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A COMMUNICATIONS AND PNT INTEGRATED NETWORK

INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE MOON VILLAGE

Pietro Giordano(1), Marco Lisi(1), Andrea Modenini(1),José A. del Peral-Rosado(2)

(1)European Space Agency - European Space Research Technology Centre (ESTEC)(2) Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

NAVITEC workshop 2016, ESTEC, 16/12/2016

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Summary

• The exploration of Moon and Mars with human and robotic missions and their colonization, through the establishment of permanent bases, will require planetary communications and navigation infrastructures;

• All architectural approaches considered so far by NASA and ESA can be divided in two main categories:

Comprehensive, well structured and forward looking (but costly) architectures, based on constellations of orbiters and relay satellites

“ad hoc”, flexible, expandable architectures, based on a fusion of all available resources and on COTS technologies

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Moon Village

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Moon Village

“Moon Village is not a single project, nor a fixed plan with a defined time table. It’s a vision for an open architecture and an international community initiative.”

From the ESA Ministerial Council 2016 minisite

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GNSS Beyond Earth Orbit

• GPS signals effective up to the Earth-Moon 1st Lagrange Point (L1)

322,000 km from Earth Approximately 4/5 the distance to the Moon

• GPS signals can be tracked to the surface of the Moon, but usable with advanced GPS receiver technology

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Past ESA Activities: PLANCOM (1/2)

• PLANCOM: ESA Feasibility Study for a Reduced Planetary Navigation & Communication System

• Planetary infrastructure for future robotic and manned missions on Moon or Mars;

• Communication and navigation network using an integrated signal to provide in-situ services, such as high-quality video, audio channels, data network, biomedical data;

• Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) signal based on the IEEE 802.16 WiMAX standard;

• Navigation capabilities integrated in the waveform, allowing Time of Arrival (TOA) relative real-time positioning over the planetary surface;

• Non real-time fine positioning using available orbiters, possibly using Earth GNSS signals as additional ranging observables.

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Past ESA Activities: PLANCOM (2/2)

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Past ESA Activities: PLANCOM (2/2)

“In the timeframe considered by this study it is possible that WiMAX will have been replaced by other technologies offering similar capabilities.”

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Past ESA Activities: Moon-GNSS (1/2)

• MOON-GNSS: ESA Study about Use of Weak-Signals GNSS Navigation;

• Objective: to assess the feasibility of using weak-signal GNSS (GPS/Galileo) technology in future lunar missions, to assist Lunar Transfer Orbit (LTO), Low Lunar Orbit (LLO), Descent and Landing, and operations at landing site.

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Past ESA Activities: Moon-GNSS (2/2)

• EGNSS: Earth GNSS constellations (GPS/Galileo)• MGNSS: GNSS satellite orbiting around the Moon• MSB: Moon Surface Beacon

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Backhauling to Earth: Moon Orbiter Option

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Backhauling to Earth: Optical Link Option

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Lunar 5G Network Design Steps

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Antenna for Earth GNSS

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Moon Navigation & Communications Infrastructure: Modular, Expandable, COTS-Based Approach

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Moon Navigation & Communications Infrastructure: Modular, Expandable, COTS-Based Approach

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Moon Navigation & Communications Infrastructure: Modular, Expandable, COTS-Based Approach

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Conclusion

• The colonization of our solar system, first step of human kind towards the stars, will need establishing permanent base stations on Moon and Mars;

• Planetary infrastructures will provide communications and navigation support to both human and robotic explorers;

• The approach presented relies on the use of COTS components for communication and navigation on the Moon surface;

• The use of LTE technology, currently deployed on Earth, and of the forthcoming 5G technology will allow communication and navigation on the Moon, largely satisfying the requirements for performance, reliability, affordability and sustainability (being based on commercial technology and incrementally expandable over time).

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THANK YOU.Questions?