Fri, Jul 19, 2019
Driven By Dozens Of Lunar Missions Planned For The Coming Decades
Dozens of very different commercial and institutional missions to the Moon are planned for the coming decades.
These encompass everything from NASA’s manned Lunar Gateway research station and cubesats from start-ups and universities to commercial landers carrying rovers. The heightened interest in going to the Moon shows that there could be a market in providing satellite communications beyond Earth.
All the proposed missions share similar communications and navigation needs that could be satisfied by a commercial service provider.
A supporting lunar communications and navigation infrastructure would enable these missions to be designed more cost-effectively. Furthermore, such an infrastructure would have an enabling role as it would stimulate more research and commercial private ventures on the Moon.
ESA is assessing a related commercial partnership and running several studies together with industrial partners to evaluate how such a lunar communications and navigation infrastructure could be setup and benefit lunar exploration and exploitation.
The agency is also planning to contribute communication capabilities to the Lunar Gateway, which is due to be deployed in the 2020s. “Satellite communications can play an important role in supporting space exploration beyond Earth, building on over 50 years of experience in commercial telecommunications around the globe, both from the technological and from the financial and business viewpoint,” says David Gomez Otero who works on ESA’s program of Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES).
"Communication and navigations is a critical and strategic capability for sustained lunar exploration," said Bernhard Hufenbach, who leads the strategy and innovation team in ESA’s human and robotic exploration program. “Demand for communication services will not only be driven by the mission critical functions, but also to engage the public in future missions and deliver a virtual lunar experience.
“As the anticipated demand for lunar communication and navigation services is growing, new business models may become viable allowing private investments in the establishment and operations of the infrastructure.”
(Image provided with ESA news release)
More News
Also: Vertical Flight Society, NBAA Maintenance Conference, GA Honored, AMT Scholarship For the first time, students from Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach, Florida, campus took t>[...]
Hazardous Weather Information Summary of significant meteorological information (SIGMET/WS), convective significant meteorological information (convective SIGMET/WST), urgent pilot>[...]
"The need for innovation at speed and scale is greater than ever. The X-62A VISTA is a crucial platform in our efforts to develop, test and integrate AI, as well as to establish AI>[...]
(FAA) Inspector Observed That Both Fuel Tanks Were Intact And That Only A Minimal Amount Of Fuel Remained In Each Analysis: According to the pilot, approximately 8 miles from the d>[...]
“Pyka’s Pelican Cargo is unlike any other UAS solution on the market for contested logistics. We assessed a number of leading capabilities and concluded that the Pelica>[...]