Picture yourself on alien soil. You step out of your spacecraft, wander across dunes and craters, and suddenly lose sight of your only landmark: the vehicle that will take you back home. That’s what happened to the Apollo 14 astronauts. “They left the lander to explore, went a few hundred meters away, and had to return by memory alone, without knowing their exact position,” recalls Cristina Valente, Head of Commercial and Business Development and ESA/ASI Market Lead at Telespazio. Starting with Apollo 15, astronauts had the Lunar Rover Vehicle—the “Moon buggy”—equipped with an inertial navigation system. Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell, however, struggled to orient themselves and match ridges and craters with their maps. “Thanks to Moonlight, this won’t happen again,” Valente notes.
On the Moon as on Earth
The third episode of Space Panorama focuses on Moonlight, a constellation of five satellites currently being developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and industrial partners including Telespazio, which will manage the satellites. “In the years ahead, Moonlight will allow anyone who wants to operate on the Moon—public or private—to worry about one less problem, because they’ll be able to rely on our constellation to stay connected with Earth and navigate safely,” says Fabio Cannone, head of the Moonlight program at Telespazio.
Positioning, navigation, and data connectivity are services we take for granted on Earth, largely thanks to satellites orbiting hundreds of kilometers above our heads. On the Moon, none of these exist.
That’s why what lies ahead may still sound like science fiction—but technologically, it’s just around the corner. NASA’s Artemis program, the Western initiative, plans to land astronauts in 2027 for the first time since the final Apollo mission in 1972. Meanwhile, China, leading the Eastern effort, is racing to get there first. And then there are commercial missions, viewing the Moon as a new frontier of opportunity. “Moonlight will provide a 250-megabit link, roughly comparable to the speed we use to stream videos on our phones today,” Cannone continues. “Just think of the innovation: an astronaut on the lunar surface will be able to communicate with Earth in real time—even showing what they’re doing through a bodycam.”
Lunar exploration, including the search for resources with economic potential, will rely heavily on rovers, robots, and humanoids: “to build habitats for astronauts, operate drills, and carry out all the activities needed to verify the presence of water, minerals, or any other materials that could eventually also be used back on Earth,” Cannone explains.
Into the Shadows of the South Pole
This time, the target isn’t a “sea” but the lunar south pole. Here, some areas never fall into darkness: the Sun skims the horizon year-round, making it possible to harvest solar energy continuously.
Elsewhere, 15 days of sunlight are followed by 15 days of night, making operations nearly impossible.
But the low-angle light also casts dangerously long shadows. “Navigating the surface with such shadows is far from easy—the risk of falling into craters is high. Moonlight will make driving safer, while enabling real-time communication with mission control on Earth,” Cannone explains.
“On Earth we’re used to smartphones that provide real-time connectivity, positioning, and directions. Moonlight’s goal is to bring these same services to the Moon,” says Cristina Valente.
Her words capture the spirit of the project. Humanity is becoming a spacefaring civilization, expanding beyond Earth’s gravitational frontier. Just as centuries ago we built ports, roads, and railways across uncharted continents, today we are laying the infrastructure to operate on our natural satellite—extending satellite services to other worlds. The Moon, our nearest neighbor, is the first. Mars will follow.