NASA could launch the first Artemis moon rocket in the coming days, but the Artemis Program is already racking up successes. After launching several months ago, the CAPSTONE probe has reached lunar orbit. It’s the first cubesat ever to travel from Earth to the moon, as well as the first spacecraft of any type to be placed in the unusual orbit devised for NASA’s planned Gateway Station.
The Artemis Program is not just going to repeat the short visits of the Apollo era. NASA intends Artemis to prepare humanity for a long-term lunar presence. That’s why it will begin launching components for the Gateway Station in the next few years. Having a station orbiting the moon will make surface expeditions easier, as well as provide a launching pad for missions to the outer solar system. But first, scientists need to make sure the proposed orbit works, and that’s CAPSTONE’s job.
CAPSTONE (short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) is about the size of a microwave, weighing just 55 pounds (25 kilograms). The spacecraft righted itself after a brief loss of control several weeks back, and as of late Sunday evening, has entered near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the moon.
NASA has proposed the highly elliptical NRHO course for Gateway to ensure the station will be able to maintain contact with Earth at all times. In NRHO, a vessel passes over the moon’s north pole at an altitude of 47,000 miles (76,000 kilometers), but upon reaching the south pole, it will be just 2,100 miles (3,400 km) above the surface. CAPSTONE will verify the stability of this novel orbit before NASA transports any Gateway modules to the moon.
#CAPSTONE is at the #Moon! Initial data indicates that insertion into Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) was executed as planned. This week, 2 cleanup maneuvers will ensure the spacecraft was precisely inserted into orbit. Congratulations, CAPSTONE Mission Team!#innovation2orbit pic.twitter.com/5uBwwSsZdy
— Advanced Space (@AdvancedSpace) November 14, 2022
Advanced Space, which manages the CAPSTONE mission for NASA, noted in its mission update that the spacecraft will perform two small correction maneuvers this week to ensure it is locked into the “complex” NRHO orbit. In the coming weeks, it will perform multiple communication and navigation tests that will pave the way for future lunar missions.
Of course, it will all be naught if the Space Launch System (SLS) doesn’t get off the ground. NASA’s first SLS (Artemis 1) has been delayed several times, and this comes after years of setbacks during the design and manufacturing phases. This is the first of six planned lunar missions and the only one to be uncrewed. Artemis 3 is slated to be the first moon landing in decades, and Artemis 4 will deliver the first components of the Gateway Station.
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