We've been landing people on the Moon since 1969, but as we start to explore the lunar surface, how will astronauts find their way around? We need a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) for the Moon, and an 800-year-old math trick could help.
Despite what Solar System illustrations might suggest, Earth and the Moon aren't perfect spheres: the influence ofFor simplicity's sake, our GNSS technology uses a rough estimate of Earth's squashed ball shape. If we're to develop a Geographic Information System for the lunar surface, we need the same estimate for the Moon's selenoid .
"Since the Moon is less flattened than the Earth, most lunar GIS applications use a spherical datum,""However, with the renaissance of lunar missions, it seems worthwhile to define an ellipsoid of revolution that better fits the selenoid."
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