The Capstone nanosatellite has left Earth orbit after spending a few days there. Now, he is going to the Moon to carry out a capital mission: to test the orbit of the future lunar station.
This is it: Capstone has left Earth’s orbit. The US space agency, in a July 4 update, reports that the nanosatellite is now on its way to the Moon. It will be a long trip: the route that has been concocted by NASA provides for a four-month journey to reach the satellite. During this period, the craft will use both its own propulsion and the Sun’s gravity.
Capstone, acronym for ” Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment “, leads a decisive mission for the Artemis program – which consists in bringing astronauts back to the lunar soil during the 2020 decade. The nanosatellite assumes a scout mission, to evaluate in situ an orbit which will be used.
Capstone has a key mission: to test the orbit of the future lunar station
As part of the Artemis program, it is planned to place an orbital station around the Moon. This will make it possible to make the interface between the Earth – moon orbit and lunar orbit – lunar ground journeys. But it won’t be a classic orbit: it will be an almost rectilinear halo orbit, which looks like a sort of necklace hanging from the Moon’s neck.
This very elliptical configuration, with the Moon very off-centre, offers several advantages: it makes it possible to always be in direct sight with the Earth for communications. It does not require a lot of energy to keep the station in place. It provides easy access to the Moon from various locations. And it can be used for missions beyond the Moon.
You can follow Capstone’s odyssey to the Moon live: NASA provides an interactive site that allows you to view all kinds of events of interest in the Solar System. You will of course find the planets, the Sun, but also asteroids, comets and the probes sent by humans during the space conquest.
It is this year that the first act of the Artemis program must be played, with the Artemis I mission. It is a question of taking off the Space Launch System (SLS), with the Orion capsule at its top, to go around it of the Moon, before returning. It is an unmanned mission. The next one, in a few years, will repeat this exercise, but with personnel. And then ? We will aim for the moon.
