LUREPOS Facts
Mission status
Pre-Phase A Accepted by ESA
Planned Launch
2030
Number of satellites
2 satellites in cooperation
Autonomous Navigation for the Moon
LUREPOS demonstrates how spacecraft can determine their position and time entirely on their own, without ground tracking or synchronized atomic clocks.
By exchanging time signals between satellites, the mission creates a self-assembling, relativistic reference frame — a first step toward a truly autonomous lunar navigation system.
Technology and Innovation
At the heart of the mission is the Signal Acquisition and Atomic Time-stamping Unit (SAATU), capable of 10-nanosecond precision.
Combined with reconfigurable software-defined radios, this technology enables inter-satellite communication, time transfer, and onboard orbit computation with unprecedented accuracy.
Towards Sustainable Lunar Infrastructure
The LUREPOS concept paves the way for a global, interoperable lunar navigation network connecting missions from multiple space agencies.
It lays the foundation for sustained human and robotic presence on the Moon — and sets the stage for autonomous navigation across the Solar System.
Mission Consortium
LUREPOS is a project led by AaltaLab (Slovenia) as the prime contractor, leveraging many years of experience in relativistic positioning systems. TRL Space supports the mission with its technical expertise while also leading the project management activities.
The consortium also includes Instrumentation Technologies (Slovenia), which provides the main payload – a high-precision
signal acquisition and time-stamping unit – and SkyLabs (Slovenia), responsible for an innovative on-board data handling solution. Lastly, Thales Edisoft (Portugal) supports all activities related to ground station operations and communications with the LUREPOS satellites.
Questions and Downloads
What are IMPs and why study them?
Irregular Mare Patches are unusual, small volcanic features whose age is debated — some studies suggest they are very young (<100 Myr) while others point to ancient (~2.5 Gyr) origins. Pinning down their age/mechanism informs the Moon’s thermal evolution.
How will LUGO detect lava tubes?
Using ground‑penetrating radar (GPR) to search for void‑like reflections beneath the surface, while optical and hyperspectral instruments map skylights, context and composition at the surface.
What stage is it at?
An ESA‑funded study phase and community papers are shaping requirements; subsequent phases will define launch and operations.