नवीनतम
NASA to demo autonomous navigation system on Moon
NEW DELHI [Maha Media]: Intuitive Machines' IM-1 mission will carry multiple payloads to the Moon, including a NASA experiment that could change the way astronauts, rovers, and spacecraft independently track their precise location on the Moon and in the space around it, called cis-lunar space.
The groundbreaking experiment, called Lunar Node-1 (LN-1), will demonstrate autonomous navigation via radio beacon to support precise geolocation and navigation among lunar orbiters, landers, and surface personnel.
Currently, navigation beyond Earth relies on point-to-point services provided by NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), which provides point-to-point communication, sending positioning data to spacecraft traversing interplanetary space to ensure they remain on their intended path. These measurements typically are relayed back to Earth, where they are processed and then sent back to the spacecraft to guide its journey.
LN-1 relies on networked computer navigation software called Multi-spacecraft Autonomous Positioning System (MAPS). Developed by Anzalone and researchers at NASA Marshall, MAPS was successfully tested on the International Space Station in 2018 using the agency's Space Communications and Navigation testbed.
"Imagine getting verification from a lighthouse on the shore you're approaching, rather than waiting on word from the home port you left days earlier. What we seek to deliver is a lunar network of lighthouses, offering sustainable, localized navigation assets that enable lunar craft and ground crews to quickly and accurately confirm their position instead of relying on Earth," said Evan Anzalone, principal investigator of LN-1 and a navigation systems engineer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
LN-1 is one of six payloads included in the NASA delivery manifest for Intuitive Machines. Intuitive Machines' IM-1 mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 39A at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Wednesday, Feb. 14.
The IM-1 lunar lander, Nova-C, is scheduled to touch down near Malapert A, a lunar impact crater in the Moon's South Pole region, on February 22.
