New lunar distress system could safeguard future astronauts

A team of international scientists has taken a significant step towards making lunar exploration safer, proposing a distress monitoring and rescue system designed for the Moon’s unique and challenging environment.

As NASA’s Artemis program aims to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon, astronauts will be exposed to high-risk situations in remote areas like the lunar south pole.

A project led by the University of South Australia (UniSA), addresses the critical need for an emergency system capable of providing safety alerts, incident reporting, and location tracking of astronauts in distress.

Researchers from Adelaide and the US are designing a satellite constellation that prioritises communication and geolocation on the Moon’s surface. Using this system, astronauts will be able to send distress signals to a network of satellites that will relay the information back to Earth or other lunar bases.

The system is based on the COSPAS-SARSAT technology already used for search and rescue on Earth, adapted for lunar conditions.

Dr Mark Rice, a UniSA adjunct researcher and founder of Safety from Space, says the distress system could allow continuous communication with astronauts for up to 10 hours, even in the most challenging terrain, such as craters or mountains.

“Our team has also developed a waveform that supports low-power emergency beacons, ensuring that communication remains possible with minimal infrastructure and energy consumption,” Dr Rice says.

“This innovation is a critical advancement for space exploration. As humans venture further into space, the ability to quickly locate and rescue individuals in distress is vital.

“By creating a robust search and rescue system for the Moon, this research sets the foundation for similar systems on other planets, potentially revolutionising how we approach human safety in space exploration.”

Safety from Space was founded in 2018 with the support of UniSA’s Innovation and Collaboration Centre. The startup has recently been awarded $100,000 from the SA Government to help drive the Lunar Search and Rescue project, with an anticipated field trial with NASA in 2025.

Closer to home, the technology – called Beagle – has been described as a “game changer” for two-way emergency communications when applied to Earth-based search and rescue operations. This would enhance emergency response efforts in remote and hazardous locations, potentially saving countless lives, the researchers say.

 The work, supported by the SmartSat CRC and Flinders University, was presented to a recent International Communications and Satellite Systems (ICSSC) conference.