23 July :American space agency NASA is funding a project which will help humans navigate on the moon as NASA will spend USD 1.2 million over the next three years.The navigation system will be like GPS to the astronauts that use it, but will rely on signals from a set of sensors including lunar beacons, stereo cameras, and orbital imaging sensors.
Since moon does not have satellites to send GPS signals, so astronauts won't be able to use it to find their way around, explained Ron Li, the Lowber B Strange Designated Professor of civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science.
Explaining how the system will work Li, who leads Ohio State's Mapping and Geographic Information Systems Laboratory, said the images taken from orbit will combine with images from the surface to create maps of lunar terrain.
Motion sensors on lunar vehicles and on the astronauts themselves will allow computers to calculate their locations signals from lunar beacons, the lunar lander, and base stations will give astronauts a picture of their surroundings similar to what drivers see when using a GPS device on Earth.
The researchers have named the entire system the Lunar Astronaut Spatial Orientation and Information System (LASOIS).
According to Li's plan, the team will create a prototype navigation system, then travel to the Mojave Desert to test and refine it. The third year would possibly be spent testing the system on NASA astronauts.