On October 30, Beijing time, according to the US space news website, when the next generation of astronauts landed on the surface of the moon,It is likely that in 2024, NASA plans to use the Lunar Global Positioning System to help astronauts complete their positioning operations.
Such a lunar positioning system can avoid the problem of navigation that puzzled Apollo astronauts in the 1960s and 1970s. As we all know, it is difficult to navigate on the surface of the moon, because it is difficult to distinguish the distance and size of lunar landmarks by human eyes alone. Unlike the earth, the moon has no atmosphere to soften the moon's horizontal line.
Apollo astronauts sometimes encounter difficulties in determining the distance of craters, which are based on images of the probe's high-altitude orbit and marked on maps, such as:Apollo 14 astronauts, who are expected to reach a crater site only 30 meters away, differ in actual distance.
So, in view of NASA's renewed focus on the manned lunar mission, the agency is developing a special receiver that can receive all GPS positioning signals from the lunar orbit, and the GPS relies on 24-32 artificial satellites that operate over the earth, which is a popular positioning tool, The field of application is from the tracking device to the vehicle navigation system, which has completely penetrated the modern life of people.
If all goes according to plan, NASA will build a lunar receiver capable of receiving signals from GPS satellites around the earth's orbit, which will support navigation operations and ground communications of NASA's Orion spacecraft and the lunar deep space portal space station (NASA plans to build).
NASA said in a statement thatThe GPS system consists of three parts: a satellite, a ground signal station, and a receiving system, like a GPS system in a smartphone and a car, capable of continuously receiving a signal from a satellite, and at the same time, The receiver determines the position by calculating the distance between it and four or more satellites.
The lunar GPS is not on the street. The spacecraft may soon be equipped with advanced GPS receivers that can accurately map data and help astronauts locate on the earth, the moon and the vast universe.
In recent decades, NASA has realized the near-moon orbit navigation communication of several spaceships, but the positioning data comes from NASA communication network. GPS can support multiple artificial satellites and obtain valuable bandwidth resources from other NASA networks. There is a technical challenge in the current lunar GPS positioning system.
Jason, chief technical expert in engineering and systems analysis at NASA's Goddard space cente
GPS can use atomic clocks to calculate the time required to transmit signals between satellites, but triangulate the signals to determine the specific location of the target. The Goddard Space Center has developed a better GPS receiver for lunar missions as well as small satellites.
At present, the latest concept of GPS receiver in orbit is
NASA says,
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