Design of a Multi-Layered Lunar PNT System with Two-Way Inter-Satellite Measurements for Autonomous Orbit Determination

Jisung Oh, Sungik Kim, Byungwoon Park

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	As global interest in space exploration continues to surge, research on lunar exploration—the first step toward deep space missions—has been actively conducted. Accordingly, securing a stable navigation infrastructure in lunar orbit and on the lunar surface has emerged as a major challenge, and studies on the design and performance verification of satellite systems to support this are actively underway. In this study, we conducted a simulation of precise orbit determination for lower-layer CubeSats within a Multi-Layered Lunar positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) architecture composed of Lunar Augmented Navigation Service (LANS) satellites that broadcast the one-way navigation signal known as the Augmented Forward Signal (AFS), and CubeSats that utilize Inter-Satellite Links (ISL). In the upper layer, a constellation of LANS satellites is deployed, and in the lower layer, lunar navigation CubeSats are placed. The orbit determination performance of the lower-layer CubeSats is analyzed by applying an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) that fuses AFS and ISL measurements. In the simulation, LANS constellations of NASA, ESA, and JAXA are modeled, and two-way pseudorange and Doppler measurements for lower-layer CubeSats are generated to evaluate navigation performance across various scenarios. As a result, it was confirmed that a CubeSat constellation can autonomously determine its orbit by using AFS and two-way ISL measurements. This study is expected to provide realistic guidance for satellite constellation configuration and navigation algorithm design for the establishment of future Lunar PNT systems, while also contributing to demonstrating the potential for extending ISL-based navigation systems into the lunar domain.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2026 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 26 - 29, 2026 Hyatt Regency Orange County Anaheim, California
Pages:	689 - 698
Cite this article:	Oh, Jisung, Kim, Sungik, Park, Byungwoon, "Design of a Multi-Layered Lunar PNT System with Two-Way Inter-Satellite Measurements for Autonomous Orbit Determination," Proceedings of the 2026 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Anaheim, California, January 2026, pp. 689-698. https://doi.org/10.33012/2026.20509
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