The rocket carrying the CAPSTONE satellite takes off (NASA)
NASA has launched a small CubeSat this week to test and orbit that will soon be used by Gateway, a lunar space station.
It’s all part of the space agency’s plan to put a woman on the moon in 2025.
The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, mission was launched from New Zealand on Tuesday.
Jim Reuter, associate director of the Space Technology Mission Directorate, says: “CAPSTONE is an example of how working with business partners is key to NASA ‘s ambitious plans to explore the Moon and beyond.
“We are delighted to have successfully begun the mission and look forward to what CAPSTONE will do once it reaches the Moon.”
Read more: Astronomers find the black hole closest to Earth
CAPSTONE is currently in low Earth orbit and the spacecraft will take about four months to reach its target lunar orbit.
CAPSTONE is joined by Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon, a third interplanetary stage that will send CAPSTONE on its way to deep space.
Over the next six days, Photon’s engine periodically starts to accelerate beyond low Earth orbit, where Photon will release the CubeSat on a path to the Moon.
CAPSTONE will then use its own propulsion and the gravity of the Sun to navigate the rest of the way to the Moon.
The gravity-powered track will drastically reduce the amount of fuel the CubeSat needs to reach the Moon.
Read more: There could be life on the moon once
Bradley Cheetham, CAPSTONE principal investigator and CEO of Advanced Space, “Our team is now preparing for the separation and initial acquisition of the spacecraft in six days.
“We’ve already learned a lot to get to this point, and we’re passionate about the importance of humans returning to the moon, this time to stay!”
On the Moon, CAPSTONE will enter an elongated orbit called an almost rectilinear halo orbit or NRHO.
Once at the NRHO, CAPSTONE will fly 1,000 miles from the North Pole of the Moon at its nearest pass and 43,500 miles from the South Pole at its farthest point.
The story goes on
It will repeat the cycle every six and a half days and maintain this orbit for at least six months to study the dynamics.
“CAPSTONE is a pioneer in many ways and will demonstrate a variety of technological capabilities during the time period of its mission as it navigates an orbit never flown around the Moon,” said Elwood Agasid, CAPSTONE project director at the Research Center NASA’s Ames to California Silicon. Vall. “CAPSTONE is laying the groundwork for Artemis, Gateway and commercial support for future lunar operations.”
NASA estimates the cost of the entire Artemis mission at $ 28 billion.
It would be the first time people have walked on the moon since the last Apollo Moon mission in 1972.
Only 12 people have walked on the moon, all men.
NASA conducted six manned missions to the surface of the Moon, starting with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in July 1969, to Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt in December 1972.
The mission will use NASA’s powerful new rocket, the space launch system (SLS) and the Orion spacecraft.
Look: NASA’s launch paves the way for the lunar orbit station