Rocket Lab’s Mission To The Moon Is Only Weeks Away

Rocket Lab’s Mission To The Moon Is Only Weeks Away

The space industry is full of many different companies and agencies all working towards unique goals. However, we often see different parties work together for larger and more ambitious missions. Rocket Lab is no exception with the upcoming launch of CAPSTONE. Over the past year and in recent weeks especially, the company has been making a lot of progress as the launch date gets closer and closer.

Based on recent news, we can expect Rocket Lab to launch for the Moon in only a few weeks. NASA just announced that the CAPSTONE Mission will launch no earlier than May 31st. This means if all of the many factors align as expected the launch will happen very soon. This is expected to be a very special mission not only because of the location but also the payload, the rocket responsible, and more.

Few agencies around the world have been able to reach the Moon successfully. It is an immensely difficult task that requires very precise hardware and engineering. This being said, Rocket Lab has proved to be a capable and impressive company with big goals and accomplishments. Here I will go more in-depth into the recent progress, when we should expect to see a launch, and what exactly this mission entails.

Recent Updates

With so much going on within the industry and with companies such as Rocket Lab, it can be hard to keep track of exactly what is going on. In the past few weeks alone, Rocket Lab along with NASA have provided a few important updates on the long awaited mission to the Moon. It began at the beginning of this month with news from Rocket Lab. Specifically, the company tweeted saying, “It’s almost Moon time. Launch window opens later this month for our first lunar mission on Electron and Photon.” About one week later, Rocket Lab tweeted again mentioning, “CAPSTONE is on its way to Launch Complex 1! It’s almost time to go to the Moon.” The same day NASA tweeted saying, “And so, it begins! Our #CAPSTONE spacecraft has set off on the first leg of its journey to the Moon! The trailblazing #Artemis pathfinder left California yesterday and is now on its way to the New Zealand launch site.” More specifically, on May 9th, CAPSTONE shipped from Terran Orbital Corporation in Irvine, California, to its launch site at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 (LC-1) on the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand. CAPSTONE is expected to arrive at the Mahia Launch Complex in the next few days in preparation for a launch no earlier than May 2022. It will launch on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket using a Lunar Photon satellite upper stage to send the spacecraft into a never-been-tested near rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon. Finally, only yesterday, NASA tweeted once again highlighting, “LAUNCH UPDATE: #CAPSTONE will be Moon-bound no earlier than May 31. @NASA, @RocketLab, and @AdvancedSpace will continue to evaluate the date for the first launch attempt, as the launch window extends to June 22.” This is very exciting news as it suggests the launch could happen only weeks away at the end of May going into early June.

Moon Mission

Now that we know more about some of the recent updates and a timeline for the launch window, we can take a closer look at the mission itself and exactly how Rocket Lab will reach the Moon with Electron. The purpose of CAPSTONE is to act as a pathfinding mission that supports NASA’s Artemis program. Using the Electron rocket and new Lunar Photon upper stage, Rocket Lab will inject the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) CubeSat to a highly efficient transfer orbit to the Moon. CAPSTONE is owned and operated by Advanced Space in Westminster, Colorado, for NASA. CAPSTONE’s primary objective is to test and verify the calculated orbital stability of a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit around the Moon, the same orbit planned for Gateway. NASA’s Gateway is a small space station that will orbit around the Moon to provide astronauts with access to the lunar surface. It will feature living quarters for astronauts, a lab for science and research and ports for visiting spacecraft. CAPSTONE will also test a navigation system developed by Advanced Space that will measure its absolute position in cislunar space using interaction with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter without relying on ground stations for navigation support.

One of the most unique aspects of the mission is the way that Electron, Photon, and the payload work together to reach the Moon with only a small lift launch vehicle. It all begins with Electron taking off from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. Next, Photon eventually separates from Electron’s second stage. From here it enters low Earth orbit and establishes a circular orbit at 250 kilometers. Then, Photon’s Hypercurie engine ignites at perigee, the lowest point, to raise the apogee of the orbit. Through a series of orbits and burns, Photon will build up its velocity and align for translunar injection. Once in the correct position, a Hypercurie engine burn will accelerate Photon to 11 kilometers per second. This is enough for the third stage to escape low Earth orbit on a translunar trajectory. Next, around 60,000 kilometers from Earth, Photon will separate from CAPSTONE. At around 400,000 kilometers from Earth, Photon will perform its final Hypercurie engine burn to set it up for a lunar flyby and more. Over 1.3 million kilometers away, CAPSTONE reaches its highest altitude and intercepts a course to the Moon. Finally, CAPSTONE uses onboard propulsion to enter a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon. This is the summary of the mission profile for the launch expected to happen only weeks away. The combination of Electron, Photon, and the CAPSTONE payload itself work together to reach the Moon.

The orbit, formally known as a near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), is significantly elongated. Its location at a precise balance point in the gravities of Earth and the Moon, offers stability for long-term missions like Gateway and requires minimal energy to maintain. CAPSTONE’s orbit also establishes a location that is an ideal staging area for missions to the Moon and beyond. The orbit will bring CAPSTONE within 1,000 miles of one lunar pole on its near pass and 43,500 miles from the other pole at its peak every seven days, requiring less propulsion capability for spacecraft flying to and from the Moon’s surface than other circular orbits. After a three-month journey to its target destination, CAPSTONE will orbit this area around the Moon for at least six months to understand the characteristics of the orbit. Specifically, it will validate the power and propulsion requirements for maintaining its orbit as predicted by NASA’s models, reducing logistical uncertainties. It will also demonstrate the reliability of innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation solutions as well as communication capabilities with Earth. The NRHO provides the advantage of an unobstructed view of Earth in addition to coverage of the lunar South Pole. To test these new navigation capabilities, CAPSTONE has a second dedicated payload flight computer and radio that will perform calculations to determine where the CubeSat is in its orbital path. Circling the Moon since 2009, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will serve as a reference point for CAPSTONE. The intention is for CAPSTONE to communicate directly with LRO and utilize the data obtained from this crosslink to measure how far it is from LRO and how fast the distance between the two changes, which in turn determines CAPSTONE’s position in space.

This peer-to-peer information will be used to evaluate CAPSTONE’s autonomous navigation software. If successful, this software, referred to as the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS), will allow future spacecraft to determine their location without having to rely exclusively on tracking from Earth. This capability could enable future technology demonstrations to perform on their own without support from the ground and allow ground-based antennas to prioritize valuable science data over more routine operational tracking. In addition, the mission also has a long list of extra objectives such as verifying the characteristics of a cis-lunar near rectilinear halo orbit for future spacecraft, and more. With a highly ambitious schedule, CAPSTONE will demonstrate key commercial capabilities. NASA partners will test cutting-edge tools for mission planning and operations, paving the way and expanding opportunities for small and more affordable space and exploration missions to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations throughout the solar system.

Conclusion

All throughout the space industry, different companies and agencies are working on very important and innovative projects for the future. Rocket Lab is no exception as they work on Electron, Neutron, and an upcoming mission to the Moon. CAPSTONE is meant to support future Artemis missions and help prepare for a Moon space station named Gateway. This is just one of the unique goals of the launch expected to happen only weeks away somewhere between late May and early June. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.