A small satellite is preparing to pave the way for something much bigger: a fully crescent lunar space station. NASA’s CAPSTONE satellite is scheduled to launch on Monday and then travel to a single lunar orbit in the Pathfinder mission’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon by the end of this decade.
Capstone Goes aboard the Rocket Lab Electron rocket, which will take off from the Launch Complex 1 of the private company in Mahia, New Zealand. Rocket Lab made headlines in May using a helicopter to catch a falling reinforcing missile. The launch of CAPSTONE is scheduled for June 27 at 6:00 ET with live coverage an hour earlier. You can watch the event on the agency’s website or in the app, or you can watch it on the live stream below.
NASA Live: the official broadcast of NASA TV
About a week after the CAPSTONE mission, the probe flight will be available via NASA Eyes on the Solar System Interactive 3D Real-Time Data Visualization.
The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission will send a microwave-sized satellite into near-coronal orbit (NRHO) around the Moon. The satellite will be the first to navigate around this unique lunar orbit, testing it for the planned date Moon Gate, a small space station designed 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. This orbit would theoretically keep the spacecraft at a “beautiful gravitational point” in an almost stable orbit around the Moon, according to NASA. Therefore, NRHO is ideal because it will require less fuel than conventional orbits and will allow the proposed lunar space station to maintain a stable line of communication with Earth. But before NASA builds its gateway into this highly elliptical orbit, the space agency will use CAPSTONE, owned and operated by Colorado-based Advanced Space, to test its orbital models.
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CAPSTONE artistic concept. GIF: NASA / Daniel Rutter
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-pound (25-pound) bucket vehicle will make the rest 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 navigation technology to spacecraft and unidirectional range capabilities that could eventually reduce the need for future spacecraft to communicate with mission controllers on Earth and wait. that signals from other spacecraft be transmitted.
NASA is systematically assembling the pieces for the agency’s planned return to the Moon. The fourth and final test of the space agency’s space launch system (SLS) went well paving the way for a possible launch in late August.
more: this small satellite linked to the moon can make its way to the lunar space station
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