An engine burn during NASA’s Artemis II mission disturbed Earth’s upper atmosphere for more than 3,100 miles across North America, according to a preliminary study led by researchers at Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University. The effect on GPS accuracy remains an open question.
The team used data from about 3,500 ground stations that receive signals from GPS and other satellite navigation systems. Researchers mapped shifts in electron concentrations in the ionosphere, the electrically charged region of the upper atmosphere.
The team recorded three disturbances. The first followed liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1. The strongest came nearly two hours later, when the rocket’s upper stage fired for about 18 minutes to raise the spacecraft’s orbit. The disturbance followed the spacecraft’s path eastward, with little spread to the north or south.
The third disturbance came on April 2, when Orion’s main engine fired to send the crew toward the moon. The two later burns produced stronger disturbances than liftoff because they released energy directly into the ionosphere, the researchers concluded.
What the findings mean for GPS
Changes in electron concentrations can delay navigation signals traveling to Earth, which can affect the position a receiver calculates, according to the National Weather Service.
A positioning error of a few meters could affect self-driving cars and drones, study co-author Charles Lin, an earth sciences professor at National Cheng Kung University, told Space.com. The researchers called for more monitoring to determine how similar burns could affect satellite navigation and radio communications.
The April mission
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch flew with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. It was the first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years, as The Dallas Express previously reported.
The crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego on April 10 and returned to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on April 11.
