NASA It is finally set to launch its ‘capstone’ spacecraft mission on Tuesday morning, marking an important early stage in its Artemis program.
The spacecraft, which is about the size of a microwave oven and weighs just 55 pounds, will blast off from the Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand at 5:55 pm EDT (10:55 BST).
In six months, it will test the stability of a halo-shaped orbit around the Moon before this orbit is used by Lunar Gateway, NASA’s planned lunar outpost.
The Lunar Gateway will one day serve as a ‘staging area’ for landing humans on the Moon and potentially serve as a jumping-off point for missions. Mars planet,
The public can watch the launch of CAPSTONE from New Zealand NASA Live,
The spacecraft is about the size of a microwave oven and weighs just 55 pounds. It is depicted here in an artist’s impression of its orbit around the Moon.
Capstone at the Lunar North Pole: After arriving at the Moon, the craft will begin a six-month-long mission to validate a special type of orbit.
“CAPSTONE will help reduce risks to future spacecraft by validating innovative navigation techniques and verifying the dynamics of this unique, halo-shaped orbit,” NASA said.
‘CAPSTONE is targeted to launch before Tuesday, June 28, with an immediate launch opportunity at 5:55 a.m. EDT (9:55 UTC)’.
The spacecraft, originally scheduled for launch in October 2021, is being sent into space on an ‘Electron’ booster rocket manufactured by US firm Rocket Lab.
Electrons prepare to explode from Rocket Lab’s Mahia Peninsula launch site on New Zealand’s North Island.
CAPSTONE is the acronym for ‘Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment’.
It is unique in that it will travel in an elongated halo-shaped orbit, bringing it closer to 1,000 miles and 43,500 miles above the lunar surface.
It will use its propulsion system to travel for about three to four months before entering orbit around the Moon. a class will take place every seven days.
The picture is an artist’s impression of CAPSTONE in orbit around the Moon with Earth in the background
US company Rocket Lab will send the CAPSTONE satellite into space on its Electron rocket (pictured)
CAPSTONE will explode on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand
While it usually takes a few days for a spacecraft to reach the Moon, CAPSTONE will take longer because it is traveling at a slower speed and will have to take a longer route to gear itself to an unusual oval shape.
The strangely shaped orbit, officially called Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO), has never been attempted before in space.
The path of the orbit lies at a precise equilibrium point in the gravity of the Earth and the Moon, which means less energy is expended.
“The stability of this orbit will allow the capstone to behave almost as if it were held together by the gravity of Earth and the Moon,” said Elwood Agacid of NASA’s Ames Research Center. next web,
‘It requires very little energy to perform station-keeping or maneuver in other cislunar orbits’ [those between the earth and the moon],
According to NASA, CAPSTONE will orbit this region around the Moon for at least six months to understand the ‘orbit characteristics’.
The space agency said: ‘This will validate the power and propulsion requirements to maintain its orbit as predicted by NASA models, thereby reducing logistics uncertainties.
‘It will demonstrate the reliability of innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation solutions as well as communication capabilities with Earth.’
The first parts for the Lunar Gateway are not slated to launch until November 2024 at the earliest, giving NASA plenty of time to assess the results from the capstone.
Described as a ‘critical component’ of NASA’s Artemis programme, the Lunar Gateway will be a small space station orbiting the Moon, serving as a ‘multi-purpose outpost’.
Official word is that NASA’s Artemis program will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2025, although this may be pushed back again, said NASA investigator General Paul Martin. recently recommended,
The Lunar Gateway, pictured above the Moon in an artist’s impression, is described as a ‘critical component’ of NASA’s Artemis program.
NASA’s original date of landing humans on the Moon was 2024, but last year it was delay in dateThe firm is primarily responsible for litigation from Blue Origin, the firm of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Also this year, NASA is sending manikins into space as part of the Artemis I mission in August 2022.
Artemis I will pave the way for crewed flights – Artemis II, which will launch in May 2024 and fly to the Moon without landing on it, and Artemis III, which will actually touch down on the lunar surface.
Artemis III, which will launch ‘no earlier than 2025’, will be the first to land humans on the Moon in more than 50 years, since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
NASA’s Lunar Gateway: An Important Part of the Artemis Program
NASA is working on a project to build the first lunar space station, codenamed the Lunar Gateway Part of a long-term project to send humans to Mars.
NASA has said that the crew-tended spaceport will orbit the Moon and serve as a ‘gateway to deep space and the lunar surface’.
The station’s first module is expected to be completed by 2024.
An international base for lunar exploration for humans and robots and a stopover for spacecraft is a major contender to succeed the $100 billion International Space Station (ISS), the world’s largest space project to date.
Image: Diagram of the proposed Lunar Gateway space station
NASA’s upcoming Artemis mission aims to send the first crewed mission to the Moon since 1972 ‘not before 2025’.
It was originally due until 2024, but costs and litigation from Jeff Bezos’ firm Blue Origin forced NASA to push it back a year.
NASA ultimately wants to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon by 2028 as a result of the Artemis mission.
The space agency hopes the colony will uncover new scientific discoveries, demonstrate new technological advances, and lay the foundation for private companies to build the lunar economy.