Communications requirements for the first lunar outpost

Abstract

The manned and robotic return to the Moon envisioned in the Space Exploration Initiative requires robust and reliable communications. An initial communication architecture for the Deep Space Network appropriate for human and robotic exploration of the Moon is proposed. The first lunar outpost requires a fault-tolerant communications architecture that can be economically implemented. Four aspects of the first lunar outpost require communications capability: the lunar habitat, extrahabitat activity, a rover that can be used in either manned or unmanned mode, and scientific experiments distributed on the lunar surface. A separate downlink channel to the earth will be provided for the habitat, the rover, and the distributed scientific instruments. During periods of extrahabit activity the astronauts will communicate with the earth using the habitat or rover downlink. The relevant communications requirements are examined in detail.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>