Moon To Earth Satellites in Development
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Lockheed Martin has begun its development of a Moon-to-Earth satellite network. Parsec, as it’s called, uses a constellation of small lunar satellites to provide a non-stop connection between astronauts, their equipment and the people back home. The system will also provide navigation help.
The technology should help explorers keep in touch and assist with spacecraft course changes.
Lockheed Martin explains that it could prove vital to those on lunar soil.
Parsec’s nodes create a lunar equivalent to GPS, giving astronauts their exact positions and directions back to base. A rover crew might know how to return home without driving into a dangerous crater, for instance.
The first Parsec nodes should be operational by 2025, with Lockheed Martin providing the satellites. CEO Joe Landon (formerly a Lockheed Martin Space VP) claims Parsec is “well positioned” to support NASA’s Artemis Moon landings and other exploratory missions.
The startup may seem premature when NASA’s Artemis program won’t even conduct a lunar flyby until late 2024, and a landing at the end of 2025. However, there’s already a clear race to the Moon that includes national efforts from the US and China as well as private projects like SpaceX’s lunar tourism.
As reported by engadget.com.
