The First Cubesat To Fly and Operate At the Moon Has Successfully Arrived (arstechnica.com) 34
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: After a journey of nearly five months, taking it far beyond the Moon and back, the little CAPSTONE spacecraft has successfully entered into lunar orbit. "We received confirmation that CAPSTONE arrived in near-rectilinear halo orbit, and that is a huge, huge step for the agency," said NASA's chief of exploration systems development, Jim Free, on Sunday evening. "It just completed its first insertion burn a few minutes ago. And over the next few days they'll continue to refine its orbit, and be the first cubesat to fly and operate at the Moon."
This is an important orbit for NASA, and a special one, because it is really stable, requiring just a tiny amount of propellant to hold position. At its closest point to the Moon, this roughly week-long orbit passes within 3,000 km of the lunar surface, and at other points it is 70,000 km away. NASA plans to build a small space station, called the Lunar Gateway, here later this decade. But before then, the agency is starting small. CAPSTONE is a scrappy, commercial mission that was supported financially, in part, by a $13.7 million grant from NASA. Developed by a Colorado-based company named Advanced Space, with help from Terran Orbital, the spacecraft itself is modestly sized, just a 12U cubesat with a mass of around 25 kg. It could fit comfortably inside a mini-refrigerator.
The spacecraft launched at the end of June on an Electron rocket from New Zealand. Electron is the smallest rocket to launch a payload to the Moon, and its manufacturer, Rocket Lab, stressed the capabilities of the booster and its Photon upper stage to the maximum to send CAPSTONE on its long journey to the Moon. This was Rocket Lab's first deep space mission. [...] CAPSTONE will not only serve as a pathfinder in this new orbit -- verifying the theoretical properties modeled by NASA engineers -- it will also demonstrate a new system of autonomous navigation around and near the Moon. This Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System, or CAPS, is important because there is a lack of fixed tracking assets near the Moon, especially as the cislunar environment becomes more crowded during the coming decade. The mission is planned to operate for at least six months in this orbit.
This is an important orbit for NASA, and a special one, because it is really stable, requiring just a tiny amount of propellant to hold position. At its closest point to the Moon, this roughly week-long orbit passes within 3,000 km of the lunar surface, and at other points it is 70,000 km away. NASA plans to build a small space station, called the Lunar Gateway, here later this decade. But before then, the agency is starting small. CAPSTONE is a scrappy, commercial mission that was supported financially, in part, by a $13.7 million grant from NASA. Developed by a Colorado-based company named Advanced Space, with help from Terran Orbital, the spacecraft itself is modestly sized, just a 12U cubesat with a mass of around 25 kg. It could fit comfortably inside a mini-refrigerator.
The spacecraft launched at the end of June on an Electron rocket from New Zealand. Electron is the smallest rocket to launch a payload to the Moon, and its manufacturer, Rocket Lab, stressed the capabilities of the booster and its Photon upper stage to the maximum to send CAPSTONE on its long journey to the Moon. This was Rocket Lab's first deep space mission. [...] CAPSTONE will not only serve as a pathfinder in this new orbit -- verifying the theoretical properties modeled by NASA engineers -- it will also demonstrate a new system of autonomous navigation around and near the Moon. This Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System, or CAPS, is important because there is a lack of fixed tracking assets near the Moon, especially as the cislunar environment becomes more crowded during the coming decade. The mission is planned to operate for at least six months in this orbit.
- a new unit of measure ! (Score:4, Funny)
"It could fit comfortably inside a mini-refrigerator. "
Slashdotters can log this reference alongside swimming pools (volume), football fields (distance), thickness of a hair (width), and 42 (the ultimate answer). The matter of temperature is still unsettled; will it be fahrengrade or centiheit ?
Re: - a new unit of measure ! (Score:5, Informative)
And not the same U's as server U's.
