Reverse-Ephemeris Lunar Navigation System for Long-Distance Route Determination

Achieve lunar navigation to enable hopping, mining, and construction activities for position and long-distance route determination. Balance cost versus performance by allocating complexity between the space and lunar surface segments. Current state of practice is a sensor fusion of inertial, visual, and celestial navigation systems. Other proposed approaches incorporate lunar beacons, stereo cameras, and orbital imaging sensors. Deploying and maintaining a GPS-like satellite navigation system around the Moon would be cost prohibitive, at least in the short term. The sensor fusion approach is complicated and provides accuracies on the order of 10 meters. The method calculates position fixes using range and range rate measurements from a single object in lunar orbit. Each range and range rate measurement defines a 3-D surface in space on which the radar or lidar system must lie. The intersection of a lunar shape reference ellipsoid with the two surfaces gives two positions on the lunar surface, one of which can be eliminated by previous knowledge or measurements of another orbiting object. The approach is new in that we turn around the process of using surface based observations to establish the Keplarian elements of an orbiting object and use the object’s ephemeris to establish the location of the surface observer. The method was awarded a U.S. Patent in 2019.

Deploying and maintaining a GPS-like satellite navigation system around the Moon would be cost prohibitive, at least in the short term. The sensor fusion approach is complicated and provides accuracies on the order of 10 meters.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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