CAPSTONE on Target to Reach Lunar Orbit After Troubled Journey

NASA ’s CAPSTONE perform its 4th of six planned trajectory correction maneuver on Thursday , October 27 , setting the stagecoach for the space vehicle ’s arrival to an elliptical aura lunar orbit in less than two weeks .

The 55 - pound cubesat fired its actuation system for 220 seconds during the planned maneuver , Advanced Space , the individual company cope the mission for NASA , explained in anupdate . The mission ’s fourth flight correction maneuver transpired late last week , move CAPSTONE ever closer to its ultimate destination : the lunar Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit ( NRHO ) . The probe is bear to achieve its operable orbit on November 13 .

Advanced Space says the investigation was 308,076 Roman mile ( 495,800 kilometers ) from Earth at the time of the simulated military operation , or about 69,000 Roman mile ( 111,000 km ) past the Moon . NASA and its partners are using theballistic lunar transfer(BLT ) proficiency to transfer CAPSTONE to NRHO which , though involved and long , is extremely fuel - effective . The space vehicle launched on June 28 and has been flying solo in space for the past four calendar month .

Artistic depiction of CAPSTONE in lunar orbit.

Artistic depiction of CAPSTONE in lunar orbit.Gif: NASA/Daniel Rutter

Once in NRHO , the $ 33 million cubesat will enter into uncharted territory , as no space vehicle has ever worked in this highly elliptical orbit — one destine for the upcomingGatewayspace station . CAPSTONE , light for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment , will test this orbit for NASA , setting the level for Gateway and the upcomingArtemis missionsto the Moon .

The a la mode flight correction maneuver “ confirms the provision , extensive analysis , teams working together and continued hard work to allow this missionary work to rest successful , especially follow the late anomalousness , ” Alec Forsman , CAPSTONE mission operations coach at Advanced Space , say in the update .

Indeed , themission endanger to go sideway after the third course correction maneuveron September 8 . CAPSTONE , build by Terran Orbital , lost axis ascendance and began tumbling , a serious position that threatened to jump intact the mission . Unable to point its solar panel toward the Sun , CAPSTONE was n’t able to amply recharge .

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The recovery team eventually traced the trouble to a partially give valve on one of the space vehicle ’s eight thrusters , which the team remedied with arecovery sequencetransmitted to CAPSTONE a full calendar month after the anomaly . As NASAadds : “ The mission squad will design future maneuvers to work around the regard valve , including the two remaining trajectory correction maneuvers scheduled before CAPSTONE ’s reaching to orbit at the Moon . ”

With the fourth flight correction manoeuver pure , CAPSTONE is now sidereal day away from reaching its orbit around the Moon and entering into the demonstration phase angle of the missionary work . The investigation will spend at least six months gathering operating data point and essay autonomous spacecraft - to - space vehicle piloting capabilities , the latter of which could eventually lead to spacecraft able of determining their own locating in space without outside help . An other successful run , in which NASA ’s Deep Space internet facilitate a conversation between CAPSTONE and the means ’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter , is a bright head start to the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System monstrance , as Advanced Space calls it .

More : NASA to Attempt Crewed Moon Landing During Fourth Artemis Mission

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