Nasa has lit a beacon on the Moon for 30 minutes as part of a test for a positioning system designed to make it safer for future astronauts to establish a permanent human presence on the lunar surface.

The Lunar Node 1 demonstrator, or LN-1, was tested during Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission, which delivered six Nasa instruments to the Moon as part of the space agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme.

The autonomous navigation system is intended to provide a real-time communications network on the Moon that could link orbiters, landers and even astronauts on the surface. It could also be used as a location tool, allowing explorer to gauge their position relative to other networked spacecraft, ground stations, or rovers on the move.

Nasa researchers said the system would be a “marked improvement” over conventional, Earth-based radio data relays. Once on the surface, it also promises a more accurate alternative to the system Apollo-era astronauts had to contend with, where they...