LCNS E2E Services and System Architecture for Lunar PNT

Filippo Rodriguez, Carlo Albanese, Gabriele Lambiase, Riccardo Petix, Pietro Pacchiarotti, Daniele Marchionni, Gabriele Porcarelli, Dario Castagnolo, Maurizio Gasbarra, Augusto Montani, Pietro Salvatori, Daniele Cretoni, Stefano La Barbera, Cosimo Stallo, Richard Dennis Swinden, Floor Thomas Melman, Monica Gotta

Abstract:	In recent years, lunar exploration has regained momentum, driven by technological advancements and international collaborations. Governments and private companies aim to establish a sustainable presence, harness lunar resources, and prepare for future Mars missions. NASA’s Artemis program, alongside China’s and other nations’ efforts, marks a new era of space exploration In response to the growing demand for innovative systems that can meet the complex requirements of space exploration, Telespazio is serving as the prime contractor for the Lunar Communication and Navigation Services (LCNS) project, developed within ESA’s Moonlight programme. The consortium is composed by major European Aerospace industries and Research Centers to develop and deploy in the next few years a system composed by a constellation of satellites around the Moon, able to provide lunar communication and navigation services. LNCS is a full communication and navigation system, it provides concurrently navigation and communication capabilities to the lunar user. This paper investigates in particular the navigation capabilities which LCNS could open for institutional and private assets which aim to navigate the cislunar environment, describes the architecture of the system and the performance of the provided navigation services. The paper describes the services, how the interoperability with other Lunar navigation systems can be met and how the provision of the services is supported by the system overall Finally, a focus is presented on how each segment is able to implement the elements of the entire navigation processing chain.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 38th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2025) September 8 - 12, 2025 Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor Baltimore, Maryland
Pages:	657 - 676
Cite this article:	Rodriguez, Filippo, Albanese, Carlo, Lambiase, Gabriele, Petix, Riccardo, Pacchiarotti, Pietro, Marchionni, Daniele, Porcarelli, Gabriele, Castagnolo, Dario, Gasbarra, Maurizio, Montani, Augusto, Salvatori, Pietro, Cretoni, Daniele, La Barbera, Stefano, Stallo, Cosimo, Swinden, Richard Dennis, Melman, Floor Thomas, Gotta, Monica, "LCNS E2E Services and System Architecture for Lunar PNT," Proceedings of the 38th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2025), Baltimore, Maryland, September 2025, pp. 657-676. https://doi.org/10.33012/2025.20312
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