The spacecraft, called CAPSTONE, is about the size of a microwave oven. It will study a specific orbit where NASA plans to build a small space station to stop astronauts before and after going to the surface of the Moon. At 21:55 local time (5:55 a.m. Eastern Time), a 59-foot CAPSTONE rocket took off from a launch site along New Zealand’s east coast. Although the mission collects information about NASA, it is owned and operated by a private company, Advanced Space, based in Westminster, Colo. For a spacecraft headed to the moon, CAPSTONE is cheap, costing just under $ 30 million, including launch from Rocket Lab, a US-New Zealand company. The first two stages of the Electron rocket placed the CAPSTONE in an elliptical orbit around the Earth. For this mission, the Rocket Lab has essentially added a third stage that will methodically raise the spacecraft’s height over the next six days. At that point, CAPSTONE will head to the moon, following a slow but efficient route, arriving on November 13th.
Why is NASA launching CAPSTONE?
The full name of the mission is the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment. For Artemis, NASA’s program to send astronauts back to the moon, NASA has 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 outpost is to be placed in what is known as an almost straight halo trajectory. The halo orbits are those affected by the gravity of two bodies – in this case, the Earth and the Moon. The influence of the two bodies helps to make the orbit extremely stable, minimizing the amount of propulsion needed to keep a spaceship orbiting the moon. Gravitational interactions also keep the orbit at an angle of about 90 degrees to the Earth’s point of view. (This is the almost straightforward part of the name.) Thus, a spaceship on this orbit never passes behind the moon, where communications would be interrupted. The orbit that the Gateway will travel comes about 2,200 miles from the Moon’s North Pole and goes up to 44,000 miles as it passes over the South Pole. A trip around the moon will take about a week. No spaceship has ever traveled on this orbit. Thus, CAPSTONE will provide data to NASA to confirm its mathematical models for the operation of the Gateway outpost in an almost straight halo orbit.
Which companies operate CAPSTONE?
NASA did not design or build CAPSTONE, nor will it operate it. The spacecraft is owned and operated by Advanced Space, a company of 45 employees just outside Denver. Advanced Space actually bought the 55-pound, microwave-sized satellite 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, a US-New Zealand company that leads in delivering small payloads into orbit. The company has its own launch site on the north island of New Zealand for its Electron missiles. NASA spent about $ 20 million on Advanced Space to build and operate the spacecraft, as well as just under $ 10 million on the Rocket Lab launcher.
What will happen during the mission?
Upon arrival on the moon, the mission will take six months, with the possibility of being extended for another year or more. The main task is to explore the best way to stay on the desired trajectory. By measuring how long it takes radio signals to travel back and forth on Earth, the spacecraft triangulates its position and then pushes it off course. This may take some trial and error, because no spacecraft has traveled on this orbit before, and without a global positioning system on the moon, the uncertainty in the spacecraft’s position at any given time is greater. CAPSTONE will also try an alternative method of locating it by working with other spacecraft orbiting the moon. Advanced Space has been developing this technology for more than seven years and will now test the idea with CAPSTONE sending signals back and forth with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
What other missions to the moon are coming?
The biggest launch to the moon 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, the Orion. The capsule will travel around the moon and return to Earth without astronauts. Also in August, South Korea could launch a spacecraft, the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter. The spacecraft would be the first visitor to the country to the moon and would study aspects of lunar geology using a variety of scientific instruments. Other missions expected this year are less likely to take place. Russia has said it plans to return a robotic landing to the Moon for the first time since 1976. A Japanese company, ispace, plans to transport cargo from Japan and several other countries to the lunar surface as well. Two US companies, Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic, also have similar missions, which have been contracted by NASA to transport lunar cargo in the same way that SpaceX now launches cargo to the International Space Station. NASA has also awarded SpaceX a major contract to build the next astronaut landing moon. While this spacecraft is years away from being ready, in the coming months, the company could test a orbital test flight of the Starship, the spacecraft that will form the basis for this spacecraft.
