How 'laser vision' will support NASA’s 2027 lunar landing mission

The article discusses a critical challenge in NASA’s planned 2027 lunar landing mission near the Moon’s South Pole: navigating and landing safely in extremely dark, shadowed craters where traditional sensors like cameras, lidar, and radar fail. These craters contain valuable water ice for fuel and life support, but their permanent darkness makes precise landing difficult. To address this, an Australian company, Advanced Navigation, has developed a compact device called LUNA (Laser measurement Unit for Navigational Aid). LUNA provides spacecraft with precise, drift-free “laser vision” by using laser Doppler velocimetry to measure the spacecraft’s velocity relative to the lunar surface in real time, even in total darkness. This capability helps correct the drift errors inherent in inertial navigation systems, which typically accumulate over time and can cause hazardous landings. LUNA’s technology works by bouncing laser beams off the Moon’s surface and measuring the frequency shift of the returned signal to determine three-dimensional velocity without relying on environmental light or optical features