What is NASA’s CAPSTONE Mission?

The CAPSTONE mission is deliberate for launch no sooner than Could 2022. Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite tv for pc bus will ship CAPSTONE right into a trajectory towards the Moon. Credit score: Illustration by NASA/Daniel Rutter

A small CubeSat, concerning the dimension of a microwave oven and weighing simply 55 kilos (25 kg), will function the primary spacecraft to check a novel, elliptical lunar orbit as a part of the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Know-how Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE). As a pathfinder for Gateway, a Moon-orbiting outpost that's a part of NASA’s Artemis program, CAPSTONE will assist scale back the danger for future spacecraft by validating progressive navigation applied sciences and verifying the dynamics of this halo-shaped orbit.

The orbit, formally often known as a close to rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), is considerably elongated. Its location at a exact steadiness level within the gravitational pulls of Earth and the Moon, gives stability for long-term missions like Gateway and requires minimal power to keep up. CAPSTONE’s orbit additionally establishes a location that is a perfect staging space for missions to the Moon and past. The orbit will deliver CAPSTONE inside 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of 1 lunar pole on its close to move and 43,500 miles (70,000 km) from the opposite pole at its peak each seven days, requiring much less propulsion functionality for spacecraft flying to and from the Moon’s floor than different round orbits.

CAPSTONE revealed in lunar Dawn: CAPSTONE will fly in cislunar house – the orbital house close to and across the Moon. The mission will display an progressive spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation resolution on the Moon from a close to rectilinear halo orbit slated for Artemis’ Gateway. Credit score: Illustration by NASA/Daniel Rutter

After a three-month journey to its goal vacation spot, CAPSTONE will orbit this space across the Moon for at the very least six months to grasp the traits of the orbit. Particularly, it's going to validate the ability and propulsion necessities for sustaining its orbit as predicted by NASA’s fashions, lowering logistical uncertainties. It can additionally display the reliability of progressive spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation options in addition to communication capabilities with Earth. The NRHO gives the benefit of an unobstructed view of Earth along with protection of the lunar South Pole.

To check these new navigation capabilities, CAPSTONE has a second devoted payload flight laptop and radio that can carry out calculations to find out the place the CubeSat is in its orbital path. Circling the Moon since 2009, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will function a reference level for CAPSTONE. The intention is for CAPSTONE to speak immediately with LRO and make the most of the information obtained from this crosslink to measure how far it's from LRO and how briskly the space between the 2 modifications, which in flip determines CAPSTONE’s place in house.

CAPSTONE in orbit close to the Moon: As soon as launched from Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite tv for pc bus, CAPSTONE will use its propulsion system to journey for roughly three months earlier than coming into into orbit across the Moon. Credit score: Illustration by NASA/Daniel Rutter

This peer-to-peer info shall be used to guage CAPSTONE’s autonomous navigation software program. If profitable, this software program, known as the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS), will enable future spacecraft to decide their location with out having to rely solely on monitoring from Earth. This functionality might allow future expertise demonstrations to carry out on their very own with out assist from the bottom and permit ground-based antennas to prioritize priceless science knowledge over extra routine operational monitoring.

CAPSTONE is scheduled to launch no sooner than Could 2022 aboard a Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the corporate’s Launch Advanced 1 in New Zealand. With a extremely formidable schedule, CAPSTONE will display key industrial capabilities. NASA companions will take a look at cutting-edge instruments for mission planning and operations, paving the way in which and increasing alternatives for small and extra reasonably priced house and exploration missions to the Moon, Mars and different locations all through the photo voltaic system.

CAPSTONE over the lunar North Pole: After arrival on the Moon, CAPSTONE will start its 6-month-long main mission. The mission will validate a close to rectilinear halo orbit’s traits by demonstrating methods to enter into and function within the orbit. Credit score: Illustration by NASA/Daniel Rutter

Mission targets:

• Confirm the traits of a cis-lunar close to rectilinear halo orbit for future spacecraft
• Reveal coming into and sustaining this distinctive orbit that gives a highly-efficient path to the Moon’s floor and again
• Reveal spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation companies that enable future spacecraft to decide their location relative to the Moon with out relying solely on monitoring from Earth
• Lay a basis for industrial assist of future lunar operations
• Acquire expertise with small devoted launches of CubeSats past low-Earth orbit, to the Moon, and past

Companions:

• Superior Area of Westminster, Colorado, is growing and working CAPSTONE.
• Tyvak Nano-Satellite tv for pc Methods, a Terran Orbital Company, of Irvine, California, is constructing the CubeSat platform.
• Stellar Exploration, Inc. of San Luis Obispo, California, is offering CAPSTONE’s propulsion system.
• Rocket Lab of Lengthy Seashore, California, is offering launch companies. The launch is managed by NASA’s Launch Companies Program at NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart in Florida.
• NASA’s Small Spacecraft Know-how program throughout the company’s Area Know-how Mission Directorate is managing the CAPSTONE challenge. This system is predicated at NASA’s Ames Analysis Heart in California’s Silicon Valley.
• NASA’s Superior Exploration Methods throughout the company’s Exploration Methods Improvement Mission Directorate is funding the launch and supporting mission operations.
• The event of CAPS is supported by NASA’s Small Enterprise Innovation Analysis (SBIR) program.
• NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Heart in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages LRO.