NASA Eyes GPS at the Moon for Artemis Missions

The Global Positioning System (GPS), a satellite-based navigation system used by an estimated four billion people worldwide to figure out where they are on Earth at any moment, could be used to pilot in and around lunar orbit during future Artemis missions to the Moon.

NASA is developing a special receiver that would be able to pick up location signals provided by the 24 to 32 operational GPS satellites. GPS is operated by the U.S. military about 12,550 miles above Earth's surface and is open to anyone with a GPS receiver. These same GPS signals provide location data used in vehicle navigation systems, interactive maps, and tracking devices of all types, among many other applications.