A small NASA-funded spacecraft was launched from New Zealand on Tuesday, initiating the space agency’s plans to send astronauts to the moon in a few years.
The spacecraft, called CAPSTONE, is about the size of a microwave oven. He will study a specific orbit where NASA plans to build a small space station for astronauts to stop before and after they go to the surface of the Moon.
At 21:55 local time (5:55 am Eastern time), a 59-foot-tall rocket carrying CAPSTONE took off from a launch pad along the east coast of New Zealand. Although the mission is collecting information for NASA, it is owned and operated by a private company, Advanced Space, based in Westminster, Colorado.
For a spacecraft aimed at the Moon, CAPSTONE is cheap, costing just under $ 30 million, including the launch of Rocket Lab, an American and New Zealand company.
The first two stages of the Electron rocket placed CAPSTONE in an elliptical orbit around the Earth. For this mission, Rocket Lab essentially added a third stage that will methodically raise the spacecraft’s altitude over the next six days. At this point, CAPSTONE will head to the moon, taking a slow but efficient path, arriving on November 13th.
Why did NASA launch CAPSTONE?
The full name of the mission is Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Navigation and Technological Operations Experiment.
For Artemis, NASA’s program to send astronauts back to the moon, NASA decided to include a small space station around the moon. This would make it easier for astronauts to reach more parts of the Moon.
This advanced site must be placed in what is known as an almost rectilinear halo orbit.
The orbits of the halo are those influenced by the gravity of two bodies, in this case, the Earth and the Moon. The influence of the two bodies helps make the orbit very stable, minimizing the amount of propellant needed to maintain a spacecraft orbiting the Moon.
Gravitational interactions also keep the orbit at an angle of about 90 degrees to the line of sight from Earth. (This is the almost rectilinear part of the name.) Thus, a spacecraft in this orbit never passes behind the Moon, where communications would be cut off.
The orbit that Gateway will travel is about 2,200 miles from the moon’s north pole and extends up to 44,000 miles away as it passes over the south pole. A trip around the moon will take about a week.
No spacecraft has ever traveled in this orbit. Thus, CAPSTONE will provide data to NASA to confirm its mathematical models for operating its advanced Gateway site in an almost rectilinear halo orbit.
Which companies operate CAPSTONE?
NASA did not design or build CAPSTONE, nor will it exploit it. The spacecraft is owned and operated by Advanced Space, a 45-employee company on the outskirts of Denver. Advanced Space actually bought the 55-pound satellite, the size of a microwave oven from another company, Terran Orbital.
It is also being launched not by SpaceX or any of NASA’s other major aerospace contractors, but by Rocket Lab, an American and New Zealand company that is a leader in the delivery of small payloads into orbit. The company has its own launch site on the North Island of New Zealand for its Electron rockets.
NASA spent about $ 20 million on Advanced Space to build and operate the spacecraft, as well as just under $ 10 million for the Rocket Lab launcher.
What will happen during the mission?
After reaching the moon, the mission will last six months, with the possibility of extending a year or so.
Your main task is to explore the best way to stay in the desired orbit. By measuring how long it takes radio signals to travel back and forth to Earth, the spacecraft chooses its position and then propels itself if it deviates.
This may require some trial and error because no spacecraft has traveled this orbit before, and without a global positioning system on the Moon, the uncertainty of the spacecraft’s location at any given time is greater.
CAPSTONE will also try an alternative method of finding its position by working with other spacecraft surrounding the Moon. Advanced Space has been developing this technology for over seven years, and will now test the concept with CAPSTONE by sending back and forth signals with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
What other lunar missions are approaching?
The largest launch to the Moon expected this year is Artemis 1, the first major test flight of NASA systems to return astronauts to the lunar surface. As early as the end of August, NASA could launch a giant rocket, the Space Launch System, which would carry an astronaut capsule, Orion. The capsule will travel around the Moon and return to Earth without astronauts on board.
Also in August, South Korea could launch a spacecraft, the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter. The spacecraft would be the country’s first visitor to the Moon and would study facets of lunar geology using a variety of scientific instruments.
Other missions planned this year are less certain to occur. Russia has said it plans to return a robotic landing to the moon for the first time since 1976. A Japanese company, ispace, also aims to transport cargo from Japan and other countries to the lunar surface. Two American companies, Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic, also have similar missions, having been hired by NASA to transport lunar cargo in the same way that SpaceX is now launching cargo into the International Space Station.
NASA has also awarded SpaceX a major contract to build the next lunar landing for astronauts. Although this landing is years away from being ready, in the coming months, the company could test an orbital test flight of Starship, the spacecraft that will be the basis of this landing.