GoKawiilTexas A&M, Purdue and NASA engineers design lunar traffic control system
Researchers from Texas A&M, Purdue University and NASA's Johnson Space Center have developed a traffic management system for spacecraft sharing the near-rectilinear halo orbit around the moon. The system is meant to coordinate multiple vehicles—including Orion capsules, cargo ships and lunar landers—that will operate simultaneously as NASA builds out its planned moon base.
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Until now, lunar missions have flown largely alone, but NASA's decade-long plan for a permanent moon base will require dozens of spacecraft sharing the same orbital paths at once. Without coordinated traffic rules, the risk of collisions between crewed and uncrewed vehicles rises sharply, making this kind of orbital air-traffic-control system as essential to lunar success as the rockets themselves.
- Engineers from Texas A&M, Purdue and NASA's Johnson Space Center co-authored the new traffic management study.
- The system targets the near-rectilinear halo orbit, where multiple spacecraft will operate concurrently around the moon's poles.
- NASA's broader moon base plan, announced in March, will unfold in three phases over roughly the next decade.
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Published there as: “Rules of the Road: Engineers Have Built a Traffic Control System for the Moon”
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