Pair of lunar relay microsatellites providing continuous communications between Earth and the far side of the Moon, including near-global lunar surface coverage.
Alpine & Lupine Lunar Relay Satellites
Pair of lunar relay microsatellites providing continuous communications between Earth and the far side of the Moon, including near-global lunar surface coverage.
Description
Alpine and Lupine are two lunar relay microsatellites developed by ispace-U.S., built on the Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) Venus-100 microsatellite bus. They are designed to provide continuous, bidirectional communications between Earth and lunar surface assets — including the far side of the Moon where direct Earth line-of-sight is impossible — in support of NASA's CLPS program Task Order CP-12 managed by Draper. Both satellites will be deployed into lunar orbit directly from the payload bays of the ispace APEX 1.0 lander before it descends to land at Schrodinger Basin near the lunar south pole. Each satellite provides Ka-band links to the lunar surface, X-band links to Earth, and S-band omnidirectional links for command and telemetry. After their primary mission, Alpine and Lupine are circularized into a high circular polar orbit (HCPO) for near-global lunar surface coverage with polar linger points. Beyond communications relay, the satellites offer hosted payload capacity for navigation/PNT demonstrations, environmental monitoring, and cislunar space domain awareness (SDA).
Specifications
| Satellite bus | Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) Venus-100 microsatellite |
|---|---|
| Quantity | 2 (Alpine + Lupine) |
| KA-band uplink from lunar surface | Up to 1.3 Mbps |
| X-band downlink to earth | Up to 1.3 Mbps |
| S-band command uplink | ~55 kbps |
| S-band telemetry downlink | Up to 8 kbps |
| Primary orbit | Lunar orbit (far-side relay, Schrodinger Basin support) |
| Post-mission orbit | High Circular Polar Orbit (HCPO) |
| South pole coverage | >70% simultaneous lunar surface + Earth visibility |
| Deployment platform | APEX 1.0 lander dedicated satellite bays |
| Hosted payload options | PNT, environmental monitoring, cislunar SDA |
| Primary mission | Far-side lunar communications relay — NASA CLPS CP-12 |
