Italian Moon Instrument Receives Signals from Earth for the First Time

Rome: An Italian-made instrument on the Moon has received signals from the Earth for the first time, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) said Monday.

According to Ansa News Agency, for the first time, ASI announced that signals from navigation satellites active in Earth’s orbit have been successfully received on the Moon. This achievement marks a significant milestone in lunar exploration and communication.

The result, as stated on the ASI website, “is due to the LuGre satellite receiver, the result of an agreement between ASI and NASA and built in Italy by Qascom, with the scientific support of the Polytechnic University of Turin.” The day after its arrival on the lunar soil aboard the private Blue Ghost lander of the company Firefly Aerospace, LuGre was switched on at 7:10 Italian time Monday and received both GPS signals and those of the European Galileo constellation.