Alpine & Lupine
Blue Canyon Technologies Venus-100 microsatellite bus
BCT’s Venus-100 microsatellite bus provides satellite station keeping and control, articulating solar arrays for power generation, S-band patch antennas for omnidirectional communication, and other power and data systems to enable communication satellite operations.
Ka-Band Antenna
Our Ka-Band fixed antenna receives signals from the APEX 1.0 lander on the lunar surface during M3 operations, with high speed data rates up to 1.3 Mbps.
S-Band Antenna
Our S-Band fixed dish antenna communicates with the APEX 1.0 lander on the lunar surface during M3 operations. It sends signals with data rates up to 8 kbps and receives signals with data rates up to approximately 55 kbps.
X-Band Antenna
- Our X-band deployable antenna articulates to point to Earth while the relay satellites are in lunar orbit. It transmits data to Earth at high speed, up to 1.3 Mbps.
Relay Satellite Tower
Our tower structure holds our antennas and other communications components, including a radio used to direct traffic between the different types of antennas we have onboard.
Orbital Information
Alpine and Lupine are equipped with bi-directional S-band command, telemetry links, and a high-speed Ka-band lunar proximity uplink and X-band downlink to Earth for low-latency real-time communications.
After the primary surface mission, Alpine and Lupine naturally circularize into High Circular Polar Orbits (HCPO). These orbits provide near-global coverage of the lunar surface with a focus region over the poles. For each lunar day cycle, the relays provide simultaneous visibility of Earth and lunar South Pole regions.
Alpine and Lupine’s primary purpose is to enable communications from the Far Side of the Moon back to Earth, but they can also speed up communications from lunar orbit or near-side landing sites. We provide flexible bandwidth options and constant visibility to Earth for customers in cislunar space.
Alpine and Lupine can do more than just communicate between the Moon and Earth. They can support other onboard activities, from Space Domain Awareness (SDA) to Positioning Navigation and Timing (PNT) for technology demonstrations.