If you’ve ever taken a wrong turn in the Sea of Tranquility and ended up in the Ocean of Storms, you’re in luck, because the Moon is getting a GPS, a sort of GPS. GMV, a Spanish-owned business group with extensive experience in the space sector, has announced the creation of a GPS-like navigation system for the Moon.
The ambitious project, called LUPIN, aims to help astronauts, industrialists, and even future settlers navigate the lunar surface more easily. In a press release about LUPIN, GMV explains part of the problem with current lunar navigation systems. “Existing communications also depend on line-of-sight to Earth or on the use of lunar orbiting relay satellites. These factors create shadow communication zones and delay times, which makes it difficult to make immediate decisions,” the company said.
GMV is developing LUPIN in conjunction with the European Space Agency, a working partnership that dates back to GMV’s first government contract in 1984. The technology uses existing lunar-orbiting satellites and GPS-like signals to help rovers and astronauts determine their exact location on the lunar surface in real time.
“These are satellite signals that will be used in the same way that GPS signals are used on Earth, although in this case the satellites will be in orbit around the Moon. This system will also be tailored to specific areas of interest (e.g., the lunar south pole, the far side of the moon, and permanently shadowed regions),” the company added.
In a statement to Reuters, project director Steven Kay said: “With this software, we are bringing Europe closer to establishing a human presence on the moon and potentially this could be a stepping stone to Mars exploration or human presence on Mars.”
Engadget has reached out to GMV with questions about LUPIN’s accuracy, the technology behind it, and the deployment roadmap. We will update this article when we receive a response.
