Lockheed Martin Corporation establishes a subsidiary that will provide communications and navigation services on the Moon. In this respect informs space news.
The company is called Crescent Space Services and will provide services for Parsec, its future satellite network in lunar orbit. Parsec will use satellites designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin, based on the Curio platform originally built for the Janus and Lunar Trailblazers weighing less than 200kg.
Splitting the company into a parent company and a subsidiary is necessary because Lockheed Martin is a technology company that primarily develops and builds space and aircraft and is not suited to the service industry. Initially, Parsec will consist of two satellites and more can be added as needed. The company expects more than 100 Moon missions to take place in the next 10 years, so demand for the services will be high. Parsec will be particularly relevant for those heading to the polar region of the Moon where navigation is difficult, or to the far side of the Moon where direct communication with Earth is impossible without a relay satellite station.
At the same time, the service market is expected to be competitive – the European Space Agency plans to build a similar Moonlight system, private companies Draper and Intuitive Machines also plan to launch repeater satellites.
Formerly the James Webb Telescope measured temperature of a rocky exoplanet.