NASA has finally launched its “CAPSTONE” space mission on Tuesday morning, marking an important initial stage of its Artemis program.
The vessel, which is the size of a microwave oven and weighs only 55 pounds, left the Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand at 10:55 BST (21:55 local time).
For six months, it will test the stability of a halo-shaped orbit around the Moon before Lunar Gateway, the lunar outpost planned by NASA, uses that orbit.
Lunar Gateway will serve as a “staging area” to land humans on the Moon for the first time in 50 years and potentially as a starting point for missions to Mars.
The boat, which is the size of a microwave oven and weighs only 55 pounds, left the Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand at 10:55 BST (21:55 local time)
For six months, CAPSTONE will test the stability of a halo-shaped orbit around the Moon before Lunar Gateway, NASA’s lunar outpost, uses that orbit.
CAPSTONE: Key Statistics
Type: CubeSat
Size: 13 x 13 x 25 inches
Weight: 55 pounds
Orbit: near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO)
Launch location: Mahia, New Zealand
Release date: June 28, 2022
The CAPSTONE spacecraft, which was initially scheduled to launch in October 2021, was sent into space with a “Electron” rocket built by the American firm Rocket Lab.
“We have the launch of launch complex 1!” Rocket Lab tweeted a minute after launch. “CAPSTONE’s journey to the moon is underway.”
Rocket Lab also confirmed that the rocket had reached Max Q, the point at which its atmospheric flight reaches maximum dynamic pressure.
Bradley Smith, director of launch services at NASA, called the launch “fabulous.”
‘This has been, for me, eight years in the process. Here we are, not even a decade later and this amazing team has sent CAPSTONE on a ballistic trajectory into lunar orbit.
CAPSTONE is an abbreviation for “Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment.”
It is unique because it will travel in an elongated halo-shaped orbit, bringing it up to 1,000 miles and up to 43,500 miles from the lunar surface.
It will use its propulsion system to travel for about three or four months before entering orbit around the Moon. An orbit will occur every seven days.
CAPSTONE is unique because it will travel in an elongated halo-shaped orbit, bringing it up to 1,000 miles and up to 43,500 miles from the lunar surface.
The American company Rocket Lab has sent the CAPSTONE satellite into space with its Electron rocket (pictured in May)
CAPSTONE fired Rocket Lab Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand
The ship is the size of a microwave oven and weighs only 55 pounds. It is depicted here in the impression of an artist in its orbit around the moon
CAPSTONE over the lunar north pole: After reaching the moon in about four months, the spacecraft will begin a six-month mission to validate a special type of orbit.
Although it usually takes a few days for a spacecraft to reach the moon, CAPSTONE will take much longer as it travels at a slower speed and has to make a longer route to adapt to an unusual oval shape.
The strangely shaped orbit, officially called the near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), had never before been tested in space.
WHAT IS THE ARTEMIS PROGRAM?
Artemis is an ongoing space mission led by NASA with the goal of landing the first female astronaut and the first colored astronaut at the South Pole of the Moon.
It is the first manned mission to the moon by the US space agency since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Artemis I, launched in August 2022, will pave the way for manned flights by sending mannequins into space.
Artemis II will launch in May 2024 and fly over the Moon without landing on it.
Artemis III, which will be launched “not before 2025,” will be the first to land humans on the moon in more than 50 years.
Source: RMG
The path of the orbit is at a precise point of balance of the gravity of the Earth and the Moon, which means that less energy is expended.
“The stability of this orbit will allow CAPSTONE to behave almost as if held in place by the gravity of the Earth and the Moon,” Elwood Agasid of NASA’s Ames Research Center told The Next Web.
“It requires little energy to maintain the station or to maneuver into other lunar orbits [those between the earth and the moon]. ‘
CAPSTONE will orbit this area around the Moon for at least six months to understand “the characteristics of the orbit,” according to NASA, before the space agency deliberately crashes it into the lunar surface.
The space agency said: “It will validate the power and propulsion requirements to maintain its orbit as predicted by NASA models, reducing logistical uncertainties.”
“It will also demonstrate the reliability of innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation solutions, as well as Earth communication capabilities.”
The first parts of Lunar Gateway will not be launched until November 2024 at the earliest, giving NASA plenty of time to evaluate the results of CAPSTONE.
Described as a “vital component” of NASA’s Artemis program, the Lunar Gateway will be a small space station orbiting the Moon, acting as a “multipurpose outpost.”
The official word is that NASA’s Artemis program will land the first woman and next man on the moon in 2025, although that could backfire again, NASA general researcher Paul Martin recently suggested.
In the photo, an artistic print of CAPSTONE orbiting the moon with the Earth in the background
Lunar Gateway, shown here above the moon in an artist’s print, is described as a “vital component” of NASA’s Artemis program.
NASA’s original date to re-land humans on the Moon was 2024, but last year delayed the date, largely guilty of the Blue Origin firm’s Amazon founder Jeff Bezos litigation.
Also this year, NASA will send mannequins into space as part of the Artemis I mission in August 2022.
Artemis I will pave the way for manned flights: Artemis II, which will launch in May 2024 and fly over the Moon without landing on it, and Artemis III, which will in fact land on the lunar surface.
Artemis III, which will launch “not before 2025”, will be the first to land humans on the moon in more than 50 years, from Apollo 17 in December 1972.
NASA’S LUNAR COVER: A VITAL PART OF THE ARTEMIS PROGRAM
NASA is working on a project to build the first lunar space station, called the Lunar Gateway, as part of a long-term project to send humans to Mars.
The manned space port will orbit the Moon and serve as a “gateway to deep space and the lunar surface,” NASA said.
The station’s first modules could be completed as early as 2024.
An international base for lunar exploration for humans and robots and a ladder for spacecraft is one of the main candidates to succeed the $ 100 billion International Space Station (ISS), the world’s largest space project to date. now.
Pictured: a diagram of the proposed Lunar Gateway space station
NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions aim to send the first manned mission to the moon since 1972 “not before 2025.”
This was originally in 2024, but the costs and litigation of Jeff Bezos ’Blue Origin company forced NASA to delay it for a year.
Finally, NASA seeks to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon in 2028 as a result of the Artemis mission.
The space agency hopes this colony will discover new scientific discoveries, demonstrate new technological advances, and lay the groundwork for private companies to build a lunar economy.