Exploring the Limits of High Altitude GPS for Future Lunar Missions

Abstract: An increasing number of spacecraft are relying on the Global Positioning System (GPS) for navigation at altitudes near or above the GPS constellation itself – the region known as the Space Service Volume (SSV). While the formal definition of the SSV ends at geostationary altitude, the practical limit of high-altitude space usage is not known, and recent missions have demonstrated that signal availability is sufficient for operational navigation at altitudes halfway to the moon. This paper pre…