CAPSTONE mission is Moon-bound, after less rocketry than expected
- Reference: 1657003512
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/07/05/capstone_orbit_success/
- Source link:
The CAPSTONE mission plan called for the satellite to launch from New Zealand atop a Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle, then enter Earth orbit before a series of eight burns accelerated it to over 40,000km/h – enough to escape our planet's gravity and send it towards the Moon.
That plan went better than expected: last Friday Rocket Labs [1]announced that the sixth orbit-raising burn was so successful it removed the need for a planned seventh burn.
MISSION UPDATE: Separation success!
Our [2]#CAPSTONE spacecraft has released from [3]@RocketLab ’s Photon upper stage and started its solo journey to the Moon. The pathfinder is scheduled to arrive at its lunar orbit on Nov. 13.
Learn More: [4]https://t.co/z08vYj0Q7k [5]pic.twitter.com/VOGSafiDpR — Advanced Space (@AdvancedSpace) [6]July 4, 2022
On Monday, the final burn did the job of placing CAPSTONE in a ballistic lunar transfer trajectory.
The distance between Earth and Luna is around 384,400km on average. CAPSTONE's journey will see it traverse more than 1.5 million kilometers on an orbit that NASA [7]describes as a "sinuous track [that] follows dynamic gravitational contours in deep space" and uses the Sun's gravity to send the probe towards the Moon.
China rebuffs NASA suggestion it will monopolize Moon
China has rebuffed assertions made by NASA's highest ranking official that it wants to take over the Moon. NASA administrator Bill Nelson [8]told German media outlet Bild earlier this month that there was concern "about China landing on the Moon and saying 'It's ours now, and you're staying out.'" Nelson also mentioned China's robotic space grappling arm and suggested the nation wants to control the Moon's ice deposits. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian [9]responded by calling the remarks "a smear campaign against China's normal and reasonable outer space endeavors."
The journey will take four months – rather longer than the three-day transfer time for the Apollo missions.
CAPSTONE's going slower because, as an uncrewed mission, speed is not of the essence – also because the ballistic trajectory uses less fuel and is therefore cheaper. Rocket Lab [10]states that it can launch its Electron rocket for under $5 million.
[11]
Electron rockets can hoist 300kg into space. On this mission that included the Photon spacecraft that elevated CAPSTONE until it was on its way to Luna.
[12]NASA delays SLS rollback due to concerns over rocky path to launchpad
[13]City-killing asteroid won't hit Earth in 2052 after all
[14]Chinese boffins suggest launching nuclear Neptune orbiter in 2030
NASA boffins will spend the next four months nudging CAPSTONE towards its destination.
Once it arrives, CAPSTONE will settle into a near rectilinear halo orbit – an orbit that oscillates in a shape like a crown and always keeps Earth in view. It's the same orbit NASA plans to use for the Lunar Gateway – an orbiting station it will use for future crewed Moon missions. The Gateway may also play a role in missions beyond Earth's immediate neighborhood. ®
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[1] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220701005184/en/%C2%A0Rocket-Lab%E2%80%99s-Lunar-Photon-Completes-Sixth-Orbit-Raise-for-NASA%E2%80%99s-CAPSTONE-Mission-to-The-Moon
[2] https://twitter.com/hashtag/CAPSTONE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[3] https://twitter.com/RocketLab?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[4] https://t.co/z08vYj0Q7k
[5] https://t.co/VOGSafiDpR
[6] https://twitter.com/AdvancedSpace/status/1543878405011263491?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[7] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/capstone-uses-gravity-on-unusual-efficient-route-to-the-moon
[8] https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/politik-inland/nasa-chef-schlaegt-alarm-chinesen-wollen-den-mond-besetzen-80490242.bild.html
[9] https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/202207/t20220704_10715130.html
[10] https://www.rocketlabusa.com/updates/rocket-lab-usa-poised-to-change-the-space-industry/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YsQLwTnpU0IcR7QRJ2x54wAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/01/artemis_crawlerway/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/29/asteroid_earth_impact_esa/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/29/china_nuclear_neptune/
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I think it's more "went righter" than "went wrong". They will work to a range of outcomes from each burn and eight will (probably?) have been the worst case. If you look at the JWST coverage, they ended up with a lot more fuel for station keeping than the 10 year baseline thanks to a very precise launch and mid-course burns - see https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Precise_Ariane_5_launch_likely_to_extend_Webb_s_expected_lifetime
Touching Cloth?
What exactly is a near rectum liner hello orbit?
Re: Touching Cloth?
I don't believe that's useful unless you plan a mission to Uranus
Re: Touching Cloth?
it's an orbit that swooshes around the bowl but never quite gets sucked down into the gravity well - though it does need a boost every now and again!
Re: Touching Cloth?
I hate to think what a rectum orbit might involve, but a near rectilinear halo orbit can be described by it's constituent words.
An orbit is where something goes around and around, typically in a circle. As the orbit gets more eccentric it goes from a circle to an oval to an ellipse, finally to rectilinear (out and back in a single plane). so a near rectilinear orbit is one where alot of time is spent "out" in orbit with very little time "near" the body it's orbiting (in this case the moon).
A halo orbit is one which goes through, or is very close to the a Lagrange point . A Lagrange point is where gravitational forces balance out. From memory there are 5 Lagrange points in any orbiting system. If you draw a line out from the larger body (the earth in this case) through the smaller body (the moon in this case) the two orbiting bodies one is on the line between the two (closer to the smaller one), another is on the other side of the smaller body, two are at 90 degrees to that line before and after the smaller body on it's orbit and the final one is on the same line, but on the far side of the larger body.
So a near rectilinear halo orbit is one that is an elipse with one end near the moon and another by one of the Lagrange points. From the Earth's perspective the orbit is flat so we can always see (communicate with) the satellite, think you're drawing an elipse with a laser pointer around something on the wall on the other side of the room. You would be the earth, the thing on the wall would be the moon and the elipse is the near rectilinear halo orbit . If you look at the orbit from afar it looks similar to the ridges on the paper hats you get out of Christmas crackers.
As the thing they want to orbit is on the south pole of the moon, the satellite spends most of the time over that spot with very little time (a few hours) out of site from there. The base on the moon can then use the satellite as a relay station to earth.
The article in "BILD"
Well... that taboid might occasionally and accidnetally contain a grain of truth (the football results from the weekend, I guess), but here I find it more likely that they got their statement from NASA administrator Bill Nelson's dog, and maybe not the dog's mouth... I'd take that with a grain of salt and a fistfull of chilli powder.
Re: The article in "BILD"
Joe W,
Much like 'The Sun' in the UK .... but with 'fwer spleing mistackes' !!!
:)
NASA boffins will spend months nudging CAPSTONE.
Is there a point at which boffin time and associated infrastructure becomes more expensive than putting a bigger rocket on and getting it there faster?
Did it go better than expected because they forgot to attach some pieces? I was under the impression that anything involving trajectories in space was heavily simulated before launch, so it concerns me (the uneducated lay person) that anything unexpected can happen without something having gone "wrong".