The same Ohio State researcher helping robotic vehicles navigate Mars is now leading an effort to help humans navigate the moon
When NASA returns to the moon, which it intends to do in 2020 at the earliest, the astronauts will not be able to use the GPS system to find their way, explains Ron Lee, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and geodetic sciences at Ohio State University. The reason is that the moon is not surrounded by satellites that transmit signals location
Therefore, NASA provided Lee and his staff with a research budget of $1.2 million to build navigation systems that would give astronauts the feeling of using a GPS system, but would rely on signals from a series of sensors, including signals from lunar beacons, stereoscopic cameras, and photographic sensors that would orbit the moon. Lee described the project in Lunar Science Conference held in July at NASA's Ames Center in California.
The new grant is part of ongoing development of software for the Mars Spirit and Opportunity vehicles. Researchers have learned a lot about navigation from these Mars rovers. New technologies - sensors, internal navigation system, cameras, computer processors and imaging processors - will facilitate the next journey to the moon.
Humans are accustomed to using visual cues to gauge distances, such as the size of a building or car near the horizon, Lee explains. However, there are no such signs on the moon. And it is very easy to get lost or misjudge the distances and this is very dangerous.
In his talk, he described near misses that occurred on previous missions to the moon when astronauts went to a site they were interested in such as a crater but could not see it due to difficult terrain routes. "They were so close but had to go back for safety reasons," he said.
Keeping the astronauts safe will be a top priority for Lee's team, which includes psychology and human-computer interface experts, as well as engineers.
"We will assist in navigation, but also in maintaining the health of the astronauts," Lee said. "We will spare them the stress of getting lost or being frustrated with the system. This is not a technical problem but also a biomedical problem."
Lee explained how the system would work. The images taken from orbit will be combined with the image from the surface to create a map of the lunar landscape. Motion sensors on the lunar vehicles and the astronauts themselves will allow computers to calculate their position. Signals from lunar beacons placed on landers and ground stations will provide astronauts with a picture of their surroundings similar to what drivers see when using a GPS device on Earth. The researchers call the system the Lunar Astronaut Spatial Orientation and Information System (LASOIS).
NASA will develop terrestrial communication beacons into beacons that will be placed on the moon and can be used for both communication and navigation. MIT will design the device that astronauts will carry in their space suit pocket to see where they are and look for their target site. The University of California at Berkeley will develop objects that will be placed at various sites on the moon and provide a scale far, and will explore the psychological aspects according to Lee's plan, the team will build a prototype system Navigation, and traveled to the Mojave Desert to try and refine it. In the third year, the system will be tested with the help of NASA astronauts. NASA will then have a few years to implement the system along with the other technologies it is preparing for the next flights to the moon, starting in 2020.
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I wonder how people used to be able to navigate without GPS in a car.
Building a GPS system on the surface of the sun
Of course, place it on rocky ground and not in the oceans so that it doesn't drown, god forbid, tap tap tap water salt water! hamsa hamsa
suggestion
Bring me the money instead of doing GPS
in light of.
The answer to your question is probably the price.
Why not build an array of micro-satellites that will be sent together with the manned mission to the moon and launched into the lunar orbit before the astronauts land the spacecraft. That way they and all subsequent missions to the moon will have a true low-cost microsatellite GPS system.