CAPSTONE: Flying a new path to the Moon

This NASA video explains the CAPSTONE mission. It was produced prior to CAPSTONE’s launch from Māhia Peninsula.

Jargon alert:

• CAPSTONE gets its name from Cislunar s Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment.

• Cislunar is Latin for ‘on this side of the Moon’. It is the area of space around the Earth that extends to just beyond the Moon’s orbit.

Transcript

Narrator

Before NASA’s Artemis astronauts go to the Moon, a small spacecraft called CAPSTONE will help lead the way.

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment will test a unique lunar orbit that has never been flown before.

This orbit will be home for NASA’s Gateway – the future space outpost that will support visiting astronauts on their way to the Moon and beyond. To help prepare for Gateway operations in this orbit, CAPSTONE will fly the path first. 

The mission will be led by small business partner Advanced Space. Rocket Lab will launch the spacecraft.

The gravities of Earth, the Sun and the Moon will help propel it into deep space. As it nears its destination, CAPSTONE will use its propulsion system to enter an elongated path around the Moon.

The spacecraft will orbit between the gravities of Earth and the Moon in a precisely balanced dance. For six months, it will gather data about this crown-shaped trajectory known as a near-rectilinear halo orbit.

The path provides an unobstructed view of Earth as it orbits the Moon’s poles and allows for continuous communications with ground-based control centres. CAPSTONE will also demonstrate a new onboard navigation system. It will communicate with NASA’s Moon observing Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite to calculate its position.

The technology could allow future spacecraft to pinpoint their location without having to entirely rely on tracking from Earth.

CAPSTONE’s flight will demonstrate how this unique lunar orbit can support future spacecraft around the Moon – helping to launch a new era of human space exploration.