{"id":451165,"date":"2026-05-20T12:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T12:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/451165\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T12:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T12:51:09","slug":"are-lasers-the-key-to-gps-like-navigation-on-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/451165\/","title":{"rendered":"Are lasers the key to GPS like navigation on the Moon?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n         Published on<br \/>\n            20\/05\/2026 &#8211; 14:05 GMT+2\n            <\/p>\n<p>Scientists have proposed building extremely stable lasers in the Moon\u2019s darkest craters to help future spacecraft navigate and keep time more accurately, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2604438123\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\">new study<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-ad__placeholder__logo\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/website\/images\/logos\/logo-euronews-stacked-outlined-72x72-grey-9.svg\" width=\"72\" height=\"72\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n          ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-ad__placeholder__logo\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/website\/images\/logos\/logo-euronews-stacked-outlined-72x72-grey-9.svg\" width=\"72\" height=\"72\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n          ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in the United States, proposed in a peer-reviewed study placing a small silicon device inside one of the Moon\u2019s permanently shadowed craters to stabilise laser light. <\/p>\n<p>Once stabilised, the laser could be used as a timing and navigation signal for future lunar missions.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists say it could help spacecraft land safely, support a GPS-like system on the Moon and improve communication between satellites.<\/p>\n<p>Why the Moon\u2019s darkest craters?<\/p>\n<p>Permanently shadowed craters have long interested scientists because they may contain water ice and other resources needed for future lunar missions.<\/p>\n<p>But they are also difficult to study because they receive little or no sunlight, making landing, movement and direct observation challenging.<\/p>\n<p>The study suggests lowering a small silicon device, called an optical cavity, into one of these craters to stabilise a laser by controlling the light passing through it.<\/p>\n<p>The device works by reflecting light between two mirrors. For the laser beam to remain stable, the distance between those mirrors must stay almost perfectly constant.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers say the deep cold inside the craters would help achieve this.<\/p>\n<p>Because the silicon would barely expand or shrink in such low temperatures, the laser signal could remain far steadier than on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers also believe a network of these lasers could help detect tiny changes in distance between objects on the Moon, potentially opening new ways to study gravity and space-time.<\/p>\n<p>The team says the technology could first be tested in low Earth orbit before being deployed on the lunar surface within the next few years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 20\/05\/2026 &#8211; 14:05 GMT+2 Scientists have proposed building extremely stable lasers in the Moon\u2019s darkest craters&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[31892,85,46,5883,8245,3442,141,5409,125],"class_list":["post-451165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-crater","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-laser","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-space-technology","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}