A small satellite is preparing to pave the way for something much bigger: a fully developed lunar space station. NASA’s CAPSTONE satellite is scheduled to launch Monday and then travel to a unique lunar orbit on the Pathfinder mission. Artemis programIt aims to return humans to the moon by the end of this decade.
corner stone It travels aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket, which will take off from the private company’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. Rocket Lab made headlines in May using a helicopter to catch a falling booster missile. CAPSTONE is scheduled to launch at 6:00 ET on June 27, with live coverage starting an hour earlier. You can attend the event at the agency website or RegisterOr you can watch the live broadcast below.
About a week after the CAPSTONE mission, the spacecraft’s flight will be available via NASA Eyes on the solar system Interactive 3D visualization of real time data.
The Cislunar Autonomous GPS Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission will send a microwave-sized satellite into the Near Coronal Orbit (NRHO) around the Moon. The satellite will be the first to circumnavigate this unique lunar orbit, testing it on the planned date. Moon GateA small space station intended to allow a permanent human presence on the Moon.
NRHO is special because it is where the gravitational force of the Moon and Earth interact. Such an orbit would theoretically keep the spacecraft in a “beautiful gravitational point” in a near-stable orbit around the Moon, to me to NASA. Therefore, NRHO is ideal because it will require less fuel than conventional orbits and allow the proposed lunar space station to maintain a stable line of communication with Earth. But before NASA builds its gateway to this highly elliptical orbit, the space agency will use CAPSTONE — which is owned and operated by Colorado-based Advanced Space — to test its orbital models.
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Six days after launch from Earth, the upper stage of the Electron rocket will launch the CAPSTONE satellite on its journey to the Moon. The 55 lb (25 kg) cube car will perform the remainder of the four-month solo trip. Once on the moon, CAPSTONE will test the orbital dynamics of its orbit for about six months. The satellite will also be used to test spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation technology and unidirectional range capabilities that could eventually reduce the need for future spacecraft to communicate with mission controllers on Earth and wait for signals to be sent from another spacecraft.
NASA is systematically compiling the agency’s planned return to the Moon. a The space agency’s fourth and final Space Launch System experiment went wellpaving the way for a possible release in late August.
bone: This tiny moon-bound satellite could make its way to the lunar space station
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