NovaMoon: a proposed lunar reference station
Key facts
- NovaMoon is proposed as a scientific and navigation payload for ESA's Argonaut lander. [1]
- The payload would combine laser retroreflectors, VLBI transmitters, navigation signal receivers, atomic clocks and radio links. [1]
- Its stated aim is sub-metre to decimetre positioning, with local differential corrections for lunar users. [1]
- It is designed for operational needs in the Moon's south polar region as well as for science. [1]
- Our registry records version 3 of the preprint, revised on 16 February 2026. [1]
What it proposes
- NovaMoon, a scientific and navigation payload proposed for ESA's Argonaut lander.
- A lunar-based local differential, geodetic and timing station for the Moon's south polar region.
- One payload that combines laser retroreflectors, VLBI transmitters, navigation signal receivers, atomic clocks and radio links.
- Local differential corrections for lunar users, and a stable realisation of position and time on the surface.
This page restates what the preprint proposes. It is a proposal, not a mission with a launch date, and nothing below says that any of this hardware exists on the Moon.
Most of the work our hub covers is about definitions and model figures. This one is about instruments. NovaMoon is described as a lunar-based local differential, geodetic and timing station, proposed as a payload for the Argonaut lander of the European Space Agency [1].
What would be in the box
Five groups of instrument are named together: laser retroreflectors, VLBI transmitters, navigation signal receivers, atomic clocks and radio links [1]. Each of them answers a different question, and the argument of the paper is that one site carrying all five answers them consistently.
The stated targets are sub-metre to decimetre positioning, local differential corrections for lunar users, and an accurate and stable realisation of position and time [1]. The chosen area is the Moon’s south polar region, where the operational need is expected first [1].
“Local differential” is the working part of that description. A differential station sits at a position that is known well, watches how the signals it receives disagree with that position, and passes the corrections on to users near it. The paper proposes exactly that role for lunar users, alongside the geodetic and timing ones [1].
Why one station carries both position and time
A positioning, navigation and timing service cannot separate the two halves. A position is computed from signal travel times, so the quality of the position is limited by the clocks; and a clock reading is only useful if the place it was read at is known.
The frame side of that pair is quantified elsewhere. The first realization of the International Lunar Reference Frame carries a mean error of 17.6 centimetres for 2010–2030, and its authors name the poor geometry of the retroreflector network as the main limit on the origin [2]. NovaMoon would add retroreflectors at a new site, which is the same network that realization depends on [1]. The frame paper is read in the lunar reference frame.
Who is behind it
The author list is long: more than seventy names, of which our card shows the first five [1]. Two of them are worth following across our hub. Pascale Defraigne is also an author of the trade-off analysis that argues for using Lunar Coordinate Time as the practical reference on the Moon [3], read in Lunar Time by Defraigne, Meynadier and Bourgoin, and of the model rate figures in the lunar reference timescale paper [4].
The agency context is separate from the payload. ESA runs Moonlight, its lunar communication and navigation programme [5]Official; NovaMoon is proposed for the Argonaut lander, and our registry records no decision on selecting it [1].
What our registry does and does not hold
The registry holds the preprint, its version history and the summary above: a proposed payload, its instruments and its stated accuracy targets. It records no schedule, no cost and no flight assignment, so none appear here [1]. The full text is linked below, and all of our readings are listed in the papers hub. The software that would convert readings from a lunar clock into the barycentric scales is read in the LTE440 lunar time ephemeris.
Key numbers
Every figure below is a model value taken from the source named in its own row. Nothing in this table is our own estimate.
| Quantity | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Positioning the payload is designed to enable | sub-metre to decimetre | [1] |
| Instrument groups combined in one payload | 5 | [1] |
| Names on the full author list | more than 70 | [1] |
| Posted on arXiv | 9 February 2026 | [1] |
| Version our registry records | v3, 16 February 2026 | [1] |
| Mean error of the first ILRF realization, 2010–2030 | 17.6 cm | [2] |
Status
Preprint. arXiv preprint, 9 February 2026[1]. arXiv 2602.08432. The full text is at NovaMoon: A Strategic Lunar Reference Station for Positioning, Timing, and Largely Enhanced Science in the Earth-Moon System.
Why it matters
Position and time are realized by hardware, not by definitions. NovaMoon is a proposal for that hardware: one payload carrying clocks, retroreflectors and radio links to the lunar south pole, where a frame and a time scale would actually have to be read.
Sources
Last verified