Lunar Lighthouse: RFID Technology for Inexpensive Science Sensors and Relative Navigation

This project seeks to demonstrate that Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology can 1) provide very inexpensively deployed instruments on the lunar surface for science measurements, and 2) install relative navigation beacons for telerobotic and human vehicle navigation. RFID uses semiconductor chips that respond to excitation by an electromagnetic (EM) frequency wave. They respond to the EM wave with a "ping" that can include location data, and science sensor measurements for instruments coupled to the chip. The chips are inexpensive to produce, and can operate in wide range of extreme environmental conditions. New chip technology allows sensors for temperature, pressure, or elemental concentration (such as H₂) to add science data to "pings" on passive chips. Mating passive chips to specially designed pucks could provide surface relative navigation and science data (for ground truth of orbital data) to wide regions of the lunar surface, including Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs). This could greatly aid the search for ice on the moon. A grid of ground-based navigation beacons alleviates the needs for expensive orbiting assets to create a lunar Global Positioning System (GPS), thus facilitating early exploration campaigns on the Moon. NASA JSC has previously funded preliminary research on deployable, passive RFID technology in planetary science (2012 IEEE 978-1-4577-0557-1/12).

Once a chip is selected, the next step is design of a "puck". The pucks can be a variety of shapes to lie directly on the surface, or provide a telescoping ability to elevate the chip and sensor for greater signal acquisition distance. Another key component of the project is design of the puck deployment system. The pucks must be deployed with adequate distance between the chips for a "grid" of sensors necessary for spatial science measurements and relative navigation triangulation measurements. The goal of the project is to select a chip (at least one), design a puck (at least one) and deployment system, code the navigation algorithms, and then field test the components to assess design robustness and navigation errors. JSC is also working with Texas A&M University (TAMU) students, through the TSTAR corporation, to develop a Capstone project for students to design and build components of the system and participate in the field test.