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WASHINGTON – NASA has awarded a small business contract for the development of a cubesat designed to demonstrate the use of the single orbit planned for the agency's lunar gateway.
The $ 13.7 million contract from Colorado, Advanced Space, is for the development of the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPSTONE) technology and navigation experiment, a 12-unit cube that the agency could launch by the end of 2020.
The spacecraft will probably be the first to use what is known as an almost straight halo orbit, an elliptical polar orbit around the moon whose nearest point to the moon is above a pole and the the farthest point above the other pole. NASA plans to use this orbit for the lunar gateway, which will serve as a starting point for human landings near the south pole of the moon from 2024.
CAPSTONE will demonstrate that the orbit is stable for spacecraft, reducing what NASA calls "logistical uncertainty" for the gateway. The machine will also test a navigation system that will measure its position relative to NASA's lunar reconnaissance orbiter and the evolution of this distance over time, allowing cubesat to measure its position without resorting to stations. on the ground.
"This mission is very ambitious in terms of cost and schedule – and taking this deliberate risk is part of the goal of this mission – in parallel with the rapid technological progress of the cununary navigation and the ability to verify the trajectory assumptions. orbital and solve the unknowns for future missions, "Jim Reuter, Associate Administrator of Space Technologies at NASA, said in a statement of September 13 announcing the CAPSTONE contract.
Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, a developer of cubesat, associates with Advanced Space. Brad Cheetham, Executive Director of Advanced Space, said Tyvak would supply the spacecraft while it would take care of the overall management of the project and some of the key technologies of the spacecraft, such as its navigation system .
Advanced Space is working on lunar navigation technologies, including obtaining a Space Act agreement in July with this system called the Cislunar autonomous positioning system (CAPS). Mr Cheetham said that this previous agreement would support CAPS, and therefore the CAPSTONE mission, by giving the company access to NASA's expertise as well as Lunar's reconnaissance mission resources.
"The CAPSTONE mission will be an opportunity to demonstrate the essential components of CAPS as well as other capabilities we are working on," he said. "We view this work as a guide for NASA as well as for future missions on the moon by others."
How CAPSTONE goes to lunar orbit remains uncertain. According to NASA's statement, the agency was considering a number of options, including launching the cubesat as the main payload on a small launcher. NASA predicts that the spacecraft will reach lunar orbit in three months for a six-month core mission.
Cheetham said that NASA is responsible for getting the launch. "I think we will have more details on this aspect of the mission in the months to come," he said.
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