Adaptive Situational Awareness for Real-Time Lunar Surface Operations

The Lunar South Pole, the site of future space operations for Artemis missions, presents unique operational challenges. The line of sight to the Earth and Sun are both low over the horizon. The lighting and shadow environment is highly dynamic. Surface operations, unlike trajectory-based operations, are non-deterministic, rendering traditional timeline-based mission operations inaccurate. Given the reactive nature of surface operations in the Lunar Polar Environment, providing timely situational awareness to the operations team is critical to both mission success and spacecraft survival. To meet these needs the VIPER Lunar Rover Mission built an adaptable situational awareness system for surface operations at the Lunar South Pole, designed to evolve with mission experience.