Luglie establishes a new satellite tracking record at 331,000 km

The Lugre Payload (Lunar Gnss Receiver Experiment), the result of the collaboration between the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and NASA, managed to trace the sign of five satellites—Tre belonging to the GPS constellation and two to that of Galileo—At an impressive distance of 331,000 km from the earth, equivalent to about 53 terrestrial rays.

This distance record represents not only a confirmation of the feasibility of the use of terrestrial gnss constellations for navigation at distances close to the lunar onebut also the climax of over twenty years of global efforts aimed at integrating satellite navigation technologies. Lugre’s success demonstrates the effectiveness of A combined approach to satellite constellations, which is expected to be fundamental for future space missions and the exploration of the moon.

The experiment, which saw the collaboration of prestigious entities and companies such as the NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Qascom in Bassano del Grappa and the Polytechnic of Turin, made it possible to verify the precision and reliability of GNSS technologies under conditions extreme, approaching the distance of lunar orbit of about 59 terrestrial rays. The data collected open the way to the future use of luglie in lunar orbit, where it could guarantee precise and reliable positioning data, essential for imminent moon missions.

These results not only meet the main requirements of the mission, including accurate detection and real -time calculation of the positioning and speed of each satellite, but also establish a solid foundation for the future of space explorations. The Luglie’s team is now working intensely to the analysis of the data to further optimize the effectiveness and efficiency of the system.

The Lugre device, developed in Italy by Qascom for the ASI with the contribution of the Polytechnic of Turin, is mounted on the Blue Ghost commercial lander Firefly, part of the NASA CLPS program.