (120 m/s ΔV) remaining, on track to surpass 6-month goal in orbit following 11-day command loss / recovery; Team working to validate spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation tech demonstration Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System with LRO, and attempt stand-alone navigation with Chip Scale Atomic Clock measurement of DSN radio signal

Pictured: Advanced Space CEO Bradley Cheetham; Credits: Advanced Space, NASA, Terran Orbital

Tuesday / 29 Nov 2022

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Japan Focuses on Moon with OMOTENASHI and EQUULEUS in Cislunar Space, ispace M1 Launching to Luna Surface

Despite 6U CubeSat OMOTENASHI ‘semi-hard impact’ failure, JAXA team led by Tatsuaki Hashimoto still working to reestablish communications and carry out testing in lunar orbit around March, at which time solar panels will be oriented towards Sun; Meanwhile fellow Artemis rideshare EQUULEUS, powered by 6-water thruster AQUARIUS propulsion system, on 18-month route to Earth-Moon L2 following 5,550-km lunar flyby / imaging; ispace expected to launch Hakuto-R lander via SpaceX F9 on Nov 30 with landing within Mare Frigoris (56°N, 1.4°E) in April-May 2023

 Credits: NASA, JAXA

Friday / 28 Oct 2022

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Quantum Space Announces October 2024 Mission QS-1 to Earth-Moon-Lagrange Points 1 and 2 with Cislunar Superhighway Ambitions

NewSpace enterprise Quantum Space working toward self-funded launch of 400-kg satellite to collect space situational awareness data in cislunar space over 3-year mission; Main visible imager payload will be provided by GEOST, spacecraft bus to be built by Blue Canyon which will carry commercial customer payloads; Co-founded by Kam Ghaffarin (L), who also is Founder of IBX, Executive Chair at X-energy, Intuitive Machines & Axiom Space; QS-1 to utilize commercial deep space ground stations, modular cislunar communication / servicing waystations to follow

Also Pictured: Quantum Space CEO Steve Jurczyk, CTO Ben Reed;
Credits: NASA, X-Energy, IAF, Quantum Space
 

Tuesday / 4 Oct 2022

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Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) Bolstering Global Ground Station Network Ahead of Lunar Mission Demands

Ka-band (26 GHz) deep space communication facilities in Chile and Australia to be added to SSC 10-station grid including Esrange (Sweden, 68°N), Inuvik (Canada, 68°N) Siracha (Thailand, 13°N), Clewiston (Florida, 26°N) South Point ‘Pete Conrad’ Ground Station (Hawaiʻi, 19°N), WASC (Australia, 29°S) and Santiago (Chile, 33°S); SSC to provide service for CLPS providers Astrobotic and Firefly during upcoming Peregrine (NET Q4 2022) and Blue Ghost (NET 2024) landing missions; SSC partnering with CNES, Safran Data Systems of France on new antenna systems and support

Pictured: SSC CEO Stefan Gardefjord, CNES Director of Strategy Jean-Marc Astorg; Credits: SSC, Twitter

Wednesday / 27 July 2022

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Galaxy Forum Southeast Asia (GFSEA), Singapore Considers Lunar Commercial Communications, Pan Asia Astro Cooperation

GFSEA engaging regional astronomical / astronautical space leaders in dialogue at iconic ArtScience Museum 27 July on 3 themes: Considerations for Southeast Asia Space Agency (SEASA), Asia Astronomy Organization (AAO) modeled on European Southern Observatories, and Lunar Commercial Communications (LCC) – expanding commercial communications by 1,240x; Moderated by Singapore Space and Technology Limited President Jon Hung, LCC panel includes International Lunar Observatory Association Hawaii Director Steve Durst, Qosmosys CEO Francois Dubrulle, Transcelestial Technologies Engineer Jan Smisek; ILOA ILO-X precursor NET 22 Dec 2022, ILO-1 flagship NET 2024 missions for astronomy, observations and communications from the Moon

Credits: ILOA, NASA, CSYS, Twitter, Linkedin

Tuesday / 5 July 2022

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CAPSTONE Begins 4-Month Ballistic Lunar Transfer to Unique Moon Orbit

US$32.7M Capstone now being controlled from Advanced Space HQ in Colorado as it navigates 1,300,000km from Earth, utilizing Sun gravity and 8-thruster propulsion system (built by Stellar Exploration) before reaching Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit with apolune 70,000km from MSP, perilune 1,600km from MNP; Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck heralds “perfect Moon mission success” following 28 June launch to LEO on Rocket Lab Electron / 7 raising maneuvers via Lunar Photon interplanetary stage, culminating in translunar injection from 70,000km above Iberian Peninsula

Credits: Rocket Lab, Advanced Space, NASA

Friday / 18 March 2022

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KSAT Upgrading Ground Station Network in Anticipation of Growing Lunar Commercial Communication Needs

Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) VP Arnulf Kjeldsen tells SpaceNews in light of CLPS demand “Supporting lunar communications is a natural next step” for KSAT, a partnership between Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace and the Norwegian Space Centre which operates one of the most used Earth station networks for LEO, MEO, GEO and SSO communication – 23 sites with 200+ antennas around the world including flagship Svalbard Satellite Station at 78.2297°N; New lunar-class array will be spread across at least 3 sites and feature 20-m antennas

 

Credits: KSAT, NASA

Wednesday / 23 February 2022

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JAXA-led Consortium Contracts with Ark Edge Space to Develop Cislunar Communication / Positioning Plan

Artemis member Japan advancing lunar network concept with Tokyo-based company Ark Edge Space, recently capitalized with US$3.5M seed investment, conducting study of lunar satellite constellation linked to Earth; Managed by JAXA with industry (Kiyohara Optical, ispace, KDDI Corp, Mitsubishi) and academic (University of Tokyo) partners, effort is part of ministerial STARDUST (Strategic Programs for Accelerating Research, Development and Utilization of Space Technology) initiative; ESA Moonlight, UK / SSTL Lunar Pathfinder, NASA LunaNet, IM Lunar Telemetry and Tracking Network striving to achieve similar functionality

Pictured: Takayoshi Fukuyo (L), Shuhei Matsushita (R)
Credits: NASA, JAXA, Ark Edge Space
 

Tuesday / 1 February 2022

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JPL Working Towards Blanket Communications Coverage of Lunar Surface with Commercial Partner

Recognizing communication needs of 90+ lunar missions under consideration for NLT 2030, Alessandro Balossino, Head of R&D for Italy microsatellite manufacturer Argotec and Faramarz Davarian, JPL Lunar Surface Communications Terminal Project Manager co-author announcement of Andromeda lunar constellation plan in which 24 relay satellites are to operate from 4 elliptical (720km periapsis, 8,090km apoapsis) 57° inclined orbits providing overlapping coverage of Moon poles; Lunar Crater Radio Telescope and Farside Array for Radio Science Investigations of the Dark ages and Exoplanets are primary science use cases

 

Credits: Argotec, SASAC, NASA

Friday / 5 November 2021

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SpaceFund Backing Cislunar Navigation System for Autonomous Craft from Rhea Space NET 2024

Jervis Autonomous Module (JAM) is planned module for self-flying space vehicles with communication / navigation capabilities beyond range of GNSS and without constraints inherent to deep space network; System to be built by Rhea Space Activity with venture capital backing of SpaceFund, led by (R-L) Rick Tumlinson and Meagan Crawford; JAM to utilize Lunar Intelligence (LUNINT) software tool, recipient of Phase 1 and 2 SBIR grants (US$50k and $697k) with development in conjunction with Purdue University and Saber Astronautics

Credits: SpaceFund, RSA