![]() "This capability could provide autonomous onboard navigation information for future lunar missions." "The test proved the ability to collect measurements that will be utilized by CAPS software to determine the positioning of both spacecraft," NASA officials wrote in an update last week. CAPSTONE beamed a signal to LRO, which bounced it back to the tiny spacecraft, where it was converted into a measurement of the distance and relative velocity between the two probes. Six days later, the CAPSTONE team used the cubesat to test navigation technology similar to GPS on Earth called the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS).ĭuring the successful May 9 experiment, CAPSTONE teamed up with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been circling the moon since 2009. The microwave-sized satellite imaged the lunar surface for the first time on May 3, as it made a close pass by the north pole. As part of an initiative called Moonlight, ESA is now conducting deep analyses of the planned lunar missions and further developing possible solutions, both technical and business-related, to provide telecommunications and navigation services for the Moon.In the NRHO, CAPSTONE gets as close as 11,000 miles (17,700 kilometers) to one lunar pole during a near pass and then as far away as 43,500 miles (70,000 km) from the other pole every seven days. It could even enable the teleoperation of rovers and other equipment from Earth.įor the past three years, ESA has been working along with industrial partners to explore the lunar market. Rovers could trundle over the lunar surface more speedily. Radio astronomers could set up observatories on the far side of the Moon. This would make space for more scientific instruments or other cargo.Īn accurate and reliable telecommunications and navigation service would enable missions to land wherever they wanted. Having one system dedicated to lunar telecommunications and navigation could reduce design complexity, liberating missions to concentrate on their core activities.īecause missions could rely on this dedicated telecommunications and navigation services, they would be lighter. If this work were outsourced to a consortium of space companies that could put a constellation of satellites around the Moon, each individual mission would become more cost-efficient. Building these independently would be costly, complex and inefficient. To succeed, each of these ambitious plans requires reliable navigation and telecommunication capabilities. Developed in collaboration with ESA, the spacecraft will be a mission enabler for polar and far-side missions which, without direct line-of-sight of the Earth, would otherwise have to procure their own communications relay spacecraft. It envisages regular launches starting in the later part of this decade and continuing into the 2030s.īefore then, a Lunar Pathfinder spacecraft designed to provide affordable communications services to lunar missions is due to be launched, perhaps by the end of 2022. ![]() The Gateway will be home to European astronauts as well as those from around the world, and it will have a communications module developed by ESA.ĮSA is working on plans for a European Large Logistic Lander to provide different types of uncrewed missions, from supply runs for Artemis astronauts, to stand-alone robotic science and technology demonstration missions and even a lunar return mission to bring samples to laboratories on Earth. NASA’s Artemis programme plans to return humans to the Moon by 2024 and, in cooperation with ESA and other partners, intends to put a Gateway with living quarters for astronauts in lunar orbit. ![]()
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