Enabling Lunar Base Connectivity: An Architecting Framework for Communication Satellite Networks

As plans for establishing a sustained human presence on the lunar surface progress, large resources are being dedicated to the concept design and development of lunar habitats. These habitats will need the support of satellite constellations for their communication, navigation, and weather monitoring needs. For global lunar and Moon-Earth communications, relay satellites are chosen as an initial use case, due to their relatively lower complexity and the established LunaNet standards. In September 2024, NASA awarded Intuitive Machines a $4.2 billion contract to provide enhanced data transmission and communication services for future Artemis missions, through their constellation of lunar relays. With other commercial providers entering this market, this study identified the need for an independent framework to evaluate the ability of any proposed constellation to meet the communication requirements of the lunar base. This framework can also assess the feasibility of modifying existing operational or proposed satellite networks to meet those requirements, opening avenues for trade studies and multi-criteria decision-making. By leveraging space-proven systems, such as those deployed in Earth orbit or for deep-space missions, the complexities and time associated with the development of a lunar communications network can be minimized. The framework described in this study models the proposed satellite architecture in an orbital analysis and simulation tool - Ansys STK, where computation of key constellation metrics (such as coverage area and bandwidth) is performed. The computed values are then sent to a Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) environment, to undertake verification of lunar base communication requirements and set up evaluation criteria for trade studies.