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ESA Moonlight initiative
ESA Moonlight initiative
ESA’s Moonlight program aims to establish Europe’s first dedicated satellite constellation for telecommunications and navigation services for the Moon. With over 400 lunar missions planned by space agencies and private companies in the next two decades, this program marks a significant step toward sustainable lunar exploration and the development of a lunar economy. This infrastructure is essential to achieve a permanent and sustainable human presence on the Moon, while simultaneously improving efficiency and significantly reducing operational and user costs.
The LCNS (Lunar Communications and Navigation Services) program is a partnership project between ESA and an industrial consortium led by space systems developer Telespazio, with support from the UK and Italian space agencies. The program will enable precise and autonomous landings and surface mobility, while facilitating high-speed, low-latency communication and data transfer between Earth and the Moon.
The goal of Moonlight is to support commercial and institutional missions that will explore the Earth's satellite in the second half of the decade and, over time, foster the development of a true Lunar Economy. It will provide data capacities sufficient to serve these planned and future missions, with a navigation service that enables accurate real-time positioning for all lunar missions.
Moonlight will consist of a constellation of five lunar satellites (one for high-speed data transmission and four for navigation), launched into space from Earth's orbit to lunar orbit. The constellation will connect to Earth through three dedicated ground stations, creating a data network covering up to 400,000 km. Moonlight’s LCNS satellites will be strategically positioned to prioritize coverage of the lunar south pole, a favorable area for operations due to its environment. This includes high areas or "peaks of eternal light" – ideal for solar power – and "craters of eternal darkness" containing polar ice – a potential source of water, oxygen, and rocket fuel.
Scientific publications
Scientific publications
Di Benedetto, M., G. Boscagli, F. De Marchi, D. Durante, F. Santi, et al. (2023). An architecture for a lunar navigation system: orbit determination and time synchronization. Proceedings of the 8th International ESA colloquium on Scientific and Fundamental Aspects of GNSS, Bulgaria, Sofia.
Iess, L., M. Di Benedetto, G. Boscagli, P. Racioppa, A. Sesta, et al. (2023). High Performance Orbit Determination and Time Synchronization for Lunar Radio Navigation System. Proceedings of the 36th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2023), September 2023, pp. 4029-4050. https://doi.org/10.33012/2023.19428
Molli, S., P. Tartaglia, Y. Audet, A. Sesta, M. Plumaris, et al. (2023). Navigation performance of low lunar orbit satellites using a lunar radio navigation satellite system. Proceedings of the 36th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2023), September 2023, pp. 4051-4083. https://doi.org/10.33012/2023.19370
Audet, Y., F.T. Melman, S. Molli, A. Sesta, M. Plumaris, et al. (2024). Positioning of a lunar surface rover on the south pole using LCNS and DEMs. Advances in Space Research, 74:2532–2550. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2024.06.022
Antonietti, E., G. Lambiase, A. Sesta, D. Durante, C. Albanese, et al. (2024). Analysis of Orbit Perturbation and Atmospheric Effects for Advanced ODTS Services in Elliptical Lunar Frozen Orbits, 37th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2024), Baltimore, Maryland. https://doi.org/10.33012/2024.19808
Sesta, A., D. Durante, G. Boscagli, P. Cappuccio, M. Di Benedetto, et al. (2025). ATLAS: orbit determination and time transfer for a lunar radio navigation system, Navigation 72(2). https://doi.org/10.33012/navi.701
Tartaglia, P., D. Durante, A. Sesta, and L. Iess (2025). Semi-autonomous navigation of a lunar constellation via intersatellite Doppler and terrestrial GNSS measurements, Acta Astronautica 236, 946-955. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.06.046
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