CAPSTONE, NASA’s new satellite

Context 

NASA launched CAPSTONE, a new satellite that will test a unique lunar orbit that will be used by future missions.

About CAPSTONE

• CAPSTONE, a microwave oven-sized CubeSat weighing just 55 pounds (25 kg).
• CAPSTONE, short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, is designed to test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit.
• The satellite, launched on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, is heading toward an orbit intended in the future for Gateway, a Moon-orbiting outpost that is part of NASA’s Artemis program.
  
  

Significance

• CAPSTONE aims to help reduce risk for future spacecraft by validating innovative navigation technologies, and by verifying the dynamics of the halo-shaped orbit.
• The orbit is known as a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO).
• It is significantly elongated, and is located at a precise balance point in the gravities of Earth and the Moon. This offers stability for long-term missions like Gateway.

About Artemis mission

• NASA’s Artemis mission is the next generation of lunar exploration, and is named after the twin sister of Apollo from Greek mythology.
• With the Artemis programme, NASA aims to land humans on the moon by 2024, and it also plans to land the first woman and first person of colour on the moon.
• NASA will establish an Artemis Base Camp on the surface and a gateway (the lunar outpost around the Moon) in lunar orbit to aid exploration by robots and astronauts.
• The gateway is a critical component of NASA’s sustainable lunar operations and will serve as a multi-purpose outpost orbiting the moon.