"The standard CubeSat size uses a "one unit" or "1U" measuring 10x10x10 cms and is extendable to larger sizes; 1.5, 2, 3, 6, and even 12U."
https://www.nasa.gov/content/w... [nasa.gov]
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A 1U cube 10x10x10cms would be 1000 cubic cms. That's the same volume as a liter.
A 12U cube would have sides about 9in or 23cms -- a cube just big enough to enclose a soccer ball (football for EU readers) Not very big.
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Ah, I was thinking most CubeSats were actually... cubes.
I did some looking for the defined standard and couldn't find exact spec's. More like a general range that will fit in the lifting platform's launching mechanism. For example, the 10-year-old specs from eoportal.org list the dimensions as "12U (mass of 24 kg, size of 23 cm x 24 cm x 36 cm)". Others like ResearchGate list the 20x20x30 you suggested. Isispace.nl lists 226.3 x 226.3 x 340.5 mm.
So your rectangular cuboid is more accurate than my "cube
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Pick the ball up and run ball (Score:2)
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Re: Pick the ball up and run ball (Score:2)
and then there is "Pick up the ball in hand and run ball" which the NFL plays.
Rugby would like a word with you. (Bunch of bleeding pansies wearing helmets.)
Re: - a new unit of measure ! (Score:4, Informative)
One "U" is exactly one liter, which is the standard metric unit for volume.
A CubeSat U specifies not just the volume but also the shape.
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Small as they may be, maybe we should think about how we can avoid filling up the moon's orbit with junk. There is no atmosphere to provide drag, so stuff there can stay around for a very long time. It won't burn up when it comes down either, it will hit the surface of the moon at very high velocity.
Don't forget Libraries of Congress (Score:2)
Which begs the question as to how hail was measured before golf was invented.
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You're missing an important fact, golf existed before hail, hail is a rather modern concept.
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"...hail is a rather modern concept"
You're not suggesting Golf was invented before Caeser?
Oblig. Monty Python...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJMRxbECzow
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Sure, I'm positive it was Archimedes of Syracuse who invented golf. Possibly Pythagoras, but the ball he used was much to tesselated to roll well on the green.
Re: Don't forget Libraries of Congress (Score:2)
Re: Don't forget Libraries of Congress (Score:2)
before golf was invented
Beating the earth with sticks and cursing used to be called witchcraft.
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You missed grey African Elephants (weight).
Re: - a new unit of measure ! (Score:5, Funny)
The matter of temperature is still unsettled; will it be fahrengrade or centiheit ?
We have one in the residential HVAC industry: beer can cold.
It's how hack job technicians tell if a system has enough refrigerant, by feeling the suction line at the condensing unit. Because taking proper superheat and subcooling measurements means more time on site and less time at home enjoying your ice cold beers.
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Re: - a new unit of measure ! (Score:2)
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Or Kevin?
Re: - a new unit of measure ! (Score:2)
I hope you meant Kelvin, and not like 1 Kevin Spacey.
Commercial? (Score:2)
A venture that relies on a $13m grant is not "commercial".
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A venture that relies on a $13m grant is not "commercial".
I would say it's not commercial because it's not for purposes of commerce. It's scientific. It was built under contract by a commercial entity, but that's as close as that gets, and most spacecraft are.
dimentions/sat info (Score:3)
A 12U cubesat like this are usually in a 2U * 2U * 3U configuration which is 20 * 20 * 30 cm. For power it has solar panels that unfold 10U wide (1m) as shown here. [endurosat.com]
Deep space? (Score:3)
It seems a bit disingenuous to refer to a moonshot as a deep space mission.
Perhaps we need a formal definition. I'd suggest something along the lines of either the distance that human spaceflight has achieved, or the distance of the Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange point, or beyond Earth orbit.
If humanity ever does manage to spread out into the rest of the Solar system, the first one allows for that definition to change. The latter two reflect distances from Earth or any other settled body that humanity might have parked itself on in large numbers, in the same fashion that blue-water oceans differ from littoral boating experiences.
Re: Deep space? (Score:3)
Original was best. (Score:2)