Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

CAPSTONE
Credit: NASA

A soon-to-launch cubesat will be one of the first ever to fly in the unique Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO).

Advanced Space owns and operates the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission going to the Moon in the early part of 2022.

CAPSTONE is a pathfinder mission for NASA’s Artemis program using a small spacecraft.

The planned NASA Lunar Gateway station will be in a NRHO around the Moon.

Orion spacecraft pulls up to Gateway.
Credit: NASA

Advanced Space of Westminster, Colorado has entered into a Cooperative Research And Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Space Vehicles Directorate, and the Spacecraft Technology Division to share data collected from cislunar space through the CAPSTONE mission.

Data sharing

The CRADA focus is to share data collected from the CAPSTONE cubesat as it treks between the Earth and Moon. The opportunity to analyze data retrieved from the mission will be beneficial for future mission design and navigation strategies for defense and other customers, according to an Advanced Space statement.

Credit: Advanced Space

Significant amounts of data are anticipated to be collected while the CAPSTONE’S Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System, or CAPS, allows the spacecraft to explore and maneuver the orbit.

The CAPSTONE mission will provide “invaluable insight to fortify our space domain awareness of cislunar space, a domain of increased importance,” said James Frith, AFRL’s program manager for Cislunar Space Domain Awareness.