He launched a small spaceship with great implications for the study of the moon.
The miniature satellite, called CubeSat, is the size of a microwave oven and weighs just 55 pounds (25 kilograms), but will be the first to test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit. CubeSat will act as a guide to the Gateway, an orbital lunar post that will serve as an intermediate station between Earth and the Moon for astronauts.
The orbit, which is called an almost rectilinear halo orbit, is very elongated and provides stability for long-term missions, while requiring little maintenance energy – just what the Gateway will need. The orbit exists at a balanced point in the gravity of the Moon and Earth.
The mission, called the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment and known as CAPSTONE, took off from the launch pad on Tuesday at 5:55 a.m. ET. CubeSat launched aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s New Zealand launch complex 1.
It will reach the orbit point within three months and then spend the next six months in orbit. The spacecraft can provide more data on the power and propulsion requirements of the Gateway.
CubeSat’s orbit will take the spacecraft 1,000 miles (1,609.3 kilometers) from one lunar pole to its nearest pass and 43,500 miles (70,006.5 kilometers) from the other pole every seven days. Using this orbit will be more energy efficient for spacecraft flying to and from the Gateway, as it requires less propulsion than more circular orbits.
The miniature spacecraft will also be used to test communication capabilities with Earth from this orbit, which has the advantage of a clear view of the Earth, while providing coverage for the moon’s south pole – where Artemis’ first astronauts are expected to land in 2025. .
NASA’s lunar reconnaissance orbit, which has been orbiting the moon for 13 years, will provide a starting point for CAPSTONE. The two spacecraft will communicate directly with each other, allowing ground crews to measure the distance between each of them and home at CAPSTONE’s exact location.
The collaboration between the two spacecraft can test CAPSTONE’s autonomous navigation software, called CAPS, or the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System. If this software works as expected, it can be used by future spacecraft without relying on Earth tracking.
“The CAPSTONE mission is a valuable forerunner not only for the Gateway, but also for the Orion spacecraft and the human landing system,” said Nujud Meransi, head of NASA’s research mission planning department at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Gateway and Orion will use CAPSTONE data to validate our model, which will be important for operations and future mission planning.”
SMALL SATELLITES ON A BIG MISSION
The CAPSTONE mission is a quick, low-cost demonstration designed to help lay the groundwork for future small spacecraft, said Christopher Baker, executive director of the small spacecraft technology program at NASA’s Space Technology Missions Directorate.
Small missions that can be assembled and launched quickly at a lower cost mean they can take risks than larger, more expensive missions cannot.
“So often in flight tests you learn so much, if not more, from failure than from success. “We can afford to take more risk, knowing that there is a chance of failure, but that we can accept this failure in turn to move to expanded opportunities,” Baker said. “In this case, failure is an option.”
Lessons from smaller CubeSat missions can inform larger missions in the future – and CubeSats is now heading for more challenging destinations from low Earth orbit.
When NASA’s InSight launch vehicle was on its nearly seven-month voyage to Mars in 2018, it was not alone. Two suitcase-sized spaceships, called MarCO, followed InSight during its voyage. They were the first cubic satellites to fly into deep space.
During InSight’s entry, descent and landing, MarCO satellites received and transmitted communications from the lander to notify NASA that InSight was safe on the surface of the red planet. They were called EVE and WALL-E, for the robots from the 2008 Pixar movie.
The fact that the small satellites reached Mars, flying behind InSight through space, excited the engineers. CubeSats continued to fly beyond Mars after InSight landed, but fell silent until the end of the year. But MarCO was an excellent test of how CubeSats could participate in larger missions.
These small but powerful spacecraft will once again play a supporting role in September, when the DART mission or the Double Asteroid Redirection Test will deliberately crash into lunar Dimorphos as it orbits the Earth asteroid Didim to change the asteroid’s motion in space. .
The collision will be recorded by LICIACube or Light Italian Cubesat for asteroid images accompanying a satellite cube provided by the Italian Space Agency. A suitcase-sized CubeSat travels on the DART, which launches in November 2021, and will be deployed by it before the impact to be able to record what is happening. Three minutes after the crash, CubeSat will fly past Dimorphos to capture images and video. The video of the impact will be transmitted back to Earth.
The Artemis I mission will also carry three CubeSats the size of a cereal box that will be launched into deep space. Separately, the small satellites will measure hydrogen at the moon’s south pole and map lunar water deposits, fly around the moon and study particles and magnetic fields emitted by the sun.
MORE AFFORDABLE MISSIONS
The CAPSTONE mission relies on NASA’s partnership with commercial companies such as Rocket Lab, Stellar Exploration, Terran Orbital Corporation and Advanced Space. The lunar mission was built with the help of an innovative research contract for a small business with a fixed price – in less than three years and for less than $ 30 million.
Larger missions can cost billions of dollars. The Perseverance rover, which is currently exploring Mars, is worth more than $ 2 billion, and the Artemis I mission is estimated at $ 4.1 billion, according to an audit by NASA’s Office of the Chief Inspector.
These types of contracts could expand opportunities for smaller, more accessible missions to the moon and other destinations, while creating a framework for trade support for future lunar operations, Baker said.
Baker’s hope is that small spacecraft missions can increase the pace of space exploration and scientific discovery – and CAPSTONE and other CubeSats are just the beginning.
Add Comment