About this Research Topic
As we prepare for the next era of human exploration on the Moon, the need for robust navigation and communication systems becomes increasingly critical.
According to the Global Exploration Roadmap, published by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) [1], many commercial and institutional missions will pave the way for a long-term presence on the Earth’s satellite. They share similar communications and navigation requirements that will be satisfied by new and robust architectures, already planned by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) [2,3]. Moreover, a smooth transition to Lunar-based navigation will be also complemented by testing the reliability of Earth-based GNSS along transit orbits and on the Lunar surface [4].
The expected pivotal growth toward Lunar exploration opens up many possibilities for cutting-edge research and this special issue on Navigation and communication technologies for the new era of Lunar space missions of Frontiers in Space Technologies aims at bringing together scholars contributions to discuss and explore the latest advancements in navigation and communication technologies for the Moon.
The call for papers covers topics such as:
• Lunar mission orbit determination and time transfer
• Localization and tracking,
• GNSS-based or GNSS-inspired technologies
• Optical and radio frequency communication systems
• Technologies for the study of the Lunar environment,
• Network architectures for Lunar transit and surface communications,
• Integrated positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) and communication networks
• PNT and communication technologies that fits the new Lunar economy
This special issue aims at collecting high-quality contributions from researchers, engineers, and scientists in the fields of space exploration, navigation, and communication systems. It will allow to gather insights on the unique challenges and opportunities presented by the Lunar environment and learn about the latest technological solutions to overcome these challenges.
References:
[1] International Space Exploration Coordination Group, ISECG, “The Global Exploration
Roadmap,” International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG), Tech. Rep., 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/about/isec.
[2] Israel D., “A LunaNet Implementation Approach”, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Space Operations, SpaceOps 2021, May 2021.
[3] Schönfeldt, M., Grenier, A., Delépaut, A., Swinden, R., Giordano, P., and Ventura-Traveset, J., “Across the Lunar Landscape Towards a Dedicated Lunar PNT System”, InsideGNSS, November/December 2020.
[4] J. J. K. Parker et al., “The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE)”, Proceedings of the 2022 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, January 2022, pp. 420–437. doi: 10.33012/2022.18199.
According to the Global Exploration Roadmap, published by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) [1], many commercial and institutional missions will pave the way for a long-term presence on the Earth’s satellite. They share similar communications and navigation requirements that will be satisfied by new and robust architectures, already planned by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) [2,3]. Moreover, a smooth transition to Lunar-based navigation will be also complemented by testing the reliability of Earth-based GNSS along transit orbits and on the Lunar surface [4].
The expected pivotal growth toward Lunar exploration opens up many possibilities for cutting-edge research and this special issue on Navigation and communication technologies for the new era of Lunar space missions of Frontiers in Space Technologies aims at bringing together scholars contributions to discuss and explore the latest advancements in navigation and communication technologies for the Moon.
The call for papers covers topics such as:
• Lunar mission orbit determination and time transfer
• Localization and tracking,
• GNSS-based or GNSS-inspired technologies
• Optical and radio frequency communication systems
• Technologies for the study of the Lunar environment,
• Network architectures for Lunar transit and surface communications,
• Integrated positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) and communication networks
• PNT and communication technologies that fits the new Lunar economy
This special issue aims at collecting high-quality contributions from researchers, engineers, and scientists in the fields of space exploration, navigation, and communication systems. It will allow to gather insights on the unique challenges and opportunities presented by the Lunar environment and learn about the latest technological solutions to overcome these challenges.
References:
[1] International Space Exploration Coordination Group, ISECG, “The Global Exploration
Roadmap,” International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG), Tech. Rep., 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/about/isec.
[2] Israel D., “A LunaNet Implementation Approach”, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Space Operations, SpaceOps 2021, May 2021.
[3] Schönfeldt, M., Grenier, A., Delépaut, A., Swinden, R., Giordano, P., and Ventura-Traveset, J., “Across the Lunar Landscape Towards a Dedicated Lunar PNT System”, InsideGNSS, November/December 2020.
[4] J. J. K. Parker et al., “The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE)”, Proceedings of the 2022 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, January 2022, pp. 420–437. doi: 10.33012/2022.18199.
Keywords: human exploration, Moon navigation, communication systems, Global Exploration Roadmap, commercial and institutional missions, Earth-based GNSS, Lunar-based navigation
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
