High-Orbit Laser Satellites Could Guide Future Lunar Travelers

the ILLUMA-T payload from NASA, shown here in this artist's depiction, is an example of an laser communication satellite. Credit - NASA / Dave Ryan

Cislunar space is already getting crowded. And with that crowding comes infrastructure complications. One is navigation – there is no Global Positioning System available when you’re not on the globe. Finding a spacecraft’s exact orbital path relies on networking with the Deep Space Network (DSN), a set of telescopes originally developed in the 1950s to communicate with spacecraft far afield. DSN itself is already getting overwhelmed with managing all of the missions requesting its time, so getting a precise orbital location currently can take hours. But researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory think they might have a solution for this – launching a fleet of three satellites to collectively create a deep-space navigational system known as the LIght High-Orbit Utility Signal Emitter – LightHOUSE.

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