May 19. (EUROPE PRESS) –
NASA’s CAPSTONE cubeSat successfully tested GPS-like navigation technology on Earth for the first time, whose purpose is to help more efficient space missions on the Moon.
He Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System of the mission is a spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation and communications system that works with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to determine the distance between the two spacecraft in lunar orbit.
This technology could allow future spacecraft to determine their position in space without relying solely on tracking from Earth. CAPSTONE also has a new precision one-way ranging capability built into its radio that it could reduce the amount of ground network time needed for operations in space.
The spacecraft also captured its first images of the Moon, showing the lunar surface near the Moon’s North Pole as CAPSTONE approached the Moon on May 3, reports NASA.
Launched in June 2022, CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) last November became the first spacecraft to enter a unique elongated orbit that will support NASA’s Artemis missions.
In this special orbit, formally known as a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO), the pull of Earth’s gravity and the Moon interact to allow a semi-stable orbit. There, physics does most of the work of keeping spacecraft in orbit on the Moon, reducing the need for spacecraft to use fuel to maintain NRHO compared to other similar orbits.
This microwave-sized satellite, weighing just 25 kilograms, is the first CubeSat to fly and operate on the Moon. The CubeSat serves as a pioneer for Gateway, the future lunar-orbiting space station that is part of NASA’s Artemis program.
