Constellation Design of a Lunar Global Positioning System Using CubeSats and Chip-Scale Atomic Clocks

Accurate navigation on the moon, Mars, or any other astronomical body is essential to scientific investigation. The research presented in this paper covers the constellation design of a Lunar Global Positioning System (GPS) using the CubeSat platform. Since CubeSats have significantly smaller dimensions than most current satellites, their associated cost is much less to place into orbit. This creates a compelling reason to use them for a Lunar GPS. However, CubeSats require a much smaller atomic clock, which has not been available. Fortunately, there have been recent advancements in chip-scale atomic clocks (CSAC) which can fit within the CubeSat platform. We propose a Rider constellations of two orbital planes and eight satellites per plane for minimum position determination, or fifteen satellites per plane for redundancy at an altitude of 3.34x10km. The CSAC considered is estimated to have an update interval of almost an hour with a ten meter distance