NASA’s small CAPSTONE spacecraft has begun its long historical journey to the moon.
The 55-pound (25-kilogram) cubeset was released today (June 28) on a Rocket laboratory Electron amplifier, which left the company’s 1st launch complex on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula at 5:55 am EDT (09:55 GMT; 9:55 pm local time in New Zealand).
“The launch was absolutely fantastic,” said Bradley Smith, director of NASA’s Office of Launch Services, which was available for night photography of the moon.
CAPSTONE is headed to the moon, where it will test the stability of the orbit that NASA plans to use for its Advanced Space Gateway site. But it will be a while before CAPSTONE reaches its destination.
Related: NASA’s CAPSTONE moon mission to go where no cubes have gone before
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An electron impeller from Rocket Lab carrying NASA’s cubed CAPSTONE to the moon is launched from a platform on the Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand on June 28, 2022. (Image credit: NASA TV)
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The takeoff occurred at 5:55 am EDT (0955 GMT) after months of delays. (Image credit: NASA TV)Image 1 of 2
A tortuous journey
He Apollo the missions reached the moon in about three days. But these famous spacecraft were ejected from Earth by NASA’s Saturn V rocket, the most powerful propellant ever to fly.
The CAPSTONE the size of a microwave oven (short for “Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment”), on the other hand, left our planet aboard the 59-foot-tall Electron (18 meters). ), which is designed to send small satellites into Earth orbit. So CAPSTONE is taking the scenic route.
CAPSTONE is a payload on board photo, the Rocket Lab spacecraft bus, which was integrated into the upper stage of the two-stage Electron. About nine minutes after today’s launch, Photon and CAPSTONE separated from the upper stage into low Earth orbit.
“Perfect Electron Launch!” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck wrote in an update on Twitter (opens in a new tab). “The lunar photon is in low Earth orbit.”
Over the next five days, Photon will gradually increase its orbit through a series of engine burns. Six days after launch, Photon will perform one last burn, which will increase its speed to 24,500 mph (39,500 km / h), fast enough to escape Earth’s orbit and head to the Moon. In 20 minutes after this burning, Photon will deploy CAPSTONE, Rocket Lab representatives wrote in a mission press dossier, which you can find here (opens in a new tab).
CAPSTONE will occasionally fire its own thrusters over the next few months, keeping it on an efficient, low-energy trajectory toward the moon. The cubesat path will take it up to 810,000 miles (1.3 million kilometers) from Earth, more than three times as long. Earth-Moon distance – before gravity pulls him back.
Finally, on November 13, CAPSTONE will be inserted into an almost rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the Moon, an intriguing place but untested in space. The $ 30 million mission is headed for NASA by Colorado-based Advanced Space.
Related: NASA’s CAPSTONE moon mission to go where no cubes have gone before
A CAPSTONE technician is working on the cubes, which could yield great results for NASA and its lunar plans for the future. (Image credit: Dominic Hart / NASA)
Paving the way for Gateway
The NRHO will take CAPSTONE 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from one lunar pole at its nearest pass and 43,500 miles (70,000 km) from the other pole at its farthest point.
Mission engineers hope this orbit will be very stable: spacecraft would not have to burn too much fuel to stay in the NRHO, thanks to the gravitational balance of the Moon and Earth, the researchers say. This is one of the main reasons why NASA has taken advantage of it Gateway space stationa key part of the agency Artemis program of lunar exploration. Gateway will serve as a starting point for departures, both manned and unmanned, to the lunar surface. NASA aims to launch the basics of the small advanced lunar orbiting site by the end of 2024.
An animated graphic representing the unique orbit of the CAPSTONE cubes around the moon. (Image credit: Advanced Space)
But no spacecraft has ever occupied a lunar NRHO before, so the hypotheses about its stability are just that: assumptions. And this is where CAPSTONE comes in. The cubesat will spend at least six months in the NRHO, assessing its characteristics.
“The reason we’re in this orbit is that it’s incredibly stable, but also relatively close to the Moon,” said Nujoud Merancy, head of the planning office for NASA’s space exploration mission. Johnson of Houston, in a video aired during the launch of NASA. webcast.
With CAPSTONE as a kind of search engine, it can demonstrate navigation, orientation, propulsion to maintain orbit, and we can really extract the math to validate orbits for Gateway, Orion and Artemis missions. ” said Merancy.
The CAPSTONE mission “will also demonstrate innovative navigation solutions, including spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation and unidirectional range capabilities with ground-based earth stations,” according to a Rocket Lab press dossier.
The spacecraft to spacecraft tests will be conducted in conjunction with those of NASA Lunar reconnaissance orbiterwhich revolves around the Moon since 2009.
Private companies exploring deep space
CAPSTONE is a big milestone for Rocket Lab, which had never before launched a mission into deep space. But Rocket Lab will send other distant missions in the near future, if all goes according to plan; the California-based company aims to launch at least one life hunting mission to Venus using Electron and Photon in the coming years.
And CAPSTONE is also paving the way for private space flights in other ways. Colorado-based company Advanced Space developed the mission and will operate it, having won a $ 20 million NASA contract to do so.
Other sales teams are also involved. Two California companies, Terran Orbital Corp. of Irvine and Stellar Exploration, Inc. of San Luis Obispo, built the CAPSTONE cubes and provided their propulsion system, respectively. And Rocket Lab, of course, sent the mission to the moon.
CAPSTONE was initially scheduled to launch in May, but the takeoff was delayed several times for system checks and other testing.
Mike Wall is the author of “Over there (opens in new tab) “(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in a new tab). follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab) or activated Facebook (opens in a new tab).